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Get started in the construction industry

Construction job opportunities are ripe for military men and women such as retired sailors Ken Dianovich and Paul Beck, say officials with the National Association of Home Builders and its work force development arm, the National Home Builders Institute.

“The construction trades are wide open to people who want to work,” said Dennis Torbett, the institute’s vice president of work force training and employment. “Enrollments in high school vocational schools have diminished, and the trend over the next 10 to 15 years is toward skilled labor shortages.”

With news of new-home growth falling in places such as the Northeast and upper Midwest, you might expect construction job growth to follow suit.

Not so, said Bernard Markstein, director of forecasting for the National Association of Home Builders. There is still a lot of commercial and noncommercial work for construction workers, including plumbers and electricians.

“We’re still working through the over-building of 2004, 2005 and some of 2006. But we expect the home-building industry to stabilize, even by this summer,” Markstein said. “There are even pockets, especially in nonresidential projects, where we are seeing robust growth in new construction,” he continued, “so employment in construction has not fallen as you might expect.”

Starting out

Retired Navy Lt. Cmdr. Ken Dianovich is a low-voltage electronics technician working on an apprenticeship at Construction Electronics in Poway, Calif., near San Diego. He worked in Navy aviation electronics and aviation maintenance for more than 21 years.

Dianovich credits the skills he gained as an enlisted sailor and later as an officer with giving him an edge in completing his civilian apprenticeship.

“The apprenticeship program is a breeze,” Dianovich said. “I learned all of the basic electronics skills in the Navy, and then [Navy initial job training] even better prepared me for work as an electrician,” he said.

Dianovich retired in 2002, took some time off, then joined the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 569 in San Diego in March 2004. He has one year left of a four-year apprenticeship.

“Since I worked in a management position as an officer in the Navy, I hadn’t really worked hands-on with electronics for a while, so I chose to apply for the apprentice program with Construction Electronics Inc.,” Dianovich said. “I really wanted to learn all that I could from the start.”

Dianovich will become a journeyman in electronics once his apprenticeship is complete. Journeymen can become foremen or take on other supervisory roles.

“Some guys prefer the hands-on work in construction and choose to stay journeyman rather than becoming a foreman,” Dianovich said.

Dianovich found his apprenticeship through the Helmets to Hardhats program, which puts former military construction workers in touch with local construction unions. It’s a good start for those who may not be sure where to begin looking for jobs in construction.

“If someone is in the Army, Navy, Air Force or Marine Corps working in construction, we can get them together with the civilian trades, who may offer them an apprenticeship,” Helmets to Hardhats Executive Director Darrell Roberts said.

Dianovich can attest to Helmets to Hardhats’ effectiveness.

California labor union representatives contacted Dianovich after he signed up on the Helmets to Hardhats Web site, he said.

First was a San Diego carpenters’ union.

“I worked as a card-carrying carpenter for three months,” he said. “Then I got a call from an electricians’ union about an apprenticeship program.”

His own boss

Navy construction battalion to civilian builder was a natural transition for Paul Beck, who retired from the Navy as a chief builder in August.

“The crazy thing is that Seabees do a lot more labor than typical construction workers,” Beck said. “[Seabees are] expected to do framing, drywall, finishing, painting, ... whereas in the civilian trades, everyone specializes in one job. But Seabee training makes you a very versatile construction worker. You get a lot of hands-on experience.”

Beck was drawn to construction even before he joined the Navy.

“I came into the Navy late, at the age of 26. At that time, I was trying to break into construction in Pittsburgh, but a lot of jobs were unionized, and unless you knew someone in the trades, it was difficult to get started.”

After 20 years in the Navy, Beck is using his military skills to start a construction business in Virginia’s Tidewater area.

Now running his own construction firm, Beck encourages other transitioning service members to consider the building trades.

“Everyone is looking for skilled tradesmen,” Beck said. “We really do need young people in the trades.”

Military edge

Veterans with enough hours in their military construction specialties can be hired directly as journeymen after retiring from the military — no apprenticeship required.

Because the military offers practical experience in all types of construction work, people who served in military construction are a commodity in the civilian industry, said Capt. Eduard Gonzalez, assistant chief of staff for training at the 1st Naval Construction Battalion in Little Creek, Va.

“A Seabee who spends four years in the military can get hired as an apprentice,” Gonzalez said. “Utilitiesmen, plumbers, boiler mechanics, [heating, ventilation and air conditioner], and control system mechanics and water distribution system technicians are all likely to enter the civilian construction trades as apprentices,” he said. “Construction mechanics who have worked on equipment with several years of experience, for example, can compete for industry-level jobs.”

Construction salaries

The following are 20 current wage estimates from the U.S. Department of Labor, as of May 2005:

Construction laborers: $29,050

Highway maintenance workers: $30,950

Painters: $33,450

Roofers: $33,570

Insulators (floor, ceiling, wall): $34,510

Cement masons: $34,610

Hazardous materials removal workers: $37,240

Carpenters: $38,720

Operating engineers: $39,210

Sheet metal workers: $39,570

Insulators (mechanical): $39,840

Explosives workers, ordnance handlers: $40,210

Bricklayers: $42,850

Iron and steelworkers: $43,540

Plumbers and pipefitters: $44,850

Electrical workers: $45,630

Construction and building inspectors: $46,830

Boilermakers: $49,130

Supervisors/managers of construction: $55,720

Elevator installers and repairers: $58,500

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

On the Web

Try the following Web sites to learn more about the civilian construction industry:

• Helmets to Hardhats

• International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers

• National Association of Home Builders

• Home Builders Institute

• Construction Industry Institute, University of Texas at Austin