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Workforce Solutions

	Booming Australian Facing Chronic Shortage of Water Treatment Workers For several years, China's voracious demand for raw materials has fired up Australia's economy, which is rich in natural resource. The financial largess and sheer number of new projects has electrified the country's engineering sector.

	Creating Opportunities to Build Diversity and Competence If the students in attendance at Louisiana Technical College in Baton Rouge, La., are a typical sample, the I’M GREAT training program has succeeded in doing what the industry has been trying to do for years.

Workforce News

Government Appeals 'No-Match' Injunction
The U.S. Dept. of Justice Dec. 4 filed an appeal to a federal district court's injunction against the Dept. of Homeland Security's "no-match rule," firing the latest salvo in a battle between the government and business and labor groups. [enr.com]

Walsh Agrees to Pay $130,000 Over Sexual Harassment Claim
Walsh Construction Co. agreed to pay a $130,000 settlement to a female laborer who in 2003 reported that she had been sexually harassed by another employee while working at the Millenium Park project in Chicago, federal officials announced. [enr.com]

High Schoolers Are Engineering Early Birds
With an ever-growing demand for new engineers, future employers are revving up career interest for students just clearing middle school. In a high-profile effort that will launch this week, three nonprofit educational groups and well-heeled corporate supporters are forming and funding engineering “academies” at 13 U.S. high schools by fall ...

Masonry Trades Open First National Training Facility
Union bricklayers from all parts of the U.S. and at all levels of expertise will be able to access more craft training at a $30-million complex inaugurated last month by the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers and the International Masonry Institute. [enr.com]

Firms Must Adjust Strategy To Attract and Retain Staff
Design and construction firms are in for a shock when the long-predicted dearth of qualified job candidates impacts them, but few are doing the right things to recruit new employees or retain valued ones already on the payroll. A combination of clashing cultures between older and younger staffers and lack of knowledge management contribute to the looming problem.[enr.com]

Labor Policy and Legislation

Homeland Security Dept. To Revise 'No Match' Rule
The U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security will temporarily abandon its efforts to enforce its regulation cracking down on employers that systematically hire illegal immigrants and develop a new proposal that the agency hopes can pass legal muster, according to papers filed by the agency with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California Nov. 23. [enr.com]

New Immigration Regs Crack Down on Employers
The Department of Homeland Security August 10 announced a series of measures aimed at beefing up enforcement of existing immigration laws and cracking down on employers that willingly and systematically hire illegal workers.

Leaders Probe New Solutions for Industry’s Labor Shortfall
Construction leaders met in early June with sharpened determination to resolve two key challenges facing the industry today: workforce shortages and reconstruction of hurricane-ravaged New Orleans. They left with a new road map and tools to help them.

Senate Offers CompromiseAimed at Immigration Reform
Senate lawmakers announced May 17 that they had struck a deal that could break the current impasse that is preventing immigration reform from moving forward. [enr.com]

Labor Looks To Flex Its Muscle
There was a celebratory air among the estimated 3,000 union officials who gathered in Washington, D.C., for the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Dept.'s annual legislative conference. [enr.com]

Regional Workforce Issues

City-Funded Craft Training Becomes True Bronx Tale
When the New York City Dept. of Environmental Protection chose a public golf course in the Bronx to build a mandated $1.3-billion filtration plant, community activists wanted something more than just cleaner drinking water in return. [enr.com]

Utility-Led Programs "Turn On" Students to Energy Careers
Facing a national shortage of electrical workers, two Florida utilities have established innovative partnerships with public schools to “turn on” students to careers in energy construction, generation and distribution. [enr.com]

Deadline Looms for Pact Between AGC and Five Unions
The collective bargaining between the Associated General Contractors of Washington and five trade unions expires at the end of the month, and both sides hoping to avoid a conflict such as the concrete workers' strike last August. [enr.com]

From the Ball Field to the Job Site: Strikes Benefit No One
As the Western Washington construction industry gears up for labor negotiations this spring and summer, it's critical for employers, unions, employees and their families to understand the costs of work stoppages. [northwest.construction.com]

ACEC Survey Foresees Growth, Growing Pains
Industry engineering firms expect robust expansion but problems finding new staff. [newyork.construction.com]

Views and Opinions

Firms should Keep Their Free Agents
Aging baby boomers make up a large percentage of today's engineering and construction senior-management teams. Tomorrow, many of these managers will be gone, leaving a giant hole in our industry's talent pool.

Clarifying Welder Certifications
The ever-increasing demands from customer specifications, building codes and governmental regulations mean that weld quality is being scrutinized now more than ever.

Faculty Pipeline Is Running on Empty
Construction management education today is challenged by a shortage of faculty with leadership skills. The 140 CM programs in the U.S. are staffed by 700 professors 100 to 200 more are needed. But programs struggle with many fundamental issues when trying to attract new faculty.

Offer Extended - Offer Rejected
As A/E/C firms continue to look for ways to gain a competitive advantage in the industry, the lost labor hours associated with dead-end candidacies hurts utilization.

Using Creative Techniques To Find and Keep Talent
The old saying that a company is only as good as its people could not be more true for design firms. [enr.com]

White Papers

Engineering News-Record and McGraw-Hill Construction Research and Analytics brought together industry leaders to propose specific actions to solve the construction industry's work force crisis.

These white papers are based on a day of consensus building at the ENR Leaders Forum in the fall of 2006 that led to recommendations around key issues.