doesn't even want to the alliance to continue. >> washington congressman adam smith, ranking member on the house armed services committee is our guest on newsmakers tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. and 6 p.m. eastern on c-span. we continue our spotlight on magazines series with a look on the staterticle of the construction industry. joining us is the author of that piece, andrew soergel. what made you decide to concentrate on the construction industry right now? guest: business is booming right now. i think this is an industry worth looking at. by the end of april, the wage gains that construction workers have seen outpace any other industry in the economy, more than tack, finance, business -- ch, finance, business, and it is driven in part by there is a general sorted -- shortage of

workers. they are having a hard time finding people to fill those open jobs. we can get into the nitty-gritty of what that generally means, but the key take away here, there is a complaint of a shortage of workers. it is creating unique opportunities, but also some challenges for those in the industry. if you are a construction worker, it is a great time to be doing what you are doing. a lot of people are willing to shell out for your services right now. host: but why you say the industry is ailing? guest: the industry certainly could be further along than it is right now. theink we are seeing effects -- we saw for several years the effects of the housing collapse, the great recession, builders were a little reluctant to get back into the game. this isn't always the case, but the construction industry tends to trend with the economy. we are in the midst of the second longest economic recovery that we have ever had. there is a lot of demand for , andng, office buildings the number of construction

workers that are available to build these new facilities simply has not kept up with demand. host: we want you to join the conversation. if you are in the eastern or central time zones, we want you to call in at (202) 748-8000. mountain and pacific time zones, (202) 748-8001. and if you actually work in construction, we want to hear from you. we want you to call in at (202) 748-8002. now, how has the industry it depends onst: where you are in the industry. there are worst-case scenarios, like an example of a senior , wherety in arizona construction of that facility was ultimately scrapped in part because there were not enough workers and in part there were reports that hire construction prices related to steel tariffs were making it a little difficult to get the money to make this facility, get it off the ground. use the other companies who --

you see other companies, exxon mobil, they have had to retool during the process of building what would be the largest gasoline plant in the world in texas, and they are having a hard time finding workers to complete their jobs. we have had reports coming out that they have had to retool some of the processes that they aren't lamenting to get this off the ground -- they are implementing to get this off the ground. countries addition to the to they -- adjacent industry, home depot has pledged money to skills training programs to build this over the long term and get folks trained into this. these really are skilled jobs. it is not the kind of thing you are i could walk in off the street and fill these positions. skills training is important and there is a lot of investment in that. host: let's go to joe from missouri, who is in retired construction. what is your question? caller: good morning, andrew. i am glad you are on the subject, because i was a union

sheet metal worker for 41 years in chicago. and when the depression hit , we weren cook county out of work for months and months. i served a four-year apprenticeship. these are skilled jobs. when you are a journey man -- for fours you train years -- it took me another 15, 18 years to get confident in what i was doing. when i was 60, [inaudible] working, iyou are would move back to chicago but i do not have a home there. it is booming. i did globe pipe, metal roof, ironwork application, but it takes a long time to learn that stuff. it takes a lifetime. i am glad you are touching on this subject. thank you. guest: absolutely.

you touch on a number of good points. theink this is -- one of difficulties with this industry is because it is, in a sense, tied to the regional economy and the national economy, when things are going really well, there is a huge demand. when there is not, people really hurt. i am excited to be writing about this industry. the economy is doing well right now and there is a lot of demand, but it is certainly something to keep in mind, it might not always like this and it takes quite a lot of training to get where you need to be in the industry. kathleen from los angeles, california. good morning. caller: good morning. this is really a good topic, because i have a radio show in los angeles and i had a los angeles building inspector, a whistleblower, and a building designer on my show. that 80%,told me during this construction boom in los angeles, 80% of the workers

are illegal workers, illegal aliens. you have not touched on that yet. in los angeles, anyway. that is the main issue why you do not see american workers doing construction work. they are being undercut by illegal aliens, and i am also told that the work of illegal aliens, the work product is not as good. i think this is an important subject you should touch on and when we talk about illegal aliens, we don't talk about its impact on american workers. we never discuss it. we always discuss the impact on illegal aliens. the impact onssed american workers. and i wonder why that is -- if you studied this issue you should know this, right? you should be discussing it. guest: i am glad we are on this topic. you raised a couple of good points here. it is worth taking a step back and looking at the national association of home builders,

which estimates roughly 30% of the construction industry is immigrants, legal or otherwise in states like california, texas, that percentage is up around 40%. certainly when you get into certain communities, it will get higher. on --rces have focused certainly there is some demand to bring more workers in. this is one avenue, but i do have to stress that again, with the folks i am talking to, opening a floodgate and bringing in an unbelievable number of workers is not the strategy. it is one option that people have floated, again, the skills training programs are another. -- i understand the point about the pay undercutting and i think there are certain examples in this industry and others where that has been the case, but you are seeing american construction worker

wages rise at a than any faster rate other, so i am not sure these workers are coming in and undercutting workers. in many cases, they are filling openings. --t: let's leader read a little in your article. since 2018, employers have been looking to fill an average of 200,000 12 --s 200,500 -- 225,000 construction each month, according to the bureau of labor statistics. that average is eclipsed in only one you're going back to 2000, when the bls first began tracking the data and that your was 2007. . these include higher-level jobs as well? certainly there are openings for positions on cruise doing this physical labor, but

it is certainly not all physical labor now. some companies have even shifted to more technical, more automation focused. there is even a trend that has been going on for several years that has picked up steam, modular construction. it is building parts of facilities on assembly lines and transporting them. it is great if there is a clement weather. in the winter, you can sustain this industry, but there are a wide range of jobs open. host: billy from michigan, who works in construction. good morning. caller: [inaudible] host: billy, are you there? caller: yes. [inaudible] can you -- host: can you turn your television for us -- down for us please? caller: i have it. billy, so wee lost will go to rob in san antonio, texas. you are also in construction. good morning. caller: good morning.

thank you for c-span and especially this subject. i have been in the construction industry for 30 years, and i have seen the slow decline in our workforce that entire time. it has been a threefold process. started in the late 1980's driving all of the high school kids and the younger generation towards the tech industry. we took training programs out of s, we startedol grading construction as a profession. started to lower the wages. we started to drive down costs. we did this as the lady from , lettinga alluded to in a lot of illegal labor which drove down costs, which drove

out anybody who would want to get into construction. is that wehought looking for a way ,o get people into construction and now we have been talking about this since the late 1990's. now this is ground zero, and i see no hope for getting more people into construction. thank you. host: -- guest: i would like to offer a bit of hope. i think points one and three are linked, and we certainly have seen a lot of stigma develop with construction, with trades jobs in general. yes, whether it is budget cuts or senior refocusing -- or refocusing, we have seen some high schools remove some shop opportunities that might expose

kids to a career in construction. at the same time, we are seeing a renewed focus on apprenticeships, pre-apprenticeships, really reaching out to kids and trying to show them that this is a thriving industry right now, and you can make a very comfortable living here. you really can. i think the school point is a good one. very interesting program at the milton hershey school in pennsylvania. i spoke with some folks there, this is a school that specifically caters to the lower income backgrounds. some of the students live there and they have several different avenues in trades and tech. they have a journalism have, -- cap, and construction is one of these paths they can send kids down. home inds will build a a community during their junior

and senior year, work with senior construction officials and staff. they completed their 52nd home in the community. their funding mechanism is a little different, but the milton hershey school is named for the chocolatier milton hershey and they get some of their funding for the hershey -- from the hershey estate. but this is an example of a high school going out there and creating an innovative program and getting students hands-on and interested in this. there are certainly many other examples of this across the country. i hope that provides a little , therehope and optimism does seem to be an interest in getting kids into this. host: you touched on the salaries and the age of the construction industry in your article. the wages of production and non-supervised construction employees climbed 3.6% between may 2017 and may 2018. those in the construction industry are, on average, slightly older than workers in the rest of the economy, with a median age of the two point x --

42.6 years old. only 1.8% of the industry's workers are between steve and 19 years old, while fewer than 9.4% are younger than 25. how do we reverse that trend? should that trend be reversed? when you are seeing such a small percentage of in many cases, what is a fairly physically demanding profession filled by young workers, i think that is worth examining and looking at. i think some of the skills training programs, these apprenticeships are in avenue enue theren av where you can jump in and make a difference. because this is a physical industry, folks are going to age out of the workforce. if we do not address this problem now, this problem will be exacerbated in the years to come. host: mary from seattle,

washington. good morning. caller: good morning. i want to tell you about my dad and some of the things he learned about the economy that i think we need to understand today. y dad was a welder, pipe fisher, plumber. --worked on energy products projects all over the world. he organized during the great depression, and i think this is a very important thing for us to remember. his last project was the geysers in california, the first time ever thing, he worked on nuclear, pipelines, hydroelectric. he was a master welder and i do not think we understand the skill that goes into these jobs and we don't respect them enough . as a pipeline welder, you have to what they call test out every day, and if you do not make that test in that morning, you gather up your stuff and you leave. you go back to wherever you came

from. i am talking about union welders. there is a high amount of leasttability, or at they're used to be, and i really worry there isn't anymore. my dad taught inner-city kids in new york. it is very important not only that we teach and get people skills about this, but we also have to get people organized. i don't know how the unions should work in a new economy, but i do not think it is just construction that needs to be organized. i live in seattle, we have a lot of tech workers that work on contract, and it is not a workable way to run any economy. but what my dad taught me, and i am so grateful, having come up in the great depression, was that capitalism can do a lot of good things, but it can't provide security. that is why you need your union.

that is why you need your safety net. and people have to wake up to this again. nobody can really do it for workers except workers themselves. i hope they will start thinking about that again. the union points, i think, is an important one here. the 14% of the construction industry, which does not sound like a lot, but 14% is unionized. that is double the national average for all industries. i have spoken with folks who have been adamant about the unions getting out and playing a more active role in banging the drum, especially with young kids and helping solve some of this age disparity we are seeing. i think the point you made about the skill it takes to work a lot of these jobs is an important one. it is one that it seems we have turned a corner on the stigma that somehow these are not skilled professions. you need quite a bit of training.

i love writing about this industry. that does not mean i have the skills to go out and work in it. david from chicago, illinois. good morning, david. for thishank you topic. i would like to reference the caller from los angeles who talked about illegal aliens, and the last caller that talks about our role of the capitalist system. if we want to put our capitalist services back into the real economy, we have to control our labor market and make a hire americans first, president trump campaign promise. we can do that by passing e-verify, which was eliminated in these awful gop bills. we can repeal the hb2 increase, and also bring back rick and davis. one of the travesties is that they brought in all of these

illegal aliens to rebuild new orleans and set the people, descendents of enslaved africans to come back and rebuild their own economies and their own buildings and houses. of scamminga lot going on and we will not solve this until we passed e-verify, which will make sure that everybody working in this country, in our country is legal to work here. this has been undercutting wages all over these blue-collar service jobs, which have not kept up with inflation. i will -- i do not want to make this an immigration conversation. certainly one aspect, one potential solution to the fact that we do not have folks in right now. there is some kind of consensus that immigration reform would make sense. h2 b visas, and you have mentioned in some instances with agriculture focused instructions, h2 a visas have been access and there

is some support for reform on this is --ams, but when construction needs to be done in the u.s., it needs to be done in the u.s.. ofs is in some sense a type goods producing job, and with manufacturing it can much more easily be outsourced. i think there is an understanding that needs to be solved internally here, whether that is reforming the visa systems to make more sense, that is certainly something that has is onescussed, but that of several possible solutions and it does seem with the folks that i am talking to there is quite a bit of focus on young adults and even folks who are a little older providing training programs, that they might be able to switch careers into this if this is something that might make sense to them. host: we are talking with andrew soergel, a senior reporter with who news & world report,

wrote the article "where are all the builders? " david in california, you are an electrician. good morning. caller: good morning. i think there is a lot of excuses and finger-pointing that there is no work. work out here.f we are with the international guild of electrical workers and we are in demand of apprentices, electricians, and if someone wants to learn the trade and work, the hardest part for most people is to go out there and apply and look for the job. all they have to do is have an education and pass a drug screen test, and there is plenty of work for everybody if they want to go ahead and actually do work. guest: there certainly is, and i think that is a narrative that you are hearing across the country. there are a lot of folks who are saying again, i think we get idea that you don't

necessarily need a four-year degree to be successful in this economy. this is the kind of thing, there are apprenticeships and skills training programs where you can make a very comfortable living. i will tell you a story. one of my contacts has a client whose son came out of high school, went into a training/apprenticeship program, and the kid's 25 years old right now, a foreman, and is making $75,000 a year. that is not what i was making at that age. college education is absolutely right for some folks, and trade is absolutely right for some folks. i think there is a better understanding now, and a push to get a better understanding out there now that there is no one-size-fits-all to what makes a successful american. host: is there a congressional solution to any of this? it is difficult.

there have been talks about legislation, and it has more, but the state and local level. scott walker --, up at the state at the state and local level. that walker passed a bill limited the amount of apprentices to supervisors 1-1. so that means you would not have a bunch of supervisors supervising one apprentice. sense, it is a more complicated industry and manufacturing, because of the outsourcing and the technological advancement we have seen. instruction is a good producing job that frankly has not been as susceptible to the automation wiping out jobs as we have seen in other goods producing industries. there certainly has been more on the ground in states and local governments, congress does not seem to have picked this up yet as something we need to push forward. maybe they will one day, but that has not been the discussion to this point. host: matthew in new jersey,

good morning. caller: thank you, good morning, gentlemen. is 100% right. he said it twice that business is booming right now. unfortunately, we would not know it if we listened to the fake news media. booming and the economy are booming because president trump has reduced unnecessary,d unfriendly business regulations of the last administration, and most people -- most people in this country and everywhere want a job, a good economy, lower themselvessafety for and their families. this is common sense. this is why the state of california, run by mr. jerry brown and the democrats, are losing people left and right. they are leaving that state because of high taxes and high

crime. god bless america, gentlemen. america?ll, god bless i think there are some interesting points there. in the folks i have been talking with, certainly yes, unemployment is down, business is booming, there is no debating that. this is something that has been growing for several years now. i have not spoken to anyone directly who has said this tax bill and certain policy has pushed this forward. it seems to me more of a trend that has gone on. if that is the case for certain folks that have benefited, that is great. the talk i am hearing is that this has been a long time coming , that again, we are in the midst of the second longest economic recovery this country are at, -- has seen, we a place for construction should and is booming. kevin from pittsburgh.

you work in construction. good morning. kevin, are you there? caller: hello? host: we can hear you. good morning, what is your question? say -- i was wanting to good morning, how are you doing? host: could you turn the television down? it is making it hard for us to hear you. caller: young men and even older men, but [inaudible] let's go to natalie, in chandler, arizona. caller: hi, i just wanted to let you know that here they also have that program. i have been directing my son towards that vocation, and he was really, really good. i did notice while he was in there, there is a behavior component unfortunately, because unfortunately, our young men are

a little bit [inaudible] and some of that rowdiness, he did encounter some things while he was attempting to go into those. i just want to let you know it is a very vital program, and i am very proud of our men in this country. i'm very proud that everyone at this time is standing up and giving everyone, every creed and caller a chance to go into this. color, acreed and chance to go into this. i did see the rebuilding of katrina, i do see the boom that arizona is growing by leaps and bounds, and many states are. it is very encouraging to see, no matter who is in the white inse, no matter who is forcing us or how we are talking, and i just wanted to say that i hope we get better. i think that we really are a

bully society, and i hope we get better in the way we choose to treat each other and talk to each other on jobs and in relation to each other just period. much for allowing me to make my comment. the program is absolutely wonderful, and i was able to really redirect my son after we .ried in another vocation he is a big guy, he is very skilled with his hands, and that is all i wanted to say. i just want to say we choose not to be a bully society anymore, and thank you for letting me make a comment. retiredd in oregon, a construction worker. how are you? good morning. i wanted to say ima member of the local 290 in oregon, southwest washington.

i'm a licensed journeyman mymber, still have all documents. i have been gone out of the traits now for three years. i was able to leave and had enough time behind me the day i turned 56. the trades are absolutely the of what any young man that has any kind of skill set at all. to anr had to talk employer about what i am going to get paid to day. today. had -- paid i never had to knock on a door to get a dispatch to go to a contractor. we are absolutely the top drawer of the mechanical industry. our programs at a minimum our --e years -- our five years are five years, you come out of a training center, which is accredited, and it will be

the equivalent of an associates for one person, male or female. this is one trade where females and males are paid exactly the same, where a woman is not making $.70 on the dollar. , andis 100% for the sexes i really appreciate that. i worked with some really fine women on some really complex task, and they were absolutely up to task. i think that with 100% certainty if we would have vocational training in the high schools as a starting point, that would be the starting point for every young person in the country. however, that is not what goes on. thank you. host: andrew, how does the construction industry compete with college and the military for these high school mines? -- minds? guest: that has been the million-dollar question for some time now, and there was a period

they were not keeping up as well as they could have. i think you definitely saw during the great recession and certainly in the 1990's and 2000, there was an idea about let's go off to college, get a safe job, and what seems to be in all of that is in many parts of the country, this is a relatively safe job. there is quite a bit of demand here. i think now there is a much greater focus on getting these in all of that is in manyshop programs, and the callr mentioned really getting into the schools, which for a while those have been eroded. there now seems to be funding from the private and the public sector to expose kids to this at a younger age. ,ost: robert from garland texas, in the construction industry. caller: yes i am, thank you for taking my call. you give a lot of statistics, and andrew, i do not know what that guy, where he lives, making $75,000 a year, probably up in

the states where they are unionized. noe in texas, there is union. the union companies do not even bid jobs anymore because the open jobs can outbid them. i do not know anybody who makes that kind of money. it is very hard to get a job now because of the immigrants that come into the country, because i go out on the job and i might be the only white guy out there. there are maybe two or three. , maybe 30in the trade years ago. three -- $34 and hour. up with thekeep rest of the economy, because i am making $40 an hour now. the company does not keep up with that. they know we are a society that

wants to make money and all the guys, all the companies that do construction work and own the companies, they are the ones that make the money. it just has not kept up with it. i love being in the trade, but i am on the job and i go into a place where there are people i want to use the crib or next and get through -- crimper next and get through. i go back in, 30 minutes, where per at?crim i told you i needed it next. mey will undercut me to make look bad, and the people in mexico, they do not even need to get over here and make applications. come on over, i got you a job. that is all i have to say.

the statesliving in that unionized, maybe you can make $75,000 a year, but then you need to keep up with the economy there. in texas, it does not work that way. i used to ride to work in cars with guys, we would all get together, it is not like that anymore. unfortunately, we are just to spread out. spread out, but when you can get your guys all out there, it is easy. they can all pitch in on the gas and whatever. and from garland to fort worth -- do you how far away garland's is from ft. worth? it is about an hour and a half drive. how bad does that cut into my pay? pretty bad. and look how much the gas has gone up. andrew, how much do

construction salaries vary from state to state? there is a lot of variation in both what the salary is and what the job market look like. the top 10% of construction workers are bringing in $63,000. so this is a foreman, specifically for the folks on the site, about $63,000 annually , the top 10%. but you have a pretty large variation from community to community, state to state. the caller made some good points about what is happening in texas, and it might not be what is happening in the next of dust the rest of the country. i look, vermont, dakota, they have construction employment rates below 3% and in some cases to present. contrast that with alaska, mississippi, arkansas, those unemployment rates are much higher than the national average. so it really does very. -- vary. a lot of these are national

statistics. by and large, what i am talking about is what i have been hearing across the country, but things are different state to state. host: jean from orlando, florida. caller: good morning. i would like to give some information about how this could be corrected as far as the illegals and the jobs. i have lived in florida for 43 years and i can tell you, i have had one lawn person, never a cleaner, nothing that has ever been legal. they work they cash -- for cash only, and our regular people cannot compete with it because if you are incorporated and paying federal taxes, social and paying your occupational tax, you cannot afford to work for what they do. but the main thing i want to say is -- this is really important and i do not hear anyone talking about it, every time you live in illegal a job,

you are putting some woman or man on welfare that is costing you $30,000 or $40,000 a year. employer is not paying social security or taxes, and the illegal is not either, and they are sending their money back to mexico. you have billions of dollars going back that way, but our social security is going broke. we are $21 trillion in debt, and no one seems to care. we need to get e-verify enforced, and any employer that hires them will be rated, go to jail, and pay a hefty fine. this could be put into a separate account to where it pays for the wall and later to maintain a wall. did thethe only way to business is down. they and the illegals are making out, and legalized citizens are hurting. toil we get our congressmen

wake up our citizens, thinking about what these illegals are quit trying to get them here when they are taking the country down. i think this is an important point to make and i think it is one of the reasons we are where we are today in this shortage. immigration and illegal immigration, immigration in general to the united states has gone down over the past two presidential elections. ever since the great recession, we have hit a lull. i understand the points you are making, but a part of the reason we do have a shortage and certainly a lot of this is internal, but we are having fewer undocumented or documented folks come over and work in the united states then was the case 10 or 20 years ago. again, this immigration piece is one of several potential solutions that have been offered here. i have not spoken with anyone

who is gung ho about the 100% way to fix the shortage, fix the industry is to just bring in a lot of folks from all over the world. this seems to be a problem that is going to require a piecemeal solution, that will require a little bit of alteration, whether that is the immigration landscape, the young folks coming up, but i cannot stress enough, immigration is one aspect of a much larger problem here. host: thank you to andrew tergel, >> c-span's washington journal. news and policy issues that impact you. iehme eger and jamie

discussed news of the day. watch -- be sure to watch washington journal. during the discussion. -- join the discussion. >> the white house did not release a presidential weekly address. the democratic address, from representative matt cartwright of pennsylvania, deals with the onent supreme court decision fees charged by public-sector unions. congressman matt cartwright. it was with regret that i read the decision