Sources: Interlocking Concrete Pavement Institute, Chantilly, Va.; CP staff
Gross sales for concrete paver contractors in the United States and Canada increased by 7.7 percent during 2017, while four of every five contractors cite difficulty in recruiting and hiring quality employees, according to a new Interlocking Concrete Pavement Institute survey.
“This confirms a significant challenge for the segmental concrete pavement industry,” says ICPI Chair Kendall Anderegg (Mutual Materials). “There is a large and growing demand among residential and commercial consumers for our products. Our goal is training more contractors and installers to help meet this demand. ICPI and its members already have the industry’s top education and training programs for in-service contractors. We are now creating a Workforce Development program to attract more young people to the concrete paver installation trade. There are tremendous opportunities in our industry for more contractors and installers.”
The 2018 ICPI Contractor Industry Report identifies 2017 business trends from 171 segmental concrete pavement contractors responding to a survey by Industry Insights of Columbus, Ohio. In addition to tight labor conditions, it finds:
- The residential market remains strong, representing 69.5 percent of sales, while commercial/government projects are surging with 30.5 percent of sales—a 6.5 percent increase from the previous year;
- More than 90 percent of contractors provide employees worksite safety training; and,
- A 5.0 percent median wage/salary increase took hold in 2017, while a similar 5.0 percent median rise is forecasted for 2018.
The report also includes data on technologies contractors use to monitor and reduce exposure of crew members to respirable silica, as well as on company promotion and certification trends. Besides reporting overall data, results provide insight into the industry regarding gross sales, ICPI membership level, length of construction season, and peak season headcount. The 64-page 2018 ICPI Contractor Industry Report is available for purchase at www.icpi.org/shop.