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拜登政府想大搞基建追赶中国，美建筑业叫苦：人不够啊...
在基建制造领域追赶中国，是拜登政府任内多次提到的承诺。然而，“这项雄心勃勃的历史性基建计划正面临风险。”
英国《金融时报》20日引述多名业内人士的话称，尽管拜登政府声称要在基建、制造业领域赶上中国，并签署了高达1.5万亿美元的支出计划，但在经历了数十年的工程外包以及不鼓励美国人从事相关行业后，美国的劳动力市场已不足以支撑产业政策。有建筑公司警告称，今年美国建筑行业劳动力缺口可能高达50万人。
Joe Biden's planned US building boom imperilled by labour shortage
《金融时报》：拜登雄心勃勃的建筑业计划面临劳动力短缺的风险
文章援引美国劳工统计局的数据指出，2022年，全美建筑业平均职位空缺达到创纪录的39.1万个，比上一年增长17%。根据美国总承包商协会（AGC）上个月的一项调查，尽管工资不断上涨，但仍有80%的建筑公司表示，他们很难招到工人。
代表全美建筑业的贸易团体建筑商与承包商协会（ABC）的数据显示，今年美国需要在正常招工规模的基础上再增加54.6万人，才能填补劳动力缺口。然而这不仅增加了项目成本，还将拖延项目进程。
ABC首席经济学家巴苏（Anirban Basu）表示，美国现在已进入了一个“大型项目时代”，对建筑工人的需求非常旺盛，很难想到建筑劳动力市场还有什么时候比当下更紧俏了。
“我们正在向基础设施投入数百万美元，却没有人手施工。”美国非营利性组织房屋建筑协会（Home Builders Institute）首席执行官埃德·布雷迪（Ed Brady），在没有人操作设备的情况下，准备好的项目是没有任何价值的。
去年1月，就在拜登抵达匹兹堡宣传基建法案的数小时前，当地一座桥梁突然垮塌。
在俄亥俄州首府哥伦布市，半导体行业巨头英特尔承诺斥资200亿美元建造两座半导体工厂，日本汽车企业本田正与韩国LG 合作建造一座44亿美元的电池厂。这些项目将需要近1万名建筑工人。
“整个俄亥俄州都没有足够的专业人员来单独完成这项工作。”美国工程建设公司柏克德（BECHTEL）的制造和技术总裁凯瑟琳·亨特·瑞安（Catherine Hunt Ryan）说，为满足用工需求，公司将从全美招聘员工，还在同酒店洽谈为工人安排临时住房的事宜。
本田与LG合资企业特纳建筑公司（Turner Construction）高级副总裁吉姆·布朗里格（Jim Brownrigg）表示，自去年以来，公司对清洁技术建设项目用工需求增长了两倍多，制造业向美国流动创造了对建筑工人的巨大需求，导致劳动力市场紧张。
“（劳动力短缺）仍然是一个更大的挑战。我认为2023年将面临挑战，（明年）可能还会更困难。”布朗里格透露，公司计划从其他地方吸引工人来缓解劳动力短缺的状况。
政府层面，美国劳工部表示，正在“紧急”行动满足行业对工人的需求，政府已在学徒岗位上投入了超过3.3亿美元。企业层面，美国建筑业高管正在推动移民政策改革，比如设立临时客工计划或扩大H-2B签证（给非农业外国工人所签发的临时工作签证）的覆盖范围。
不过《金融时报》报道坦承，移民政策改革不太可能在分裂的华盛顿引发关注。美国总承包商协会（AGC）发言人布莱恩·图梅尔（Brian Turmail）则直言，其实美国社会对于创造就业的态度是矛盾的。
“我们一方面不希望自己的孩子从事建筑工作，另一方面又不希望任何外来的人（在美国）抢占建筑工作。”他说。
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.”
