Page 14 - FDMAsia MayJun2024

12 MARKET BEATS MAY/JUN 2024 FDM ASIA | www.fdmasia.com

Kwangmoozaa

the main contributors to the price increases. of 6,600 skilled workers in BC by 2033, compared to the

Civil engineering prices rose to 104.1 index points in the forecasted need of 26,100 by 2023 estimated a decade ago.
first quarter of this year, up one percent on the same quarter Atchison says the industry still saw the number of trades
of the previous year and 0.2 percent on the previous quarter, workers drop by 7 percent over the last five years to 167,300,
Statistics Austria announced. and the average construction company in the province has
seen its size contract by 15 percent during that time.
Sector faces worker shortages The association says construction companies also face
British Columbia’s construction industry says its workforce persistent uncertainty when it comes to getting paid for their
numbers have improved in recent years, but labour shortages work, with contractors possibly having to ‘wait months for
persist and are putting ‘extreme pressures’ on employers, as payment’.

reported by canada.constructconnect.com. “They experience significant financial risk and take on
The BC Construction Association says the shortage of qualified the increased cost of debt, which can put them in danger of
workers has pushed the average annual wage in the sector bankruptcy,” the association statement says. “They are put
to just short of $75,000, up 21 percent in the last five years. in the position of ‘financing’ construction projects, including
The association says the average entry-level wage for the housing B.C. desperately needs.”
construction workers is now at more than $22 an hour, 25 Atchison says the group is urging B.C. Premier David Eby
percent above minimum wage in the province. to enact prompt-payment legislation to provide relief to the

Association president Chris Atchison says in a statement industry, which is responsible for 229,100 employees and $27
that labour levels have improved, with a projected deficit billion—or 10.3 percent—of the province’s GDP.