The weather is cooler. The leaves are changing. Halloween candy is disappearing from store shelves. Football season is getting more interesting.
That means it must be — Careers in Construction Month.
That’s right. Each October this special month celebrates everything our industry offers its current and future employees.
Our industry checks a lot of boxes for anyone looking for a new career. We offer:
- Good wages: Our workers earn higher-than-average wages in their markets.
- Room to grow: Our employees have opportunities to advance in the profession.
- Steady work: There’s a constant demand for infrastructure services.
- A purpose: Our industry is an essential part of our national economy.
At InfraStripe, we expand this sense of purpose through our commitment to building a nationwide culture of safety for everyone who interacts with the transportation sector — from motorists to building contractors to construction workers.
Labor Shortages Continue to Affect our Industry
We celebrate Careers in Construction Month in the fall, but most of our InfraStripe companies search for talented and committed crew members and supervisors year-round.
This ongoing search for new talent reflects continuing labor shortages across our industry. Earlier this year, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 129,000 construction jobs stood open.
That’s a big number. It’s fueled in large part by the spike in demand for highway construction jobs created by the 2021 federal infrastructure bill. We are positioned in a booming industry, which brings a need to constantly hire as we grow.
But this shortage also reflects trends that were in place long before 2021: Over the past couple decades, our industry hasn’t attracted enough young adult workers into our career path. Because of this ongoing deficit of new workers, we can’t always replace a crew member who retires or moves up into management.
We have to address this recruiting problem now to build a thriving workforce tomorrow.
How Do We Attract More People into Construction Careers?
By celebrating Careers in Construction Month, we’re raising awareness about our industry’s strengths for career seekers. That’s a good start.
But we won’t solve a long-term, year-round problem within a month. Before we do anything else, we must first look within to ask if the careers at InfraStripe locations are actually worth celebrating. To that we say, “Absolutely!”
One of our core values is People, meaning we care for our employees and strive to see them grow — both personally and professionally. We offer to all of our employees health, vision, and dental insurance, a 401k with matching opportunities, company holidays and PTO, and competitive salaries.
We also offer training and development programs that allow our employees to advance in their career to leadership roles. Examples of these programs include structured on-the-job training, corporate sponsored training and development programs, and tuition reimbursement – all geared toward helping people progress in their careers and growing internally by promoting from within.
With opportunities this great, we must maintain a long-term, continuing commitment to recruiting talent.
That commitment should include:
- Displaying our careers at job fairs: Some of our InfraStripe locations already host their own jobs fairs and promote them online. We can also set up displays and meet potential workers at community job fairs. Local community colleges and high schools often host job fairs.
- Promoting our jobs online: Posting job openings on social media as well as on our company websites can raise awareness about the benefits of a construction career. Plus, it gives us a chance to shine a light on the importance of our work to a general audience.
- The personal approach: Do you have a family member, a friend, or a neighbor who will be making a career decision soon? Tell that person about the benefits of a career in construction. You never know. You may inspire a young person to apply.
We know infrastructure jobs aren’t for everybody. But in front of the right audience, our jobs will sell themselves. Very few entry level positions can offer a reliable source of income, room to grow and learn new skills, and a chance to do work that really matters for our economy and our society.
Let’s commit to spreading the word this month and throughout the year.
Do you want to grow your career in the growing construction industry? Check out our openings today!
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