Thank you to everyone who attended our school! We just wrapped up our first school in over 10 years, and it was a success! We received a lot of positive feedback from the attendees. Our clients left the School excited at the prospect of trying out features they didn’t know CSSI had, that will directly impact their day to day job duties. Furthermore, it was great to see our customers collaborate with each other, discussing solutions to specific scenarios and sharing tools that may be useful to one another. We are looking forward to our future classes where we will investigate incorporating webinars in order to make the school more accessible and easier to fit into your busy schedule.   

Nonresidential construction will hold steady for the remainder of 2018, but could see a downturn in 2020 or 2021, according to the Associated Builders and Contractors. The forecast is positive for this year because the construction backlog is elevated; plus, improving fiscal conditions in states and localities have made public entities players in the construction "recovery," ABC chief economist Anirban Basu said in the article. “The 2018 Mid-year Economic Outlook: A Time of Growth and Intrigue” report, published in Construction Executive magazine, said that the strong U.S. economy is helping the forecast, but that rapidly rising interest rates and material prices, combined with international trade issues, could cause a dip in the construction sector in two or three years.

Other factors that could contribute to a construction downturn include the skilled trade shortage and increased costs related to getting materials to the jobsite because trucking firms also are facing a shortage of human capital.

When business owners take on a contract, they are also taking on the risk that there might be issues with the agreement. Usually, the contract process will go according to plan without any problems. But inevitably, there will come a time where the complications associated with a contract will manifest themselves. By that point, a contractor may have been the victim of a delay, defect or breach of contract that resulted in damages. At this point, it may be time to call legal counsel to decide what to do next. There are various forms of remedies for the impaired construction business in response to the delay, defect or breach of contract. One of the most prevalent remedies is the recuperation of lost profits damages. Another may be lost value damages, but the focus of this article will remain on lost profits.

If the decision is to proceed with a lawsuit, the first step is to contact legal counsel. Hire a damages expert to analyze the lost profits associated with the company’s impairment. There are many things a contractor can do at this time to help the case and to help the damages expert complete their analysis. They will be basing their analysis on objective, factual, reasonable and well-supported information, so It’s critical the business owner provides the necessary documentation and resources that will help the damages expert build the most credible analysis possible. 

The U.S. Census Bureau recently released data showing that spending in the private construction market has reached $954 billion, surpassing the previous peak spending of $906 billion in 2006. While spending is on the rise, so is the number of unfilled positions. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 243,000 construction job openings in May 2018—a nearly 33 percent increase from the 183,000 jobs open just a year before. With three million of the current 15 million construction workers planning on retiring or leaving the industry within the next decade, the issue won’t be resolved on its own.

The labor shortage is one of the most widely reported topics in the industry, as is the fear that automation will replace construction workers. But how do the two work together? Could automation ease the chokehold the labor shortage has on the construction industry? Or does it threaten the remaining field jobs? If construction’s power players choose to proceed responsibly, automation and technology in construction will aid the labor shortage by streamlining processes and empowering workers.