Scott Littlehale
@slittlehale
Build Housing-Protect All Workers-Organize Construction labor union research analyst and campaigner since 2003. Research finds that union membership, collective bargaining & quality jobs are good for people and society, actually. Now covering CA, OR, & WA!
these kind of clouds (monsoon-related?) in Nor Cal are kind of a treat
The household survey is estimate of construction unemployed and the unemployment rate is here 👇
Reminiscing about the "Spirit of (19)'76", I recall being let down by my visit to see the Freedom Train when it stopped in SF. Does anyone on here have a similar memory of wanting it to be good, but thinking the material they had on board just wasn't compelling (at least not to a preteen)
Referring to this, from the National Mall mock-up of Trump's arch 🙃
A line from Lou Reed's Dirty Blvd comes to mind, with an update. This Court, man, this Court ... www.politico.com/news/2026/06...
High employee turnover hurts productivity, adds costs, & delays completion. Framing, drywall, siding, & "other" structural contractors (pretty critical for housing production!) rank >= 90th percentile. Status quo residential construction working conditions HURT home building capacity!
p.s. The prior stats were nationwide, but here is one more California-specific stat: The construction industry accounts for more uninsured men without bachelor's degrees than any other major sector. It is tied with the Entertainment sector (incl. restaurants & bars), for the highest uninsured %.
If a party institutions were truly functional, then the aggregation of "Other candidates" (polling fourth or worse) would not often be placing 2nd in Counties' early tabulations. (1st in 3 counties) Instant runoff would be a hack around this kind of dysfunction, but the dysfunction would still exist
The U.S. Economic Census of Construction indicates construction workers' share of Value Added has shrunk ∴ contractors' Gross Operating Surplus has grown (see 👇) This supports a #Monopsony story. Government can elevate wage standards (Dube 2026), thereby reducing turnover, ↗️productivity, ↘️profits.
1) An Econ 101 labor market is functioning, and U.S. carpenters are ✴️NOT in short supply relative to demand.✴️ OR 2) There is a shortage, but power &/or "frictions" in the market for carpenters exert suppressing forces against carpenters' wages, negatively impacting industry productive capacity. 2/3
Western coastal Metro areas tend to NOT fit the headline: Subsidized units generally are not 'competing' (within 10%) with market-rate units in CA; a 'moderate' % of competition in Seattle and Portland. (Source is a 2025 Yardi Matrix study cited in the Propublica piece)
A Carpenters Union-signatory GC comprised the "build" half of the design-build team that brought in an SF project at a significantly lower cost per unit. Recycling designs, using prefabricated components, and having a simpler capital stack credited with saving $. www.sfchronicle.com/realestate/a...
deleted this post because I'm a dumbass and grabbed the screenshot of the wrong CA-1 primary. the bad post was for the district's Special Election, with boundaries as they stood prior to the voters' decision to redraw mid-decade.
We probably have days before we'll know who the top 2 for Governor in the CA general election will be, so here's 2 x-tabs from UCB IGS' late May poll that gave me pause. Similar to the nation, CA Dem candidates fare poorly with voters with less formal education. And union HHs don't matter.
Can someone please tell the geniuses at ICE about the dissolution of the Soviet Union?
I need to drill down to see if anything odd is up with the ACS 2024 5-year sample (income vars for the 2010, are inflation-adjusted into 2024 current $). Nonetheless, controlling for spousal employment, it appears that construction worker households get screwed on household income. 2/3
The typical household that depends on Construction trades work for income has seen those incomes diminish relative to the "typical" non-construction trades household. Across states, some differences, but all ↘️ (These pictures took me way too long to successfully code. Time to brush up on Stata!)
here's another doozy a little further into the article: A contractor lost a worker "willing to put in long hours." Question: Does he pay the LEGALLY REQUIRED 150% premium for hours in excess of 48 hours (or 45 hrs*)?? *I found conflicting sources about MN's OT threshold # of construction hours)