Chicago’s June speaker, Ed Sullivan, SVP & Chief Economist of PCA (Portland Construction Association) provided insights into the construction market. Ed kicked off his remarks highlighting that the state of the economy is good. Real GDP Growth is 2.9% (an acceleration of 0.6% from 2017 – one-third from momentum, two-thirds from tax cuts). Sullivan briefly discussed some of Trump’s policy initiatives and closed his comments weighing in on the critical shortage of skilled labor. When the recession hit, 2.9 million workers were laid off (or almost 30% of construction employment – including 500,000 Mexican born workers who returned to Mexico). The long, slow recovery out of the recession has created a ‘skills gap’. Now, as construction demand improves, there is a real deficit of skilled labor while construction spending is on a moderate upswing.