Here are some promising careers for young people with a technological bent to consider: computer engineering, software design, heavy construction.þþHeavy construction? Yes — and it may hold the most opportunity of all, especially in the New York City area.þþFirst, the job outlook. While other industries grapple with layoffs, construction, one the nation's largest industries, is experiencing a chronic labor shortage. ÿAnd it is getting worse,ÿ said Pat Monroe, a spokeswoman for the Association of Equipment Manufacturers in Milwaukee. ÿAs older people retire, there are not enough people to replace them.ÿþþAnalysts say the national shortage of 250,000 skilled trade workers will worsen, with a projected 2.4 million unfilled jobs by 2010, including foremen, engineers and blue-collar workers. The problem could grow acute in New York City, which is in the midst of a construction boom that may intensify in the aftermath of Sept. 11.þþÿYou may not see the effect in the next six months,ÿ said Francis X. McArdle, managing director of the General Contractors Association of New York. ÿBut I predict a lot more recruitment in the next two to three years.ÿ Demand will be so strong that many workers will be pushed to work six- or seven-day weeks, he predicts.þþNow for the technological part.þþUnbeknownst to many, an array of high-technology tools have made their way onto construction sites. The cabs of giant construction cranes that tower as high as 600 feet rival the cockpits of jets for sheer gadgetry, with computer screens, software programs and control panels for calculating safe loads and distances. On bulldozers, high-technology electronics devices control blade operations, engine speed and emissions as they push dirt and gravel. þþÿTrenchless technologyÿ allows trenchers to bore underground ditches for pipes and cables with computer-aided direction, without ground-level digging. Robotic compactors compress dirt in tunnels while the workers look on; special cameras, called pigs, run through service lines to inspect for potential cracks or clogs.þþThen there are the laser scanners for measuring raw materials, the laser transmitters for positioning steel beams and the electronic and radar devices that beam X-rays underground to check piping layouts.þþFor the professionals who oversee the projects, things are even more complicated. Computer-aided design technology has replaced pen and pencil for architects. Global-positioning systems using high-orbiting satellites allow them to keep track of heavy equipment. On-site digital cameras transmit images by e-mail to their offices, Web sites give a blow-by-blow display of construction progress and computers plot the logistics of moving workers and materials into and off the site.þþAnd that is just a partial list.þþFor those who master the technology, the money can be pretty good. Work is frequently seasonal and cyclical, but nationally, the minimum skilled workers make is about $45,000 a year, according to industry experts. In the New York metropolitan region, which is heavily unionized and where the prevailing wages reflect the cost of living, highly skilled trade workers can make over $90,000 a year with about 10 hours of overtime a week, according to John Clearwater, a professional engineer and managing director of the Construction Industry Advancement Program of New Jersey. Project managers make salaries in the $100,000 range and project engineers around $70,000, he said.þþSo why aren't young people flocking to the profession? The construction industry thinks that it suffers from a reputation it doesn't deserve. Dennis S. Day, a spokesman for the Associated General Contractors, a trade group in Alexandria, Va., says the public often lumps a construction worker in the same category as ÿa used-car salesman or a rodeo hand.ÿþþJoseph Zipfel is proof that that is a misperception. Mr. Zipfel started off by laying pipes and worked his way up to foreman, then to shop steward and then to supervisor. Currently, he is coordinator for the New Jersey Construction Craft Laborers' Apprenticeship Program. He laments that parents, high school teachers and even counselors often discourage young people from the trade.þþÿA lot of them think, `You don't want Johnny to be a ditch digger,' ÿ he said. ÿWell, Johnny the ditch digger can make $60,000 a year, with benefits.ÿþþWhen he was hired 30 years ago, Mr. Zipfel says, he was told by a foreman, ÿI can tell from the neck down, you'll be a good construction worker.ÿ Now, he says, ÿwe are looking from the neck up.ÿ Laptops, he says, are just as likely to be found in pickup trucks as in the office.þþSome recent entrants to the labor market are figuring out the advantages to wearing hard hats. Sharvell Johnson, a 22-year-old Vineland, N.J., resident, says he left an early career as a service technician in telecommunications because the work was unsteady and took a job working in highway construction. With six hours of overtime in a recent week, his gross pay was about $1,300, twice what he used to make. ÿI'm getting more money than friends with college degrees,ÿ Mr. Johnson said. ÿThey are a little jealous.ÿþþDon Redfield, a 50-year-old construction worker who lives in Carneys Point, N.J., gives this example of new technology in the workplace: a rotating laser level, which throws a beam in a circle and ÿgives us a grade instantly,ÿ has replaced the old string and stakes, cutting work time by 75 percent.þþFor those who decide on a construction career, the training can be rigorous. Martin T. Daly, director of the Labor Technical College of the New York City District Council of Carpenters, said that in the carpentry profession alone, the number of advanced courses on mostly technological topics has quadrupled in five years, to 44. And as more high-technology devices come to market, the number of certifications required by government agencies and sometimes by manufacturers has ballooned in 12 years from just one to 20.þþTo lure more high-technology talent, the industry has begun a campaign to polish its image, with everything from coloring books for grade schools to scholarships for college students. Trade groups have set up Web sites and career fairs.þþAnd the industry has made some surprising converts. Diana Goffredo, a 26-year-old resident of Turnersville, N.J., explored a career as a travel agent, an accountant and a zookeeper before donning a hard hat as a member of operating engineers Local 825. Today, she operates bulldozers and backhoes for the R. E. Pierson Construction Company of Woodstown, N.J., and says nothing beats seeing her finished handiwork.þþÿI paved that road; I helped make that movie theater,ÿ Ms. Goffredo said. ÿYou look at that when it's done and say, `Wow!' ÿþ þþ þ
