When COVID-19 hit, Skye Harris was a sophomore studying hospitality and tourism management at Florida Gulf Coast University.

But as restaurants, bars and hotels across the country shut their doors, Harris decided to pivot to a field she saw as more pandemic-proof.

“I recognized that [hospitality] would not be supportive if something like COVID were to happen again,” Harris recalled. “So I decided to take that leap and extend my college career in order to be able to graduate in construction management.”

Skye Harris

A first-generation college student, she earned her diploma at the end of last year.

But not enough of her peers are following in Harris’ footsteps, builders and developers say.

The Florida Department of Commerce projects that by 2031 Southwest Florida will need nearly 74,000 construction industry workers to meet demand, about 7,800 more than the region has now. Construction is the region’s second largest industry employer, at 14.6%, behind only retail trade.

That looming labor shortage comes down to a combination of surging demand and an aging workforce, according to Amir Neto, director of the Regional Economic Research Institute and associate professor at FGCU.

“After COVID-19, we saw … businesses and lots of households relocating to Southwest Florida,” Neto said. “And on top of that, we had [hurricanes] Ian, and then last year, Milton and Helene, so all those added demand pressure. So we have the need for construction, the need for reconstruction.”

What’s more, the construction workforce both in Southwest Florida and across the country is aging rapidly.

Ben Wilson

Nationwide, 40% of people employed in skilled trades are over age 45, while fewer than 9% are younger than 25, a 2022 study by staffing agency PeopleReady shows.

For Suffolk Construction, which is the largest commercial builder in Southwest Florida and employs more than 200 people in the region, workforce shortages represent an important threat to business.

To try to help solve the problem, the company runs Career Start, a two-year rotational program that allows recent graduates to gain experience in field operations, project management and estimating.

“By the end of a two-year span, they’ve seen basically the entire cross-section of the construction operation life cycle. … That, in my opinion, is very unique and unmatched,” Ben Wilson, Suffolk’s general manager for Southwest Florida, told The Naples Press.

In fact, Career Start is the only program of its kind available for recent graduates in the region, according to Wilson, giving participants “a leg up and an experience that they would be hard pressed to find elsewhere.”

For this year’s Career Start cohort, Suffolk has selected 49 recent graduates across the country, including nine young professionals in Florida. That includes Harris, the GFCU graduate, who is now in her project management rotation.

“It’s been amazing,” Harris said. “Being able to be surrounded by individuals who are experts in their field, being able to leverage that knowledge and have the connections that we’re able to build — that is an amazing thing.”

For Pete Tuffo, Suffolk’s president of the Florida Gulf Coast and national gaming, investing in efforts to bring in young talent like Harris is exactly what the industry needs.

“We have to … reinvigorate people to get into the trades and know that it is a very good career path,” Tuffo said. “We’re not hiring employees for jobs. We’re hiring people to come in here to build careers.”

And young professionals who have completed Career Start appear to agree: 25 of the 26 recent graduates recruited through Career Start in Southwest Florida since 2020 are still with Suffolk, numbers provided by the company show.

Pete Tuffo

That high retention rate is especially important, Tuffo says, as Suffolk’s portfolio in the region has expanded substantially in terms of “size, scale and complexity.”

“There’s now a billion-dollar project underway that we’re doing at [Southwest Florida International Airport.] There are projects now that are in excess of $300, $400 and $500 million. I’ve been in this market for 25 years, and typically in this market, we’ve seen anything around $100 million as a really big job,” Tuffo said.

But even with demand surging, interest in construction is still lagging behind. Harris said she believes that is mostly because young people are “just not aware” of the opportunities the industry provides.

“Students question the visibility of where your career can go within construction,” Harris said.

At the same time, companies themselves also have an important role to play in finding talent, according to Amy Hanna-Eckenrode, communications director at CareerSource Southwest Florida, a nonprofit that provides free placement services for job seekers and businesses.

“Businesses have had to find more innovative and creative ways to attract and retain new employees,” Hanna-Eckenrode told The Naples Press. “And what Suffolk is doing is right on the money.”

This story was published in The Naples Press on April 18.