Women needed at the front lines of a skilled workforce

Just because our nation has endured a long, drawn-out economic downturn doesn’t mean that people’s lives have been put on hold.

The Baby Boomers are retiring, new families are being formed, houses and cars still need to be built, and companies soon will need to loosen their purse strings to invest in employees and infrastructure.

Bundle those four phenomena together and the result is a crying need for skilled workers to build homes, cars, buildings and infrastructure. And just like Rosie the Riveter of yesteryear, many of these skilled worker jobs will have to be filled by women.

“We’ll need more women to help us upgrade and build what we’ve neglected during this prolonged downturn,” said Mary Gregory, executive vice president of the Mechanical Contractors Association of Northwestern Ohio.

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, “Labor force participation begins tailing off pretty sharply as people hit their late 50s, and with the average baby boomer turning 58 years old this year, this will be felt in the workplace. Assuming that we have a domestic economy that appears capable of adding 250,000 or more jobs a month for the foreseeable future. At the moment, we are fortunate to have enough slack labor to fill most of these positions, but what happens after a few years of labor absorption when the baby boomer retirement movement really accelerates? Who will replace their skills and institutional knowledge?”

Improved housing and auto sales

In addition, the numbers of retiring Baby Boomers are predicted to shake up the nation’s housing landscape. About 10,000 boomers reach Medicare age every day, and the over-65 crowd is predicted to grow 36 percent by the end of this decade, to 54.8 million. By 2030, the total will top 72 million.

Another nice surprise is the upturn in the housing market. A recent article by Reuters stated that home prices in 20 metropolitan areas rose 8.1 percent in January from a year earlier, the biggest 12-month rise since June 2006. Meanwhile, U.S. homebuilders are breaking ground on more houses this year.

Higher home prices are spurring home construction and a rise in home sales activity – particularly by homebuyers trying to purchase a home while prices are lower. A happy consequence to the uptick in home construction is an increase in sales of sport-utility vehicles and pickup trucks, according to major automakers.

In March, new light-vehicle sales rose 3.4 percent and the annual sales pace reached 15.27 million, in line with analyst expectations. This marked the fifth straight month the industry sales rate topped 15 million. With this rate of growth, it’s anticipated that there will a greater need for manufacturing infrastructure.

How women help

Dede Hughes, executive vice president of the Fort Worth, Texas-based National Association of Women in Construction, agreed, saying that if the anticipated 15 percent growth in the construction industry over the next three years is realized, “We’re going to need a skilled workforce,” she said. “If women can go to a trade school or start in an apprenticeship, they’ll be able to get good jobs and later move into management if they so desire.”

There’s certainly room for women to grow in the trades. The Department of Labor Women’s Bureau reports that women constitute 7.9 percent of painters; 5.4 percent of welders, solderers and braziers; 4 percent of sheet metal workers; 3.9 percent of machinists; 2 percent of HVAC specialists; 1.5 percent of pipe layers, pipe fitters and plumbers; 1.4 percent of carpenters; and 1 percent of roofers and electricians.

Get trained

Women who are interested should contact their local apprentice programs. For example, those who aspire to be plumbers, pipefitters and HVAC-R technicians can learn their craft at the Piping Industry Training Center at www.nwopitc.com.