President Trump’s push to crack down on the estimated eleven million immigrants living illegally in the U.S. has spread fear and anxiety in the construction industry, which is worried about losing a chunk of its workforce., News Radio 1200 WAOI reprots.
Dan Markson, Sr. VP of Development for the NRP Group in San Antonio says, now more than ever, the industry needs to focus on training the next generation of skilled worker.
He tells Newsradio 1200 WOAI, you don’t have to go far to find the best candidates“You go down to the Southside and the Westside, you find that most households have some constriction skill sets already,” he explains. “They’ve built an addition on to their garage. They’ve built a carport.”
And if the estimates, done at the University of Texas in Austin are accurate, they’ll be needed.
A report done in 2013 found that half of all Texas construction workers are undocumented. It went on to show that U.S.-born construction workers earned an average of $3.12/hour more than undocumented workers, who reported earning an average of $11.10/hour.
“You may not be hiring [undocumented] workers, but your competition is. The system is clearly broken and we’ve got to fix it... [A lot of people] are against amnesty, but i mean, they’re here. A lot of the blue collar work-whether it’s farm workers or construction workers-is done by immigrant workers,” one national-level commercial subcontractor from Houston was quoted in the report.'
So Markson, who sits on the board of the Texas Association of Builders, thinks the frets over a lack of skilled workers is actually good for the industry.
“Where everybody else sees doom and gloom, I see a silver lining, because it caused us to really look hard.”
IMAGE; GETTY