As Migration Slows, Shortage of Construction Workers

From the LA Times:

The real estate bust idled hundreds of thousands of construction workers. Now, with housing on the mend, builders are hiring again.

Trouble is, many workers aren’t coming back.

Years of sporadic employment drove many from the industry. Incomes aren’t what they used to be. Laid-off workers remember the sting of lost livelihoods; some have had enough of boom and bust.

Meanwhile, the flow of migrants north from Mexico and Central America has slowed substantially, in part because of tougher enforcement along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The U.S. construction industry depends heavily on Latino labor. At the height of the boom, Latinos made up one-quarter of the U.S. construction labor force; most of them were foreign-born, according to the Pew Hispanic Center in Washington. Read more….

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