2018 Construction News You Need to Know
The construction industry is ever changing and evolving. It’s important to keep abreast of the most current events. Here is the top construction news, now.
Every year, hundreds of billions of dollars are spent on construction, and this number has been growing for the past several years. However, this is not the only trend that has been going on in the world of construction.
Several factors, economic, political and otherwise, have also been influencing the industry for quite a while and may continue to do so. With this in mind, the question arises of what are these trends and how will they affect us in 2018.
Truth be told, there’s a lot to unpack here, and we’ll do our best to cover what construction news we can in the next few paragraphs.
Growth and Employment
Let’s start off with the good news, at least if you’re a construction worker and not a company head. As of this year, there are 6.7 million jobs that need to be filled and not enough qualified people to fill them.
This is good news for workers, because, since your job is harder to fill, you probably have more bargaining power than you would under normal circumstances. At the same time, you enjoy the benefits of heightened job security.
Your company may also increase worker salaries so that more people will be tempted to work there.
If you’re a CEO on the other hand, your company’s finances just shifted a bit, allowing for more money to be spent of salary, and less on other things. While we’re on those ‘other things,’ it should be noted that one of them is growth.
As it has for the past several years, the construction industry is expected to grow once again. That being said, this growth is expected to be less than last year. This is likely a trend that will continue into the future until the industry either levels out or begins to decline.
Environment
One growing trend in politics, despite the current, conservative swing of things, is a concern for the environment. It is a good bet that the push to produce cleaner industries and sources of energy will be a big part of construction for quite some time.
This may be a good thing because the push to reform often drives change of a pretty large caliber. This could, in turn, mean a lot more construction projects to create new, greener institutions, or to update or replace old ones.
Vocational Training
Another bit of construction news is that vocational training is likely to see growth. With the shortage of skilled workers, a lot of companies are likely to start hiring unskilled workers and having current employees teach them the ins and outs of the business.
Given the sheer amount of positions that need to be filled, it’s likely your job security will remain intact for quite a while, so don’t sweat it if your workplace institutes a training program.
Technology and Mechanization
Technology and mechanization are starting to have a more significant impact in some construction companies. Again, though, job security is probably nothing to be concerned about.
The combination of labor shortages and the tendency of companies to first mechanize jobs that are particularly dangerous, difficult, or boring means that you’re more likely to be assigned a different role with the same company than to be let go. After all, you’re still a skilled laborer, so it’s easier to keep you on than it is to try to replace you.
The Offsite Construction Trend
In spite of what many have predicted, this trend seems to be alive and well, with the hotel chain Marriott being an especially big customer. The draw to offsite construction is that it’s a win-win for both companies and their workers.
Offsite construction tends to be a lot safer, which means less risk of an injury putting you out of a job for a while. Additionally, the weather has a lot less of an effect on the construction, which makes the work go a lot faster.
The result is more work done for the company and safer conditions for the workers.
Expensive Materials
The cost of construction materials has increased this year, at least so far. This is expected to continue into next year at the very least, and will further put a strain on business.
More money for materials means that the need for projects goes up. This means that those in management positions will be faced with the task of trying to appeal more to potential customers.
Safety Gear
Safety gear is expected to get better as technology continues to advance. The rate at which this will happen is not clear, but there is already sophisticated technology at play.
Plus, the technology designed for other fields is being re-purposed to fit different industries. For instance, some construction companies are starting to use drones so high-risk areas can be identified before anyone is sent into them.
Increased Predictability
Building information modeling is a technology that is being more widely utilized as time goes on. Essentially, it allows a company to carry out a project before doing groundwork virtually.
Computers are used to predict the possible risks and pitfalls of a given project to determine if the project is affordable, or even feasible. This may mean safer, longer-lasting buildings in the future. It will probably be a long time before this becomes the norm, though.
Construction News
Construction, like most fields, is an ever-evolving industry that is subject to various trends affecting every part of it. The latest construction news is that, at the moment, not much has changed.
Many of the trends that were already in play appear to be going strong. Some of them, such as the overall growth of the business, are slowly heading towards a decline, while others seem to be growing faster. For the most part, though, things appear to be somewhat stable.
It’s unlikely that the labor shortage will go away anytime soon, and the offsite construction trend might not either. It seems an adage best sums things up–the more things change, the more they stay the same.
If you want to know more about construction or are in need of construction services, please visit our site. We can give a few tips on workplace safety. We can also show you some exciting things that have been done with shipping containers.
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