A "radical change" in how workforce development is conducted - including a blunt suggestion to start recruiting a more non-white workforce - is needed to fill employment needs in the U.S. construction industry, says a new study released Jan. 16 by the Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors National Association.

With approximately 40% of the construction workforce and 42% of the sheet metal workforce eligible to retire during the next ten years, combined with strong anticipated work opportunities, "demand for skilled construction workers will be strong for the foreseeable future," the study said.

The U.S. construction industry will need to attract 185,000 new workers in each of the next 10 years just to offset the wave of industry retirements.

"The future of the unionized sheet metal industry depends upon its ability to recruit a workforce from population groups it has historically neglected: women and minorities," said the study's author, William F. Maloney, Ph.D., of the University of Kentucky. "To do so requires a radical change in the way in which workforce development is conducted."

Historically, "absent strong external pressure for change," the study said, the construction industry has historically focused its recruiting attention on "what it knows best: young, white males."

That has led to recent industry demographics, which the study said illustrates how the construction industry has become "a bastion for white males," who made up 73.8 percent of the sheet metal industry in 2002. That year the industry was also 17.2 percent Latino, 3.6 percent female, 3.5 percent African-American and 2.4 percent Asian.

The study suggests that traditional union recruitment efforts - participating in career fairs and running ads in local papers, and accepting applications within a given time frame may have been adequate in the past. But "societal bias against blue collar jobs" and a negative image of the construction industry and unions is expected to lead to a skills shortage.

The study offered 71 recommendations to change the way workforce development is conducted in the unionized sheet metal industry. Two are "critical," Maloney said.

• Contractors, must become more actively involved in the workforce development process. Too often, he said this process is left to the union, which, for the contractors, is allowing someone else to pick their workforce. It is time for the contractors to return the "joint" to joint apprenticeship committees.
• A full-time director of outreach and recruitment position should be created within each JAC. He suggested this individual should be a human resources professional with appropriate training.

Other suggestions on the list:

• Establish a mechanism for removing unprofessional and unproductive workers from the membership rolls to free up available hours for the hard-working professionals in the union and create opportunities for new members. "Co-workers can no longer stand by and let customer perceptions be determined by the slackers," Maloney wrote.
• Establish a formal five-year apprenticeship with the first year designated as a
  probationary period. A one-year probationary period will allow an in-depth
  assessment to be made of the first year apprentice in terms of work ethic, integrity, character, and potential to become an excellent sheet metal worker. During the first-year probationary period, the apprentice would be subject to employment at will, i.e., a contractor would not need reasons to let the apprentice go.
• Re-design the apprenticeship program to reflect time served and proficiency. There is a significant difference in the time in which people acquire proficiency in a set of tasks and in the actual proficiency attained. A minimum proficiency level should be established for a specified set of skills.

The entire study in on the Internet, at www.pinp.org/files/lmcc/sheet_metal_study_final.pdf