Despite the annual looming threat of increasingly severe weather across the country, Americans are more ill-prepared than ever to rebuild after a devastating ecological event. The global staffing firm ManpowerGroup reports in its 2016-17 U.S. talent shortage survey that skilled trade workers, such as masons, are the most difficult job to fill in the country and have been since 2010 (gracing the Top Ten list nine times in the previous eleven years). Despite nearly half of all employers offering training and development to existing staff, and twenty percent offering higher salary packages or other perks and benefits, nearly a quarter of employers still report that they cannot fill positions due to a lack of applicants.
The lack of qualified masons and other skilled workers is an exceptionally concerning issue on a national scale, and the consequences of a lack of skilled workers are numerous and troubling. However, an organization in North Carolina seeks to remedy this problem, and after nearly twenty years successfully launched a position that essentially focuses on the recruitment, education, and training of new masons in March of this year. New programs and events have already greatly benefited the local community, and with minor modifications, their success could greatly improve the national deficit of skilled workers.
The North Carolina Masonry Contractors Association, or NCMCA, is quickly establishing itself as an innovative front-runner in the masonry industry. In the 1960s, groups like the Mason Contractors of Western Carolina existed independently, but after joining with other masonry associations from several of North Carolina’s larger cities, these groups would come to form NCMCA in April 1974. This year, the NCMCA is proud to represent 140 company members, sixty-six of which are masonry contracting firms. NCMCA members enjoy a myriad of benefits including access to the NCMCA Insurance Program, which offers competitive prices from exceptional providers and underwriters who specialize in coverage for masonry and construction companies.
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