Despite High Pay, Millennials Have No Interest In Construction Jobs

One local contractor feels millennial's are shunning construction work.

Brent Johnson, President of Ringland-Johnson Construction, told mystateline.com he felt the decrease in younger workers first started during the housing market collapse over a decade ago. He still feels that the field has a lot to offer.

Johnson feels young people might not be aware of all the benefits of working in the construction industry. Not knowing that there's more to it than just picking up a hammer and building something.

Johnson also stated:

"I'm concerned and I feel like we should do more to recruit young people and to show that, in our high school programs, that there are a lot of good opportunities then, just following the college career path,"

Continuing with:

"The construction trades are high paying, but I'm not sure, for whatever reason, millennials aren't as attracted to working with their hands and their tools, even though it's high pay,"

Johnson went on to say that the average age of those who work for him is 50 years old.

Expressing concern over the future of his employees:

"I'm concerned that, as baby boomers retire, there won't be enough of a workforce of women and men to construct our buildings in the future,"

One millennial, Caleb Bubnack, who works in the construction field says he thinks he knows why younger folks are rushing to join him on the job site.

"I think they're just not well informed about working in construction, where in high school you're informed about going to college, and that's your main choice after high school,"

Bubnack also agrees with Johnson on the fact that young people might not be fully aware of all this field has to offer.

"There's different jobs in construction, so if you're good with carpentry, you can go into carpentry, but if you like running machines, there's an operator's union, so there's a lot of different areas to work in."

As someone who's lived with a carpenter for a very long time, I know the benefits of the position. The insurance alone is incredible! The pay isn't bad either.

It's also a career that one can enter without going to college first. But if you want to take classes on the subject, Rock Valley College does offer courses for those interested in a construction career.