The National Kitchen & Bath Association (NKBA) recently published its first Workforce Development Study, which found that the labor shortage continues to have a significant impact on the kitchen and bath industry.
“The labor shortage is across the board – it is the number-one challenge in our industry,” said Bill Darcy, NKBA CEO. “We are not an entity that can solve this on our own, everyone needs to do their part.”
The NKBA report’s goal was to identify the specific challenges the industry is trying to overcome in regard to the labor shortages in an effort to provide some solutions. The 374 NKBA members surveyed include a variety of industry professionals, including remodelers, builders, designers, dealers and installers. Of the 347 respondents, 347 hire or work with skilled trade employees.
Report Results
The consensus from the report is that the lack of available employees in both the skilled trade and professional sectors in our industry is even worse than it was two years ago. Respondents in the Northeast and South seem to be having more of a challenge than their West and Midwest counterparts.
The following are the top-five most difficult skilled trades positions to fill:
- Installers (58%)
- Carpenters (53%)
- Electricians (33%)
- Plumbers/HVAC contractors (32%)
- Drywallers (24%)
The following are the top-five most difficult professional positions to fill:
- Designers/kitchen or bath (41%)
- Project managers/superintendents (23%)
- Designers/assistants & showroom (22%)
- CAD techs (20%)
- Estimators (16%)
One of the reasons it is hard to find and retain skilled tradespeople is because those roles are often outsourced to contract employees that are in scarce supply. If more of those roles were made permanent, this would be one solution. In terms of industry professionals, interaction is more evenly divided. Professionals like designers, showroom managers, project managers and CAD techs are typically employees, while architects and engineers generally serve in a consulting capacity.
The study found that the areas most affected as it pertains to hiring and retaining skilled trades and professionals include start and finish dates for projects and increased labor and material costs.
The factors contributing to the shortages include:
- A lack of younger talent pursuing careers in our industry
- The aging out of the current workforce
- High school students lacking basic skills
- Increase in commercial building means even lower availability of workers in residential
- Technology outpacing workforce training
What Can We Do?
There are several things we can accomplish to generate interest in our industry. We can familiarize younger generations on educational opportunities and the institutions that offer those. Basic training needs to start in high school through more specialized classes and workshops, support from school counselors, job shadowing and company tours. We need to bring back the respect these jobs in our industry deserve and send a different message.
We can also communicate the benefits of a job in our industry, which include:
- Good salaries
- Shorter training times
- Steady work/abundance of jobs
- Job independence & satisfaction
- Low turnover
The NKBA plans to generate more interest in pursuing a career in our industry by communicating with counselors, teachers, parents and the students themselves (see more initiatives in the graph above). There may also be an opportunity to provide scholarships to those high school graduates wanting to enter this industry. NKBA members can attend career fairs to provide more information, as well as organize career days in their local educational institutions (see graphic above).
You will see more on this and other issues in KBB’s Industry Outlook special feature in our January issue.
