Missouri's contractors contribute significantly to the state's economy, the Associated General Contractors said in a Tuesday morning news conference.
But the industry faces a "shadow on the horizon," AGC President Leonard Toenjes said, because "we are having a heck of a time finding young people to get into our industry," even though many of the jobs make $50,000 or $60,000 a year.
The AGC represents around 500 Missouri commercial construction firms.
"Employment figures show there's over 116,000 people statewide who work in the construction industry," Toenjes said. "Last month, we ranked fourth in the nation in terms of growth of construction jobs."
Construction projects and jobs contributed $11 billion to Missouri's economy last year, he added, and wages were $6.5 billion.
"It's a huge piece of the state's economy that I don't think people think of (because) it's very fragmented," Toenjes said. "We have hundreds of contractors."
There's a variety of jobs in the construction industry, he said from "laborers who help do the trench work and the sewer work to operating engineers who run heavy equipment."
He also cited carpenters, design engineers, finance experts and many others.
"You don't make up 5 percent of the state's GDP (gross domestic product) with just somebody showing up with a shovel," he said. "There's a lot of professionalism - training, skills for anybody who's interested in something where, frankly, you can go home at the end of the day and see what you actually accomplished."
AGC contractors are union and non-union businesses who do large projects, including office buildings, hospitals, hotels and schools as well as transportation jobs.
Toenjes said part of the problem with attracting young people is the hourly wage structure and understanding what the careers are in the industry.
"The four-year, college-bound career has been sold very effectively in this country, and construction careers have not been sold as effectively," he said.
But, he told the News Tribune after the news conference, nearly two-thirds of America's people don't have college degrees.
"It's very difficult to find young people who really consider working with their hands as an honorable career," Toenjes said. "You can't cut-and-paste it into place.
"Concrete still comes in a bucket. You still have to show up and do the work."
Tuesday's Jefferson City event was one of several around the state spotlighting "Build Missouri Week," to recognize the craft workers, the engineers, the contractors. "Everybody who adds to the quality of all life in the state of Missouri," Toenjes said.
The news conference was staged in a corner of the Simonsen parking lot overlooking the new Lafayette Street interchange with the U.S. 50/63 Expressway.
"This is a great example of what our contractors do every day," Toenjes said.
State Transportation Director Patrick McKenna called it an example of the partnership and investment that goes on in transportation throughout the state.
"A lot of people, when they talk about revenue for transportation, it sounds like government spendin," he said. "It's investment."
McKenna said every dollar spent on a Missouri transportation project generates $4 in new economic activity, and transportation improvements create 20 percent job growth in the project area.
Columbia-based Emery Sapp and Sons won the MoDOT contract for the Lafayette Interchange project.
Chip Jones, Sapp's DOT branch manager and chair of the AGC-MO Transportation Committee, said: "There's a lot of people behind the scenes that never get credit for this - especially all of our employee-owners who work out here in the traffic, in the cold, in the heat - all the elements that you have to do for a special project."