Texas’ Achilles Heel

Among industry respondents, 87 percent told AGC they were having difficultly finding skilled workers to fill “key professional and craft worker positions,” and 81 percent expect it to become an even more difficult challenge in the next 12 months.

AGC largely blames the lack of skilled labor on “the apparent poor quality of local craft worker training programs;” a position taken by 56 percent of industry respondents.

For a second perspective, we reached out to both the Texas Workforce Commission, which manages a development fund targeted at training programs, and craft training services company Fluor.

Lisa Givens, director of communications for TWC, did not address the criticism head on, but rather provided evidence of a succeeding training infrastructure within the state, pointing to the commission’s efforts among its 28 local workforce development areas, “which have received national attention and statewide awards.”

Furthermore, Givens said TWC’s strategic partnerships with community and technical colleges have allowed the organization to bolster training programs, enabling “incumbent employees to advance their skills or create new jobs” with partnering businesses.

Fluor declined to comment.

The lack of skilled labor in Texas is not a fault circumstance, a result of the recent steep drops in oil price; it’s a problem that’s plague the state for years. In 2012, the Greater Houston Partnership, in its yearly employment forecast, made mention of consistently shallow skilled labor pools, as made evident by the boom in Texas’ oil production.

Patrick Jankowski, an economist who worked on the report, told State Impact that “as strong as Houston’s economy is, the one thing that’s holding it back, we could deal with some more talent, we could deal with some more skilled workers.”

Over two years later and the story is much the same; though, the backdrop is somewhat reversed. The current lack of skilled labor in Texas is so pronounced that a Manufacturing Development in Texas report, published by the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts in December, named “the availability of skilled workers” as the No. 1 concern for developers in choosing a worksite, even above cost.

As oil prices continue to drop, which they’re expected to for at least the immediate future, energy companies are expected to cut additional skilled workers to supplement revenue losses. Those injections should help to shore up deficiencies in labor availability. However, its unlikely those increases will sufficiently fill demand, especially considering the relatively low inventory levels. Builders will be looking to pick up the pace in coming months, which may mean looking out of state for skilled labor.