JULY - AUGUST 2023CONSTRUCTIONTECHREVIEW.COM19We've known for a long time that the biggest demographic influencers of the industry and most others in North America over the past 70+ years have been the `Baby Boomer generation. This massive influx of post-war humans has affected every aspect of our society, from swing sets to schools and infrastructure. As this generation matured, the baby boomers became our entrepreneurs, politicians, and business leaders. The trends of this influential demographic have shaped every industry. To this point, the rate of change within this important economic driving force has been somewhat predictable, allowing time for markets and industry to adjust and react to pave the road ahead of them. But as we are now witnessing, this group is reaching retirement age, and their influence is beginning to shift out of our industry and into retirement, leaving the opportunity for younger generations to step into the space the boomers left behind. This also means we're losing experienced mentors, and experience is critical to how we construct our buildings skillfully and safely. This problem is not unique to the construction industry. Auto manufacturing is also clamoring for skilled workers for their assembly plants as technology changes and new spin-off industries emerge. These changes have been influenced by a global need for governments to reach net-zero targets for energy consumption.Healthcare has suffered tremendously through the COVID years, leaving a wake of vacancies for nurses, doctors, and support staff. Not only are we feeling the pain from the declining availability of medical professionals, but the aging population is also creating a huge demand for assisted living and end-of-life care.The travel industry still is well below capacity without enough staff for restaurants, hotels, and other destination travel activities to feed the demand of an affluent population. These are just a few examples of industries competing for new and young workers. And as young adults emerge from high school and post-secondary institutions, many choose
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