The “skill” in the construction industry’s skilled labor shortage is driving market change, favoring skills-reducing and efficiency-improving innovations. This is not just a matter of simply moving the work from the jobsite to the factory. Rather, opportunities for manufacturers seem to lie in creating technologies that can maximize efficiencies for both skilled and unskilled laborers on-site, not eliminating either role.
There are different means of gaining efficiency with labor-saving innovations. Some new building products and materials, such as pre-assembled components, are created to move work that’s typically done at a jobsite to a factory. Some innovations reduce the skill level required to install a product or system, allowing contractors to populate crews with fewer specialized workers. Some others reduce installation time, which allows a crew to do more work in a given day. Some innovations do all the above, but which of these strategies will win out as the new-home market rebounds and the skilled construction labor shortage continues?
Home Innovation has been tracking the use of labor-saving construction methods for decades. The primary benefits of these options are skills-reduction, but they also move labor from jobsite to factory and improve jobsite efficiency. Framing materials such as modular, panelized walls, and roof trusses, in addition to pre-hung doors, windows, and cabinets, allow builders to maintain control of construction at the jobsite; they can select materials and installations that reduce required skill level and inefficiencies to get the most out of their existing labor force.
This spring, in an Omnibus Survey of builders, Home Innovation asked which labor-saving technologies home builders are more (or less) likely to use in the coming year. Builders said the two technologies they plan to use more frequently are roof trusses (17%) and pre-cut framing packages (8%). Pre-assembled trusses eliminate the need to measure and cut rafters and ceiling joists, a skill that is quickly vanishing from today’s framing crews. Pre-cut framing packages provide a similar benefit by sending materials to the jobsite already cut, bundled, and numbered. With both options, contractors still need a framing crew but are able to get by with fewer skilled carpenters.
For the remaining technology options in the survey, overall results show builders are more likely to decrease rather than increase their use, but there are more nuances when you evaluate the results by builder subcategory (for more details, visit HomeInnovation.com/LaborShortageInnovation).
While we found most builders are not yet ready to give up site-built framing, they are looking for ways to stretch their small pools of skilled laborers by adopting materials and techniques that require fewer skilled carpenters at the jobsite and help their current crews get work done more quickly. While continuing their search for skilled workers, contractors will still need to hire lesser-skilled workers to keep up with the pace of construction, even if they have to pay higher wages for fewer skills. For this reason, products that are easy to install respond to the current need of most builders, and will be favored over simply moving tasks from the jobsite to the shop or factory.
To learn more about the resources available to help track, and even predict, future market direction, go to HomeInnovation.com/MarketResearchContact.
