The frenetic pace of recruiting construction workers in SWFL is expected to extend into 2024, with an incremental 1,253 workers needed next year, as well, in addition to the normal pace of hiring.
Overall, the demand for construction workers in America has been increasing at an epic rate.
According to ABC, the construction industry averaged more than 390,000 job openings per month in 2022, the highest level on record, and the industry unemployment rate of 4.6% in 2022 was the second lowest on record, higher than only the 4.5% unemployment rate observed in 2019. In addition, national payroll construction employment was 231,000 higher in December 2022 than in December 2021.
Right now, filling open jobs at any Fort Myers company is a struggle.
A recent survey by the National Federation of Independent Business Owners found that after inflation, the most critical problem facing these businesses is the inability to recruit and retain quality employees.
Right now, says the Federal Reserve, unfilled jobs remain near an all-time with 1.7 openings per unemployed person. As a result, only one person is being hired per every four job openings. To put this dismal hire-to-opening ratio in perspective, ten years ago, there was one hire per every job opening.
Compounding the recruitment woes of Fort Myers's small business owners is the very stubborn quit rate. According to the Federal Reserve, for every ten hires made, seven current employees quit.
So, how can local builders and contractors fill the open jobs at their companies? Most metrics indicate that advertising on Fort Myers Radio may be the best way.
ZipRecruiter is an online recruitment site that helps companies of every size advertise open jobs. Overall, more than 2.8 million companies have posted an opening on ZipRecruiter.com.
During the first line of their radio commercial, ZipRecruiter's announcer proclaimed, "82% of people remember radio ads."
"That means," the announcer continues, "82% of you listening right now will remember this is an ad for ZipRecruiter.
During the entirety of its 60-second commercial, ZipRecruiter mentions '82%' a total of seven times and the word 'radio' six times.
By the way, ZipRecruiter didn't pull the 82% commercial recall statistic out of thin air. Many studies confirm radio advertising's high memorability advantage.
One of these studies was conducted by Nielsen. They looked at advertising campaigns for four specific brands. Although recall varied by the advertiser, on average, 82% of consumers exposed to one of the target company's commercials remembered it...just as ZipRecruiter claims.
A similar study by research firm Local AdRecall also found that, on average, brand recall was five times greater for 18 companies that invest in radio advertising.
For more information on these two studies, click here.