Your Economy (No Politics)

[cliffvb]

It could well be that the reason that wages aren't rising in the building trades despite a labor shortage is that the builders simply aren't willing to pay higher wages. If they did, they would quickly find that their order backlog would turn into future losses for them. Those orders almost always have fixed price contracts in them. Jack up the labor costs to build a home along with the increasing lumber/material costs and they would see their profits melt away.

Actually, I think the labor shortage is a blessing in disguise for the builders. It prevents them from ramping up production to very high levels which would inevitably lead to another boom-bust cycle.