If You Want a Good Construction Labor Force, Make Sure They’re Happy

Last time, we discussed how, if you want to build in the multifamily industry, it helps to go where the biggest concentration of construction workers are. And that’s typically not in the largest cities.

That’s just one of the many reasons we believe that secondary and tertiary metro areas are the smart areas to invest in right now. Another is quality of life. For tenants, sure, but also for those construction workers that you can find in greater density in those markets.

The research we previously mentioned from Point2, a blog and news site owned by Yardi , looked at more than the per-capita number of construction jobs. The big point was to consider what made certain places attractive to construction workers. That includes the amount of work available, based on filings for building permits, but also cost of living.

Most people don’t want to be migrant workers, moving from one place to another to ply their trade. They want the chance to build a life with stability and the ability to afford it.

Cost of living is an important consideration when considering where to develop or invest for multiple reasons, but let’s look at two in particular. One is a higher density of construction help. When there are more workers available for the number of people in a metro, there’s greater chance of getting the help you need because workers are not spread too thinly for existing and future demand.

A reasonable cost of living means two things. One is that workers can settle down and stay put. They can raise families and model good outcomes for their occupations, making the trades look more attractive for a future labor force of younger people.

Wages are important of course, but that in large part is in relation to a local cost of living. Workers want to be paid well, but what that means in a San Francisco on one hand and a Bremerton, Washington or Gulfport, Mississippi or Cape Coral, Florida on the other differs widely. When the cost of living is lower, it’s easier to meet their expectations so they can live comfortably while still keeping your projects’ budgets in the realm of fiscal sanity.

And when you can have a stable workforce in a growing area, it’s easier to do repeat projects, gaining on what you’ve learned before about the market and what works and doesn’t. As usual, a business structured to keep workers happy is one that is easier to sustain.