why not just say 'we hire illegals'?

[ProblemAgain]

gee i guess they got used to paying trade workers less than americans were getting in the 70's..and they don't want to 'buy american' and have to pay stuff like insurance and so forth...

Homebuilders Struggling to Find Workers

By Les Christie | CNNMoney.com – Mon, Jun 3, 2013 3:04 AM EDT

• Email
• 86
• Print

• http://globalfinance.zenfs.com/images/US_AHTTP_AP_HEADLINES_BUSINES..." alt="<p> In this Friday, March 29, 2013, photo, a worker helps frame a new home under construction in Matthews, N.C. U.S. homebuilders are concerned that limited land and rising costs for building materials and labor will slow sales in the short term. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)" title="<p> In this Friday, March 29, 2013, photo, a worker helps frame a new home under construction in Matthews, N.C. U.S. homebuilders are concerned that limited land and rising costs for building materials and labor will slow sales in the short term. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)" height="411" width="630"/>

  Associated Press -

  In this Friday, March 29, 2013, photo, a worker helps frame a new home under construction in Matthews, N.C. U.S. homebuilders are concerned that limited land and rising costs for building …more 

Sales of new homes are on a tear, but builders can't find enough workers to keep up with the demand.

After the housing bust, many workers left the building trade in droves, said Michael Fink, CEO of Leewood Real Estate Group in Trenton, N.J.

"A lot of our workers are immigrants and they went back to their home countries," he said. "Our subcontractors can't get people; they can't start on time; they can't get things done on time."

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) reported in March that 46% of its members say they have fallen behind schedule on finishing projects, 15% turned down jobs and 9% lost or canceled sales because they can't find enough workers.

[LoveLife&Laughter]

Es verdad.

[ProblemAgain]

this goes back to the idiocy of low wages...if everyone just hired the cheapest labor, then who is going to be buying those cars and houses and big screen tvs?  and the cheapest labor isn't usually the best product ...but they can find that out 8 years into their 30 year mortgage when the place starts decomposing before their eyes

[Lifesighs]

Yep, all those roofers and tile and cement workers.....they weren't union labor.

[exedir]

Here is one of the conundrums of a labor market.  Housing has been a boom-bust like energy which discourages labor for counting on the jobs, unless there is serious compensation for risk OR the risk of starvation and death.  And that does not characterize labor and the people that work for a living.  Steady employment is valued when  other employment is not available, however, working is not valued when other alternatives do exist.  

Such is true even for skilled labor or, rather, labor with skills, which is what construction needs.  And that labor exists, but not yet available to construction due to dislocations of demand and supply of labor, and belief that work isn't available where it is needed.  Labor is not a simple set of numbers, it is a number of people making decisions and selecting alternatives as to what they will do and where they will do them, and believe what is best for them and those that depend on them.  

The point is a decade or so ago, labor was mobile and able to move; today, labor is stuck and fixed usually where the jobs aren't or, aren't yet or, maybe never be again.