Barbara Hurt, a home buyer in Davidson, says the eight people who put the roof on her new house in 1994 arrived in one pickup truck, slept in the garage and took baths in a nearby pond. They brought no ladder and had to be taught how to do the job. The roof leaked from the start. In a market as hot as this one, high school dropouts with no experience can get jobs as carpenters. Carpenters can quickly become job superintendents.
Superintendents can jump to general contractors.
The labor shortage affects everyone, from major contractors to small carpentry crews. Twenty-eight percent said they hired workers with little experience or training. Gary Sharkey, a vice president at Mulvaney Homes, estimates that 40 percent of those working on new houses across the Charlotte region have less than a year's worth of experience. Because they are not subject to any licensing requirements in the Carolinas, framers and masons tend to have less formal training than other trades, said John Duncan, director of the Construction Institute at Central Piedmont Community College. Workers in the electrical, mechanical and plumbing fields generally face stricter licensing regulations.