TIGARD, Oregon — The construction industry is making a push to attract Gen Z workers, as studies show a significant portion of industry workers could retire by 2031.
Taylor Morrison, a homebuilding and developing company, is hoping to bridge the gap by connecting young people with paid summer internship opportunities.
“As anyone in the construction industry knows, it’s very much dominated by folks that are of older generations. We need young talent and sustainable talent pipelines to fill in those gaps that we are going to be looking at in the near future,” said Caleb Mealey, a superintendent with Taylor Morrison.
Mealy is spending the summer working with Oliver Gutmann, a college student from Cal Poly and a Cleveland High School graduate. Gutmann is an intern at Taylor Morrison and will spend the summer learning about the industry.
“I’ve always been interested in the built environment, seeing structures go up. I wanted to learn about how they go up, how they are designed, and everything there is to know about building,” said Gutmann, while at a construction site in Tigard.
A report by the Building Talent Foundation shows that over 40% of the construction workforce are expected to retire by 2031, and only 3% of young people want to work in the trades. Gutmann told KGW that construction jobs weren’t something that many of his high school classmates talked about.
“There’s no one talking about it; it wasn’t even something that I thought about as an option until later on in high school, I learned about it through my woodshop program. It’s not talked about enough,” Gutman explained.
“We are often taught so much in high school to pursue white collar work, whether that is software development, sitting behind a computer screen performing sales remotely, and construction and skilled trades are undervalued,” said Mealey.
Mealey added it critical for more young people to choose construction and trade jobs, or the prices on new homes in the area could continue to rise.
“At the end of the day, I think it could be difficult for folks looking to buy a new construction home, costs will go up because there are less people willing to do the work,” he said.
For more information on internships and other opportunities at Taylor Morrison, visit careers.taylormorrison.com.