My buddy Ed is a building contractor. He does great work, and has all of it he can handle. He recently put up a pole building for us, which will serve as my new work shop (woohoo!). There were a couple of delays along the way, and when I asked what was up, the answer was pretty much what I expected: he was getting behind, because he can’t get and keep enough reliable employees. In addition, the subcontractor he used to grade the site was so busy that he put the project back by a few weeks, and there was no one else available that could get it done any faster. This skills gap – work that needs to get done, and not enough workers to tackle it – is shaping up to be a serious problem. Read More