Demand for construction workers in the Corridor is surging with competition

Switching from residential to industrial construction may not seem like much of a change.

Construction is construction, right? Not exactly.

The concepts are similar but the techniques are all different, said Craig Pickens, a carpenter working on the new University of Iowa Children's Hospital in Iowa City.

There's a learning curve, he said, but after starting in February cleaning plywood on the ground level, he's climbed the ranks and now is laying the top deck.

The promise of better pay and better hours caught Pickens's attention, and he's seized the opportunity by proving himself in an industry hungry for dependable workers.

'I started in the basement, now I am working up here,” Pickens said from seventh-floor deck of the new hospital on Friday.

The children's hospital is a prime example of the worker shortage challenging construction projects in Eastern Iowa right now. They face intense competition for workers and can't seem to recruit enough.

The children's hospital project is only staffed at about a quarter of the 400 people a day that eventually will be on site when construction hits full steam. Staffing already has been difficult.

'It's just a bigger job than most people have seen around here,” said Terry Theodore, an area superintendent for Gilbane Building Co., which is the project manager for the $357 million, 14-story children's hospital and parking ramp project.

'There's so many projects going on besides ours, and there's a limited number of people in this market,” he said

Theodore, who's based in Chicago but relocated to Iowa for the four-year project, said they've been using advertising, and direct contact with community groups, church groups and day labor companies to attract workers.

The children's hospital project has turned to people new to the trade, such as Pickens as well as Coleton Byers, an 18-year-old from Riverside who left behind restaurant work.

'It's a huge difference, a lot different from what I've experienced before,” said Byers, who is on a maintenance crew.

Construction crews have managed less-experienced workers by pairing them with veterans, but there's still a productivity gap and greater risk.

Paul McGuire, the project executive for Gilbane, said former teachers, accountants and even a minister, as well as regional commuters have caught on with crews at the children's hospital.

'We are seeing an unprecedented shift from other industries to construction,” McGuire said. 'We are also getting many regional commuters coming in from Des Moines, Quad Cities and points south.

'We have surplus of some trades with a critical shortage of others.”

Still, he added, 'There's a great deal of pressure here right now, and it's only going to increase,”

The Chicago Regional Council of Carpenters highlighted all the work in the Iowa City area to its members earlier this year, saying there's 10,000 construction jobs likely needed in the next three to four years to cover 149 construction projects valued at $100,000 or more at the University of Iowa.

In addition to the children's hospital, there's the $176 million Hancher Auditorium, $153 million school of music, a $53 million new dormitory and a $77 million new art building.

The projects are all competing for workers with each other, plus a series of school building projects and other commercial projects. A $1.4 billion fertilizer plant in Wever, which is in southeast Iowa, and several jobs out of state are all clamoring for skilled workers.

Craigslist for Iowa City has job postings promising a $35 per diem, plus hotel costs for construction worker willing to travel to Wever. A concrete company in Minot, N.D. - which is in the middle of a construction boom connected to fracking - is offering a $1,000 signing bonus.

Theodore said they have not yet had to deal with poaching of workers from other contractors, but that could become an issue as the projects peak.

The demand is heightened because the industry lost more than a million workers during the Great Recession, and many never came back, said Kenneth D. Simonson, chief economist for the Associated General Contractors of America.

Iowa added 4,600 construction jobs between May 2013 and May 2014, which was the 10th most in the nation, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But there's still need for more. Simonson noted.

'A lot of people have exited the industry, and it's hard for construction companies, particularly in hot markets like Iowa, so they will have to turn to non-traditional workers,” Simonson said.

Back at the children's hospital, Pat Oldham, is a superintendent for Modern Piping of Cedar Rapids. Oldham said when he's needed staff, he's turned to the local pipe fitters union and hasn't faced the shortage experienced by some of the other trades, notably carpenters.

Oldham has been directing people interested in work to apply for an apprenticeship through the union.

'Anyone who would be interested, that's the way to go,” he said.