No matter your geography or whether you’re a distributor, manufacturer, or sales rep, this should scare you, Brandon Moss warned Specialty Tools & Fasteners Distributors Association members at the 40th annual convention.

“We have a significant trade labor shortage,” Moss declared.

“Last year, the top 50 electrical contractors were asked what concerned them the most,” the president of the tools and assembled products division of Southwire Companies LLC said in his Associates’ State of the Industry speech at STAFDA’s 2016 convention in Atlanta. “Three-quarters of them said labor shortages.”

Skilled construction labor is at a 15-year low, and the construction workforce has gotten much older, Moss said. “The percentage of workers ages 55 and up is double the number from 25 years ago,” he added.

“Unfortunately, apprenticeship programs are not growing to replace the aging population.”

Participation in apprenticeship programs has dropped nearly half and apprenticeship programs across the industry only have about a third of the applicants needed to support current construction.

“More concerning is electrical contractors between the ages of 35-54 have actually decreased by 30%,” Moss pointed out.

“The hands on the clock do not stop,” Moss said. “We have an aging trade population, and we do not have enough men and women entering the skilled trade programs that impact all of our businesses.”

Southwire provides services to make jobs more efficient.

“Contractors partner with those that provide the best combination of products and services to bridge the labor gap,” Moss said. “Companies that can do that will win.”

The entire industry needs to support skilled trade apprenticeship programs.  “It’s more than supporting these programs with free goods,” Moss suggested. “It’s about using our resources and some sweat equity to drive program enrollment.”

Southwire created partnerships with national apprenticeship programs, including a partnership with a local technical college system to create the Southwire Maintenance Systems Apprenticeship Program.

Southwire requires employees to have a high school diploma. In the early 2000s, one third of Carroll County’s high school students were dropping out, Moss recalled. “Our labor pool was shrinking, and there were social and economic challenges in the community.”

“Dropouts put pressure on service agencies, churches and businesses,” Moss noted. “High-risk behaviors such as teen pregnancy, substance abuse, welfare dependency and crime are significantly greater among dropouts. And three out of every four prison inmates are high school dropouts.”

Moss said dropping out “is a preventable issue that is caused primarily by three problems: poverty, low academic performance and lack of support.”

Kids need to support their family, but some are from single parent households, lived independently or even had children of their own.

Southward worked with the local school board to create a standalone manufacturing facility run by only high school students. Going beyond learning, Southwire developed a situation where students could earn a wage for half of the day, yet still go to school and earn their diploma.

Additionally, Southwire’s student facility was to be profitable and drew students at risk of dropping out.

“I am extremely proud to say we did just that. In January of 2007, we welcomed our first class to 12 for Life,” Moss declared.

“We created a program that has graduated nearly 1,600 students.”

Subsequently the program has expanded with other companies to launch 12 For Life Initiatives.

The program has been spotlighted by 60 Minutes, Wall Street Journal, Forbes and Harvard Business School.

Southwire, traditionally an electrical wire and cable manufacturer, expanded its product line in 2012 with tools and test & measurement products.

“We are a proud second-generation family-owned business based in Carrollton – about 45 miles west of Atlanta.”

Today Southwire has 7,600 employees. Web: Southwire.com