By Paul Post
Doug Ford couldn’t land a teaching job right after college because the market was flooded, so he took temporary work at a lumber company, just to pay off some bills
“I took the job with the intention of working three days and stayed 19 years,” he said. “I fell in love with the industry. They made me a store manager. When you manage it’s really like teaching. They would send me to different stores that were challenged. I’d get it up and running and they’d send me to the next one.”
Now he’s vice president of public relations and purchasing at Ballston Spa-based Curtis Lumber Company, where he’s worked the past 27 years. In a related role, he’s also president and co-founder of the Northeast Construction Trades Workforce Coalition, which recently obtained non-profit status.
The organization has a diverse membership ranging from builders and material suppliers to colleges, school counselors and administrators. They all work together with a single-minded goal of attracting young people to the construction trades industry, to alleviate a severe labor shortage that’s reached crisis proportions in both the Greater Capital Region and United States at large.
The coalition is an outgrowth of efforts begun several years ago by Curtis Lumber and Saratoga Builders Association. Ford co-founded the organization with Pam Stott, a former Curtis Lumber official, now the coalition’s new executive director.
“I think 2024 is going to be much better than 2023 in terms of new construction, especially during the second half of the year,” Ford said. “Interest rates are coming down to a point now where people are thinking about jumping back in. Material prices have decreased to some degree. Things are pointing back in the right direction. The biggest factor right now remains labor.”
“It’s pretty much across the board,” he said. “All trades have been impacted.”
Anthony Cerrone, Hoosick Valley Contractors vice president pre-construction, said, “There’s 300,000 to 400,000 open jobs (nationwide) every month in construction. We have an aging workforce that’s retiring and the young generation moving in is not enough to fill that void.”
One of the coalition’s biggest challenges is overcoming the misconception that trades are just “guys on the roof, people in the ditches” performing extremely hard, physical work at relatively low pay in somewhat dangerous conditions, Ford said.
Or that trades are primarily for kids who can’t cut it academically.
“It’s not true,” Ford said. “Technology has really changed the industry. There’s a lot of other people behind the scenes in trades such as project managers, design and inspection people. That’s one of the issues why there aren’t enough young women getting into the trades. They don’t realize there’s all these other jobs. There’s a lot more to trades than the people you see.”
“There’s math, science, technology,” Cerrone said. “The STEM skills are used every day in construction.”
In March, the coalition will host a Speed Trading day, where 80 school counselors from throughout the area will meet with various trades professionals, from roofers to design specialists, to understand exactly what they do.
“Our industry has done a terrible job historically of working with schools,” Ford said. “Sometimes counselors don’t know how to talk to kid about trades. That’s one of the things we’re trying to change. Lumber yards like us and suppliers need to be in schools just like colleges and the armed services, talking to counselors and engaging students.
Sam Ratti, Northville Central Schools middle and high school principal, said fewer students are pursuing four-year colleges right out of high school.
“So we need to adjust our approach to exposing students to alternate pathways to find success in life,” he said. “The coalition helps engage kids with trades professionals to see what they do. We’re bringing schools together with businesses, businesses together with lobbyists. Together we can make a difference not only in our communities, but the lives of students we work with.”
Efforts to reach young people begin in the elementary grades and continue right through high school.
“In the beginning we were short-sighted,” Ford said. “We focused on high school juniors and seniors. We quickly realized this problem is much bigger and is going to take a lot longer. Now we have a toolbox program in elementary schools where we send builders in and build toolboxes with kids. While working with them we talk about the trades and plant the seeds. Then kids go home with toolboxes and talk to their parents about it.”
In July, the coalition in conjunction with Whitbeck Construction LLC, will host a week-long camp in Wilton for fifth- and sixth-grade girls who will take part in hands-on projects, visit construction sites and engage with various trades people.
The program is made possible with funding secured by Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner, D-Round Lake.
Recently, the coalition hosted a “She Shed” building project for girls in six area high schools.
“Each school had a female contractor who taught what to do,” student Arlie Rickson said. “We had to use a lot of air-powered tools, set up equipment and use our muscles. Within five hours we were all successful in building a shed, which is kind of crazy.”
“I really like working and designing things on computers and watching things come to life,” she said. “That’s the amazing thing about trades. You start from nowhere and out of nothing you have this amazing project and feel a great sense of accomplishment. The coalition has exposed me to so many opportunities.”
For young people, the benefits of a building trades career couldn’t be more obvious. First, because of the extreme labor shortage, jobs are readily available for everyone from electricians and carpenters to heavy equipment operators.
Equally important, the pay scale is extremely rewarding.
“It’s very attractive,” Ford said. “A person graduating from a BOCES program will be making more than a teacher within two years. That’s a fact. That’s how fast the pay rates are moving. There’s a much steeper curve to the pay scale just because of the labor shortage. What used to take several years doesn’t take nearly as long now. Young people applying themselves and doing what they need to do will rise very fast.”
“If you’re willing to work and learn you will succeed in construction,” Cerrone said.
And there are several different ways to enter the field, not just through BOCES.
“You can certainly get into the trades through college, engineers and all that, or a two-year school,” Ford said. “Then there’s the union route. They all work. It’s wide open for everybody.”