By Debra Zimmerman Murphey, Vice President of Content Development at Tobin Communications, Inc.

It’s a weekday morning and Charlie Wilson, President of CT Wilson Construction, is discussing labor shortages with WFAE-FM reporter Julian Berger. The interview is part of a “Workforce Done Right” awareness and outreach campaign underway by the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC).

WFAE is located in Charlotte, N.C., and Wilson’s firm is about 150 miles away in Durham in the vibrant Research Triangle Region where jobs, technology, and a robust workforce are kitchen-table topics.

AGC reports that the construction industry faces significant workforce shortages, with 94% of firms seeking craft workers and 85% needing salaried positions. This gap has led to project delays for 54% of firms and cancellations or postponement in 80% of cases.

Because of employees concerned about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids, to uncertainty about how new government priorities impact immigrants, Wilson is among the voices now advocating national policies that can help increase the number of Americans in the commercial construction industry. For every one dollar the federal government invests in career and technical education, it spends four dollars promoting four-year college degree programs, according to AGC.

But Wilson is also advocating for more H-2B and TPS visas being granted. The latter are categories that only allow a certain amount of immigrants to legally work in the U.S.

A reliance on foreign-born workers widened in the past 40 years as fewer young people entered the vocational and construction trades, according to AGC’s Vice President of Public Affairs and Workforce Brian Turmail.

Turmail, however, says AGC is focused on both expanding the numbers of skilled Americans choosing careers in commercial construction, and foreign-born workers who can legally be employed in the trades.

Using Media & Podcast Platforms to Get the Message Out

During a Radio Media Tour (RMT) produced by Tobin Communications, Inc., Turmail spoke with podcasters and journalists. The strategic communications firm provided statistics that were relevant to a span of radio markets and audiences, and reached out to content creators in targeted states.

“We need to secure the border and then we need to allow more people to come in on temporary, lawful work visa programs,” Turmail explains to WAMV-AM radio host Bob Langstaff during a March 18 interview that reached the Amherst area of Virginia.

Turmail notes that the visas mean the companies can employ more immigrants, the employees have a safe and secure background, and the workers can be taxed while, simultaneously, America regenerates a domestic pipeline for getting young men and women into construction.

“As a federal policy, [we don’t] really allow for many lawful, legal — the right way to do it — opportunities for people to come into the country, to work in construction,” explains Turmail.

These workers help build schools, roads and bridges, update critical infrastructure, and complete projects that bolster commerce and economies throughout the country.

In America, immigration has been a dominant issue in recent years, with a range of perspectives permeating the national conversation and psyche. But the AGC is working daily to educate policymakers, the public and media about the need for more American construction workers, as well as provide their members with information and resources — for instance, toolkits that help with hiring immigrants.

The construction labor force is approximately 25% foreign-born, according to the Baker Institute, and many are of Hispanic descent.

Now AGC, and its 27,000 member companies, are helping reshape a complicated topic.

Turmail spoke with WTBQ-FM radio hosts Taylor Sterling and Frank Truatt in a March 25 interview. The station broadcasts to the Hudson River area of New York, as well as New York City, and parts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

“First of all, our preference would be to hire workers from the United States, right? Our members are desperate to find enough workers,” Turmail emphasizes. “Seventy-eight percent in the New York area say they can’t find enough workers to hire. And one of the main reasons for that is the federal government puts most of its education dollars into encouraging high school students … to go to college … and we don’t really expose our kids to careers in construction.”

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