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December 2022 #14281 Page #98
From the Road... Lessons From the Great Recession? By Thomas McAnally President TheJobLine.com
I
remember the Great Recession and how many displaced candidates we had. Some stayed active but many went their way, finding new industries and career paths. From where I sat, it was 5 years of trying to find jobs for folks, knowing it was like finding a needle in a haystack. Single Family was practically dead, but Multifamily was doing well so I focused our efforts there. It seems like history is repeating itself, but hopefully not to the extent it did back then. Multifamily looks strong and Single Family is fading. After the Great Recession, I was amazed how quickly employers rehired experienced designers. Although many had found work in other fields during the recession, their value was in their abilities as Senior Truss Designers so back they came. I placed more designers in 2012 than in the 5 previous years combined, but what struck me most was the average years of experience that truss designers had. As part of our Truss Design Skills Evaluation, designers are asked to list their years of experience in truss design, wall panel design, and EWP design. Then, their numbers are compared to the averages of all of the designers we have tested over the years. Well, in 2012, those numbers took a big jump! What I saw was a 4–5-year jump in the averages. While younger designers left the industry, older more-seasoned designers stayed. The result was scores went up, but so did age. We went from an average of 6–8 years to 12+ years of experience. When the recession ended and hiring came back strong, it was clear that we were going to have a shortage of Basic and Intermediate designers. Design Managers told me that they could only afford so many Senior Designers in their department. They had to balance high earners with lower experienced designers who could be productive on easier work. I can’t count the number of times I heard “Where are the young designers?” The answer was complicated, because the blame lay at the feet of the questioners. During the recession, they retained the best people they could, usually senior designers. When Basic and Intermediate level designers disappeared, they couldn’t fathom why I couldn’t snap my fingers and have a room full of folks ready to get back to work. To complicate matters, advancement for Senior Designers during the recession came from the Multifamily sector. While Single Family was getting back on its feet, I was still placing Senior Designers into Multifamily jobs, further depleting the designer pool for Single Family. What I should have said, and wanted to say more than once, is “you didn’t create any designers for 5 years, so where are they going to come from?” Continued next page
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