Even as a Gulf Coast construction boom takes shape, one market observer foresees a regional shortage of skilled craft labor in the Great Lakes region and the Midwest when, in the next few years, several big industrial projects ramp up simultaneously.
By 2016, labor demand in the region will rise to 26.8 million worker hours, from 21.9 million worker hours in 2013, says a report from Industrial Info Resources (IIR), a Sugar Land, Texas, construction-market intelligence firm.