By Dennis Quick

CHARLESTON -- Ray Maher, vice president of Brantley Construction Co. LLC in North Charleston, sees a coming storm in the construction industry.

Many veterans in the industry are in their 50s and approaching retirement. Meanwhile, the industry is struggling to recruit young people, even though nationally construction jobs pay an average of about $19 an hour and in South Carolina nearly $15, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The industry’s skilled labor shortage is nationwide, and it is a concern that has been festering for years. In the 1990s, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projected the industry would need to hire 200,000 employees per year to replace those who are retiring or facing retirement and to meet the growing demand.

There are several reasons for the industry’s recruitment problems. Young people, particularly high school students, shun the construction industry as a possible career choice, preferring comfortable office jobs to sweaty construction work.

Also, other than Garrett Academy of Technology, a vocational high school in North Charleston, few area high schools expose students to vocational training. Such training used to be popular in high schools, Maher said, adding that his initial interest in the construction industry grew from a metalworking course he took as a Wando High School student.

Additionally, the construction industry has a terrible image. It is considered by many a last-ditch career option for high school dropouts or for academically poor students, said Harry Mashburn, 2006 national president of the Associated General Contractors of America and president and founder of Columbia-based Mashburn Construction Co., which has an office in Charleston.

“We’ve got to change our image before we do anything else,” Mashburn said.

The perception that construction work is no more than brute hammering and sawing still lingers with the public, many of whom do not realize today’s construction workers rely heavily on computers and are high-tech savvy, said Butch Clift, a North Charleston-based training consultant for the Carolinas chapter of the AGC.

Maher and other industry professionals believe construction trades should be re-introduced to high schools to help supply the industry with skilled labor.

To help improve its image and increase its future skilled labor force, the industry is reaching out to high school and middle school students. The AGC’s nationwide “Build Up!” program teaches fifth-graders about the construction industry and the careers it offers. “Roadways!,” the AGC’s supplement to “Build Up!,” promotes careers in highway construction.