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Construction Contracting by the People Numbers

Construction Contracting by the Numbers

Source: Mujer - The National Magazine for the Hispanic / Latina Woman

What does this mean to you? What impact does it have on the industry?

Certainly, any fairhanded treatment has to point out positives and negatives. An unfair analysis would not include one side. So with the belief in that, let me point out the good and the "needs improvement" sides of the ledger.

Good -

  1. We have seen improvement in the industry in race and gender representation.
  2. Without hesitation, we can also assume a greater mix of religious, agnostic and aethesists. Although, a lighthearted comment might be "how can you not believe in God in our difficult and dangerous business".
  3. On the same vein, we should be confident that a greater range of national origins exists today than decades ago.
  4. Same with sexual orientation, political beliefs and the like
. Contractors and their staffs believe in hard work and Owners reward it no matter who the person is.

Needs Improvement -

  1. The numbers are not close to the population census of the United States. We would think any profession should strive to have a representative mix of the country it is situated in.
  2. As some races are known for certain affinities i.e. Asians tend to be less athletic but, more studious. We can certainly have some forgiveness as a cultural component can creep into these numbers. Women tend to still want to have children, a family and choose when and how they want a career.
  3. We see shades of good and not so good in these numbers. You can certainly take a hard view on either side. However, we wish to point out that the construction industry is still a merit based business. Hard, hard work installs construction work. You can't fake it. Owners, the ones who fund projects, only reward completed work and not the promise to perform. Hard work and smart work does keep one's cost lower than lazier competitors.
If you believe that it takes longer and is harder to become a qualified contractor than to earn a college degree, you certainly can see why the numbers don't change much year to year. Contractors are serious people who make a very long term commitment to this profession.

The answer here is to continue the conversation. Be open to talking about it. If you are dissatisfied with the numbers, the only way to change them long term and permanently is to continue to keep communication alive. In the United States, that is the proper and legal way we solve our problems.


Posted by Matt Stevens at December 20, 2007 10:27 PM

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