Construction coalition appeals to Trump’s sense of competition and wage fairness

A late-January Associated Builders & Contractors study indicated how construction unemployment rates through the end of last year sustained a downward trend dating to 2010. “The ongoing year-over-year decline in the national unemployment rate is an indication of the health of the construction job market and its recovery from the deep recession,” explained economist Bernard Markstein, Ph.D., who analyzed U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics December 2016 data for ABC. “However, the shortage of skilled construction workers is hindering the ability of the sector to grow, with more than 80 percent of Associated Builders and Contractors members reporting a shortage of appropriately skilled labor.”

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Construction Coalition study: OSHA silica rule cost estimate off by $4.5 billion

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s proposed standards covering crystalline silica will cost contractors and their suppliers $5 billion per year—nearly $4.5 billion above estimates agency officials indicated in September 2013, when they outlined a new permissible exposure limit (PEL) for general workplaces and construction sites.

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