(KNSI) – In Central Minnesota, the construction industry is doing well.
The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development says the construction industry, for the most part, maintained employment through 2020 while other sectors lost jobs.
“The Construction industry is booming in Central Minnesota,” writes Luke Greiner, DEED regional labor market analyst, for the department’s latest blog on the Central Region. “In fact, in the past five years, Construction employers added more jobs than all other industries combined. The reason behind that impressive statistic is that Construction firms maintained employment in 2020 while nearly every other industry shed jobs due to the pandemic recession.”
The staffing factor coupled with demand for construction and renovation services has kept those companies afloat and busy.
“The single-family homes doing remodeling projects,” says Leslie Dingmann, business development director for the Greater St. Cloud Development Corporation. “Renovations within commercial and other buildings; people are tackling those projects that maybe were on hold, so there’s that pent-up demand.”
Additionally, the pandemic has caused delays and shortages on certain construction supplies, so that drives up costs for construction projects. However, the GSDC’s talent director, Gail Cruikshank, says those heightened costs aren’t keeping clients away from those construction and renovation projects.
“The economy is very live and well, even coming out of the pandemic, as it relates to construction,” Cruikshank said.
Cruikshank and Dingmann say they don’t expect demand to slow down any time soon.
“It certainly depends on interest rates and whatnot, but I think what we’re hearing from our engaged leaders at GSDC … it’s looking pretty good into 2022, early 2023,” Dingmann said.
However, as is the case for many area businesses, Cruikshank says area construction companies are still looking to hire new workers. Out of the approximately 8,000 jobs posted in the tri-county area right now, around 400 are in construction, Cruikshank said.
“It definitely is an immediate concern to continue to educate on those careers that are available and growing as much as this one is, in particular,” Cruikshank said of construction jobs. “Our post-secondary partners — St. Cloud Technical and Community College, St. Cloud State — they are definitely laser-focused on making sure they have the programs in place to be able to accommodate, to get these people through this process.”
Cruikshank added that the median wage for a general construction laborer position in Minnesota right now is $22.90.
Other business sectors that are staying economically strong as the pandemic continues, according to Dingmann and Cruikshank, are medical and manufacturing, which both also see high demand for services.
“The one that comes to mind that we’ve heard the most about, as far as struggling to recover, is still our hospitality and tourism, our restaurants,” Cruikshank said. “They were the most heavily impacted by COVID; a lot of their businesses just halted totally. … Building back their workforce has really been an uphill battle, and unfortunately, a lot of their jobs are the lower-paying jobs, which again, has been the last to recover.”
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