Even booms cause headaches, and for Seattle development, the ache right now is higher construction costs and fewer skilled workers to take on those projects. That'll be a main point of discussion tomorrow at Seattle Construction & Development at the Four Seasons Seattle.
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Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt shareholder Jeremy Vermilyea, who will be a moderator at the event (and who likes his Harley), tells us the local construction industry faces an ongoing labor shortage, with about 40% of the labor force lost during the recession—many of whom never came back—and more recently the rapid departure of Baby Boomers as they age out of the business. These will continue to cause ripple effects, he says.
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Namely, there will be a shortage of qualified subs with sufficient capacity; delays in contractors’ ability to start work; contractors turning down work; increased costs in the form of wages and subcontractor/contractor margins, potentially exacerbating the predicted slowdown in construction starts; and an impact on financing, among other things.
Find out more at our Seattle Construction & Development event, beginning at 7:30am tomorrow at the Four Seasons Seattle. It's not too late to sign up here!
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