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Past articles of mine have focused on the construction industry's impending labor shortage, or on the fact that commercial firms consider the shortage of qualified workers one of the most pressing issues facing them in 2008. But there is another, more specialized niche of building jobs that is facing a major labor shortage: "green collar jobs".
Green building is the fastest growing trend in construction today. During the past 5 years, it is experienced exponential growth. More and more specialized green firms, contractors and builders are popping up all over the nation.
This growth is great, except for the fact that there are not enough employees to sustain this growth pattern. Many green firms are looking to double their employment through 2008 and 2009, but the cold hard fact is that there are not enough qualified workers to accomplish that.
In response, many green builders are turning their eyes to recent high school graduates and unemployed young people. By training these individuals from the start, firms are setting themselves up well for certain future growth. With such rapid expansion, upper-level positions are being created and filled all the time, and often these positions are filled exclusively with company employees. In other words, you must be promoted from within.
For young individuals looking to get into the building industry, companies with a focus on sustainability and green building offer an especially promising career path. The fact that green companies have turned their focus to training and promoting young workers has received some significant press coverage recently, and NPR has a great 4 minute segment on it that outlines the situation and gives real world examples of this trend (available here).
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