Young people don’t want construction jobs • Hacker News Board

Re: Young people don’t want construction jobs

#11

Post by CydeWeys » Thu, Aug 02, 2018, 3:34 PM UTC

Wow, the entire article doesn't mention once what the average wage for entry-level construction workers is. That's probably a huge part of the puzzle -- to omit that seems almost intentionally misleading, or at least bad journalism.

Also, construction is a job that's notoriously hard on your body. You can't count on being able to do it into your 60s like office work, and one bad accident can end your career in construction (or just flat out end you). And the work itself is hard. Pay needs to be higher than other jobs to compensate for this. I know I'd rather be, say, a Starbucks barista than a construction worker, even if the latter paid a little bit more.

Re: Young people don’t want construction jobs

#12

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Aug 02, 2018, 3:35 PM UTC

rhexs wrote: post #6

crooked-v wrote: post #2

So pay them more.

No reason to do that with current immigration "policy", or lack thereof.

[deleted]

Re: Young people don’t want construction jobs

#13

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Aug 02, 2018, 3:35 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Young people don’t want construction jobs

#14

Post by CydeWeys » Thu, Aug 02, 2018, 3:35 PM UTC

conanbatt wrote: post #9

crooked-v wrote: post #2

So pay them more.

There isnt a market for that: increased wages would increase house prices and the developer estimates he cant sell the house. If land were cheaper you would see rising wages.

If there isn't a market for it then there isn't a shortage of labor -- the correct equilibrium point has been found. And yet, they're claiming a shortage. They want to eat their cake and have it too.

Re: Young people don’t want construction jobs

#15

Post by platz » Thu, Aug 02, 2018, 3:36 PM UTC

conanbatt wrote: post #9

crooked-v wrote: post #2

So pay them more.

There isnt a market for that: increased wages would increase house prices and the developer estimates he cant sell the house. If land were cheaper you would see rising wages.

"a labor shortage that has meant fewer homes built and rising prices" (emhasis added)

So are prices rising or aren't they?

Re: Young people don’t want construction jobs

#16

Post by OldSchoolJohnny » Thu, Aug 02, 2018, 3:36 PM UTC

Many of these news stories about labour shortages could alternatively be summarized as "Company expects perpetual huge profits and people to continue to work for next to nothing"

Re: Young people don’t want construction jobs

#17

Post by nickthemagicman » Thu, Aug 02, 2018, 3:37 PM UTC

dccoolgai wrote: post #8

Why would they? You've spent the last 30 years telling them not to do those jobs, devaluing them with globalization and de-unionizing them to make sure those jobs don't create any kind of sustainable lifestyle for the people that do them. Someone on HN a while back gave some good advice: whenever you see "people won't do X job", append in your mind the qualifier "for Y underpaid salary/benefits package".

On point. You want people just give then good salaryies, benefits, and career growth.

Re: Young people don’t want construction jobs

#18

Post by Kluny » Thu, Aug 02, 2018, 3:37 PM UTC

I'd love to work construction. But every time I've mentioned it to my family they tell me about how it will destroy my knees and back, I'll lose fingers, get hearing damage, head injuries, and the pay is crap compared to the risk.

If there was decent workplace safety (my hometown is infamous for it's poor safety standards), and a good pension program where you're expected to want to quit and do something else after 10 years or so, before your body is ruined, then I'd be all about it.

Re: Young people don’t want construction jobs

#19

Post by craig1f » Thu, Aug 02, 2018, 3:38 PM UTC

The funny thing is, growing up, construction is awe-inspiring.

In my last position, I worked across the street from where they were putting up two buildings. We'd gawk over how brave they must be to be up that high on the rafters.

Re: Young people don’t want construction jobs

#20

Post by jeffreyrogers » Thu, Aug 02, 2018, 3:39 PM UTC

I've been wondering about the long term sustainability of the rise of service jobs in the developed world. If you can work in finance, law, medicine, or tech that's great. Those are all high skill, high paying jobs. Unfortunately, most people aren't cut out for them, largely due to genetic and environmental factors that they have no control over. So what is the rest of the workforce supposed to do? Work in restaurants and other low-skill, low-paying service jobs?

That doesn't seem sustainable long term. I worry that by losing goods-producing jobs like manufacturing and construction we are creating a long-term problem where people who can't produce high value services end up living an impoverished life. To some extent you could address this problem by making immigration easier which would help create more low-labor cost, goods-producing jobs, which would in-turn lead to more low-skill service jobs.