Job vacancies double in P.E.I. construction sector

This story is part of the series Job Shift: How work on P.E.I. has changed in the pandemic.

Construction companies on P.E.I. are having a hard time finding workers, and employers say a lot of different factors have come together to create the problem.

As recently as this summer, the Construction Association of P.E.I. was estimating about 500 vacancies in the sector. General manager Sam Sanderson now puts that number closer to 1,000.

"We continue to struggle to find a skilled workforce for the industry here on Prince Edward Island," said Sanderson.

"We struggle in every level, from entry-level positions into the skilled trades, you know, from all sectors as well."

The construction industry has been booming for several years, with the population on the Island growing quickly and demand for new housing and other infrastructure high. That demand is not diminishing, Sanderson said.

But even with the high demand, Statistics Canada's Labour Force Survey shows the actual number of people working in construction has fallen about 10 per cent in the last two years.

New approaches to work

As with so much that has been disrupted in our lives in the last two years, APM Group CEO Tim Banks thinks part of the blame can be laid at the door of the pandemic.

"The pandemic certainly changed how people dealt [with working] within their household," said Banks.

Construction was one of the few industries that was allowed to continue to operate without major adjustments, even in the spring of 2020. But construction workers were still in a position to notice how work was changing for others.

"People are working from home now, they've got other options in their lives," said Banks.

"Construction is a struggle. It's a tough business. You have to work in the outdoors, so people look for other options out there and I think they've transitioned their workplace."

It doesn't necessarily mean they've left construction altogether, said Banks, but with demand high and with a desire for a different kind of work-life balance, they may have moved into self-employment.

"They've gone out on their own and they're doing smaller projects for people who are maybe building an office in their house or they're putting a garage on or whatever and they haven't come back to the traditional workplace," he said.

"They're happy with that because it allows them to transition with their spouse or their partner to work around how people have to work in this pandemic."

A shortage that has just grown worse

Ajay Punnapadam, president of Confederation Construction and Interiors, also points a finger at the pandemic.

Punnapadam founded the company on P.E.I. two and a half years ago, after landing on the Island as an immigrant with 20 years of construction experience in India.

From the moment he arrived he found the hiring situation very different from India, where tradespeople were easy to come by.

"Here it was a totally different ball game altogether," said Punnapadam.

"It was a very big surprise."

But other players in the Island's industry were very supportive, he said. His company now employs 35 to 40 people and hires subcontractors as needed. The subcontractor hirings have become more difficult, he said. They need more lead time. Where he could get someone on a few days notice two years ago, now he needs to be planning weeks ahead.

While there are shortages across all skill levels, Punnapadam sees the problem as having started at entry-level jobs, those younger people who may have taken advantage of pandemic support programs to reconsider their work in construction.

Heavy lifting

Those younger workers were key to getting the most out of the older, more experienced tradespeople.

"[They'd] be given all the hard work. They'd be pretty young and they'd be able to do the laborious part of the work," said Punnapadam.

When many of those younger workers disappeared in the pandemic, it left those older workers to do the heavy lifting, literally. It was not work their bodies were able to do on a day-to-day basis any more.

Punnapadam said he knows people who retired because they couldn't do the work that was suddenly being demanded of them.

Turning to immigrants

The pandemic may have simply accelerated a problem that was going to come to the industry eventually.

Its workforce is aging, and Banks said schools have not been training new workers fast enough to replace people who are retiring.

Immigration has been touted as a solution for an older workforce, but Punnapadam said it has not been working out for the construction industry.

P.E.I. has had a lot of success attracting immigrants in recent years, through programs like the Atlantic Immigration Pilot, but it has had some troubles retaining them.

"There are many that come here to get their [permanent residency]," said Punnapadam.

"They just need to work here for two years to get their PR and bang, they run away to Ontario."

The immigrants are happy to pick up a trade while on P.E.I., he said, but then take their training and experience elsewhere.

Many of these immigrants are concerned about the future, said Punnapadam. While the industry is busy now, some new arrivals worry about settling down in a small market where perhaps in five to 10 years they might be having a harder time finding work. They feel more comfortable settling in a larger market.

"Nobody knows how long the party is going to go on," he said.

Uneven pay

There is another possible reason they might go — the same reason many Maritimers have left the region for decades — for higher pay.

CBC News compared the pay offered in Charlottetown for six construction jobs on Indeed.com and five on Monster.ca, checking once in early December and again in mid-December. It did this for seven other cities across Canada as well.

Those cities were Surrey, B.C., Calgary, Regina, Winnipeg, London, Ont., Quebec City and Halifax.

The pay offered in Charlottetown did not compare well.

Charlottetown was above average in only one listing, concrete labourer on Indeed.com. It was the lowest paid in every other listing, with the exception of drywall installer on Monster.ca, where it placed ahead of Regina.

The overall average hourly wage for the construction jobs investigated in Charlottetown was $21.73, 15 per cent below the average of $24.97 in the other seven cities.

Tim Banks does not believe pay is a big factor. He said his company offers the same pay across the region. Outside the region, he said, the benefits of higher pay are eaten up by higher cost of living.