Tag: workforce: Page 9

Workforce

Construction adds 8,000 jobs in September

September brought another positive month to the U.S. construction workforce with an addition of 8,000 jobs. The industry now employs 6.396 million Americans, according to preliminary data from the Labor Department. September marks the sixth consecutive months of job gains for the industry, which has added jobs every month of 2015 save for March, due […]

October 7, 2015

Business

Ditch Witch, Vermeer team up with Ericsson to recruit horizontal directional workers to meet massive telecom fiber needs

In an effort to meet massive telecom fiber construction needs, telecom services provider Ericsson is joining with Ditch Witch and Vermeer to create a template to recruit, train and deploy multiple trenchless crews in major metropolitan areas across the United States. The companies made the joint announcement this morning at the ICUEE trade show in […]

September 30, 2015

Business

Caterpillar mining VP retires amid leadership shakeup

Chris Curfman, the chief mining executive at Caterpillar, will retire at the end of the year, ending a more than 20-year career at the company. Caterpillar announced the move this week amid big changes for the company, including a massive $1.5 billion cost reduction plan and a restructuring of leadership within the Mining Sales and Support Division, […]

September 25, 2015

Business

Caterpillar plans up to 10,000 job cuts as part of extensive $1.5 billion cost reduction plan

In the midst of a third straight year of down sales and revenues, Caterpillar has announced further cost cutting and restructuring in order to lessen the impact of what will likely be off a fourth-straight down year in 2016—a first in the company’s nearly century-long history. Planning large workforce cuts and the consolidation and closures of its […]

September 24, 2015

Roadbuilding

Massachusetts highway worker saves stranded snapping turtle

Most highway workers might have more experience with hardhats than with hard shells, but that didn’t stop one Massachusetts man from halting his work to save a stranded snapping turtle. According to the Lowell Sun, Fred Baker was simply going about his day as a heavy equipment operator for the Billerica Highway Department when he […]

September 24, 2015

Roadbuilding

AGC expands highway work zone safety training with $120,000 federal grant

The Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) will be expanding its highway work zone safety programs next year via the $120,000 Susan Harwood Training Grant from the U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL). AGC officials said the grant would be used to offer training classes “designed to prevent injuries among highway, street and bridge construction workers”. […]

September 16, 2015

Business

Number of construction firms reporting shortage of skilled workers rises to 86%

The construction industry’s shortage of skilled workers has only gotten worse in the last year, according to the latest national survey of firms conducted by the Associated General Contractors of America. Surveying 1,358 contractors, the AGC study found that 86 percent are struggling to fill salaried professional positions and find enough hourly skilled, or craft, […]

September 15, 2015

Business

Company focused on construction staffing and skills training opens in Alabama

A new company focused on training up skilled construction workers opened its doors recently in Alabama. Wright Way held its ribbon cutting ceremony August 21 in Birmingham. The new company’s emphasis is welding training but the center will work to train up and place students in a number of positions in the construction, maintenance and […]

September 9, 2015

Business

Construction adds 3,000 jobs in August

Though hiring has certainly slowed over the summer months, the construction industry continued to add new workers rather than lose them in August. Construction added 3,000 new workers during the month and now employs 6.388 million Americans, according to preliminary data from the Labor Department. The new data also revised upward the employment figure for July from the previously […]

September 4, 2015

Roadbuilding

Report estimates nearly 400,000 highway construction and maintenance job openings to be created between 2012 and 2022

A joint transportation jobs report released by the U.S. Departments of Transportation, Labor and Education estimates 388,904 highway construction and maintenance job openings will be created between 2012 and 2022, with the majority being for semi-skilled and highly skilled workers. The report, “Strengthening Skills Training and Career Pathways across the Transportation Industry,” provides a look […]

August 28, 2015

Workforce

Three workers presumed dead after landslide strikes Alaska construction site

A residential jobsite was in the destructive path of one of six landslides caused by heavy rains in southeast Alaska where two workers were killed and one more is presumed dead. According to a report from Alaska Dispatch News, the bodies of two workers, brothers 26-year-old Elmer Diaz and 25-year-old Ulises Diaz, have been recovered in the […]

August 21, 2015

Business

New survey, hotel developers the latest severe signifiers of construction’s labor shortage

In addition to the industry surveys and anecdotal evidence from states and projects all over the country, you can add two more examples to the group of sources pointing to the shortage of skilled labor impacting the U.S. construction industry. Joining an Associated General Contractors of American survey last fall which found that 83 percent of […]

August 13, 2015