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拜登政府想大搞基建追趕中國，美建築業叫苦：人不夠啊...
在基建製造領域追趕中國，是拜登政府任內多次提到的承諾。然而，“這項雄心勃勃的曆史性基建計劃正麵臨風險。”
英國《金融時報》20日引述多名業內人士的話稱，盡管拜登政府聲稱要在基建、製造業領域趕上中國，並簽署了高達1.5萬億美元的支出計劃，但在經曆了數十年的工程外包以及不鼓勵美國人從事相關行業後，美國的勞動力市場已不足以支撐產業政策。有建築公司警告稱，今年美國建築行業勞動力缺口可能高達50萬人。
Joe Biden's planned US building boom imperilled by labour shortage
《金融時報》：拜登雄心勃勃的建築業計劃麵臨勞動力短缺的風險
文章援引美國勞工統計局的數據指出，2022年，全美建築業平均職位空缺達到創紀錄的39.1萬個，比上一年增長17%。根據美國總承包商協會（AGC）上個月的一項調查，盡管工資不斷上漲，但仍有80%的建築公司表示，他們很難招到工人。
代表全美建築業的貿易團體建築商與承包商協會（ABC）的數據顯示，今年美國需要在正常招工規模的基礎上再增加54.6萬人，才能填補勞動力缺口。然而這不僅增加了項目成本，還將拖延項目進程。
ABC首席經濟學家巴蘇（Anirban Basu）表示，美國現在已進入了一個“大型項目時代”，對建築工人的需求非常旺盛，很難想到建築勞動力市場還有什麽時候比當下更緊俏了。
“我們正在向基礎設施投入數百萬美元，卻沒有人手施工。”美國非營利性組織房屋建築協會（Home Builders Institute）首席執行官埃德·布雷迪（Ed Brady），在沒有人操作設備的情況下，準備好的項目是沒有任何價值的。
去年1月，就在拜登抵達匹茲堡宣傳基建法案的數小時前，當地一座橋梁突然垮塌。
在俄亥俄州首府哥倫布市，半導體行業巨頭英特爾承諾斥資200億美元建造兩座半導體工廠，日本汽車企業本田正與韓國LG 合作建造一座44億美元的電池廠。這些項目將需要近1萬名建築工人。
“整個俄亥俄州都沒有足夠的專業人員來單獨完成這項工作。”美國工程建設公司柏克德（BECHTEL）的製造和技術總裁凱瑟琳·亨特·瑞安（Catherine Hunt Ryan）說，為滿足用工需求，公司將從全美招聘員工，還在同酒店洽談為工人安排臨時住房的事宜。
本田與LG合資企業特納建築公司（Turner Construction）高級副總裁吉姆·布朗裏格（Jim Brownrigg）表示，自去年以來，公司對清潔技術建設項目用工需求增長了兩倍多，製造業向美國流動創造了對建築工人的巨大需求，導致勞動力市場緊張。
“（勞動力短缺）仍然是一個更大的挑戰。我認為2023年將麵臨挑戰，（明年）可能還會更困難。”布朗裏格透露，公司計劃從其他地方吸引工人來緩解勞動力短缺的狀況。
政府層麵，美國勞工部表示，正在“緊急”行動滿足行業對工人的需求，政府已在學徒崗位上投入了超過3.3億美元。企業層麵，美國建築業高管正在推動移民政策改革，比如設立臨時客工計劃或擴大H-2B簽證（給非農業外國工人所簽發的臨時工作簽證）的覆蓋範圍。
不過《金融時報》報道坦承，移民政策改革不太可能在分裂的華盛頓引發關注。美國總承包商協會（AGC）發言人布萊恩·圖梅爾（Brian Turmail）則直言，其實美國社會對於創造就業的態度是矛盾的。
“我們一方麵不希望自己的孩子從事建築工作，另一方麵又不希望任何外來的人（在美國）搶占建築工作。”他說。
Joe Biden’s planned US building boom imperilled by labour shortage
https://www.ft.com/content/e5fd95a8-2814-49d6-8077-8b1bdb69e6f4
Half a million more construction workers needed as public money floods into infrastructure and clean energy
Despite rising wages, 80% of construction companies say they are struggling to hire workers © Ed Jones/AFP via Getty Images
By Amanda Chu in New York
A shortage of construction workers is putting at risk the Biden administration’s ambitious plan to fuel a historic building boom in the US, according to industry executives.
The construction sector could be short of as many as half a million workers this year, according to the Associated Builders and Contractors, an industry group, increasing project costs and delaying a building campaign that executives say is comparable to that of the second world war.
“It would be difficult to identify a period during which the construction labour market was more constrained than it is now,” said Anirban Basu, chief economist at the ABC. “Demand for construction workers is sky high . . . This is the era of the mega project.”
President Joe Biden has signed off on spending of more than $1.5tn to boost the nation’s infrastructure and catch up with China in manufacturing. But after decades of offshoring and discouraging Americans from vocational work, construction companies warn the country’s industrial policies and the labour market are headed for a collision.
The US will need an additional 546,000 workers on top of the normal hiring pace this year to meet labour demand, estimates the ABC. Construction job openings averaged a record 391,000 in 2022, up 17 per cent from the previous year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. “
We’re putting millions and millions of dollars into infrastructure without anybody to install it,” said Ed Brady, chief executive of the Home Builders Institute, a non-profit organisation that promotes construction training. “A shovel-ready project with nobody to operate the shovel is worthless.”
The federal stimulus includes $1.2tn in infrastructure spending, $369bn from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) for clean energy projects, and $39bn from the Chips and Science Act to spearhead the country’s production of semiconductors.
Construction unemployment sat at 4.6 per cent in 2022, the second lowest on record, according to the BLS. Hourly wages averaged $36 an hour in January, exceeding the private industry average of $33 and typical starting salaries for college graduates. “
If you compare this to almost World War II construction where the entire industry changed . . . I think we’re in a time like that,” said Bob Clark, founder of Clayco. The developer is working on more than 10 cleantech projects, including VinFast’s electric vehicle plant in North Carolina.
Despite increasing wages, 80 per cent of construction companies say they are struggling to hire workers, according to a survey by the Associated General Contractors of America last month.
In Columbus, Ohio, Intel has pledged $20bn to build two semiconductor factories, and Honda is building a $4.4bn battery plant with LG Energy Solution. The projects will require nearly 10,000 construction workers.
“The entire state of Ohio does not have the number of professionals to perform this alone,” said Catherine Hunt Ryan, manufacturing and technology president of Bechtel, one of the companies building Intel’s factories.
Bechtel said it will pull some of the 7,000 workers it needs from across the country and is in conversation with hotels for temporary housing. A middle-ranking labourer at the site could make as much as $40 per hour.
“The reshoring of manufacturing to the United States is creating a huge demand for construction workers in what was and continues to be an already tight labour market,” said Jim Brownrigg, senior vice-president at Turner Construction, the group working on the Honda-LG venture. Brownrigg said its demand for clean tech construction projects had more than quadrupled since last year. “
[Labor shortages] continue to be a bigger challenge. I think 2023 is going to be challenging. [Next year] could even be bigger,” he said. Brownrigg added that the company was investing in off-site construction and workforce development programmes and pulling workers from elsewhere to alleviate labour shortages.
Biden has made workers’ rights central to his industrial agenda and has repeatedly talked of “good-paying union jobs”. Some tax credits in the IRA and Chips act require companies to meet prevailing wage and apprenticeship requirements.
But construction bosses say the criteria presents another headwind by further narrowing the labour pool. There were nearly 200,000 registered construction apprentices in 2021, according to the Department of Labor. “
The administration is effectively tying one hand behind one’s back because of the regulatory restrictions on who can engage productively in these construction projects,” Basu said.
Climate and labour groups, meanwhile, argue these requirements are necessary to create a sustainable workforce and galvanise support for climate policy.
“When work is paid, it draws more workers into the pool,” said Jessie Hammerling, co-director of the green economy programme at UC Berkeley’s labour centre.
The Department of Labor said it was “urgently” trying to meet the demand for workers, adding that the administration has invested more than $330mn in apprenticeships.
To meet labour demand, construction bosses are pushing for immigration reform, an issue unlikely to gain traction in a divided Washington.
The proposed reforms include creating a temporary guest worker programme or simplifying and expanding caps on H-2B visas. More than 400,000 people have submitted applications for visas but are awaiting interviews, according to the most recent data from the state department.
One problem, according to Brian Turmail, a spokesperson for the AGC, is a contradictory attitude towards building jobs in the US.
“We just don’t want our own children to work in construction and we don’t want anyone from outside of the country to work in construction.”
