Research on Preservation and Restoration Building Trades Reveals Worker Shortages in the Northeast, Highlights Opportunities for Workforce Development
The Preservation League of New York State, along with the Preservation Trust of Vermont, New Hampshire Preservation Alliance, and Maine Preservation, joins forces with University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension to identify ways to expand education, recruitment, and retention in the preservation trades.
“Historic buildings of all kinds – from modest homes to ornate municipal buildings – rely on the specialized skill of preservation tradespeople,” said Jay DiLorenzo, President of the Preservation League of NYS. “There is so much opportunity to expand the workforce within this field, providing an enriching career path to individuals who will steward our historic resources into the future. We look forward to working collaboratively with our fellow statewide colleagues and other local partners to promote the preservation trades and support its workforce.”
Albany, NY, 3/28/23 — Across the Northeast, a growing number of older homes and historic community landmarks are in dire need of maintenance and repair or rehabilitation and can’t get it. The craftspeople who have specialized knowledge in preservation and restoration techniques and an in-depth understanding of how to work with traditional materials are dwindling. A new research report documents a growing crisis in the building trades and identifies promising trends and concepts to help reverse the decline.
Understanding and Advancing the Preservation Trades provides an overview of the current status of these professions in the Northeast, and offers a wealth of insights from tradespeople, educators, workforce development professionals, and preservation specialists. Together, these perspectives inform a variety of recommended actions suitable for individual practitioners, businesses, nonprofits, training programs, and other stakeholders who aim to strengthen the preservation trades workforce. The report is available online here.
The report was prepared by the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension for the Northeast Regional Initiative for the Preservation Trades, a collaboration of four statewide historic preservation nonprofit organizations. The New Hampshire Preservation Alliance, Preservation Trust of Vermont, Maine Preservation, and the Preservation League of NYS sponsored the study and are committed to working with others to find solutions.
Key findings of the study’s workforce survey include:
There are severe workforce shortages in plastering, masonry, carpentry, materials conservation, decorative finishes, windows, and iron work.
More than one third of survey respondents reported that their clients must wait a year or more for their services.
75% of respondents believe the demand for preservation trades is growing.
88% of respondents feel that training programs could play a greater role in recruitment and workforce development.
93% of survey respondents agree that young people lack knowledge about career possibilities in preservation trades.
The survey also found that these careers can be highly rewarding: 96% of tradespeople who responded to the workforce survey reported satisfaction in their careers. Interviews with these professionals suggest that they are increasingly able to “name their price” due to high demand.
Several factors account for these workforce shortages. The current workforce is aging and retiring, and new people are not coming to replace them. Opportunities for youth to participate in “shop” classes during their schooling are diminishing. As a result, many young people lack the basic knowledge that could set them up to be interested and successful in these careers. The study found that in recent years, youth have been encouraged to attend four-year colleges, and trade career choices have commonly been stigmatized or less favored. Furthermore, students who do participate in trades education, such as through Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs, are often directed toward new construction without learning about the restoration of older structures.
Yet there are positive signs. Trades are increasingly valued for the skills they require, and traditionally under-represented groups like women are more readily welcomed into the ranks. Preservation trades professionals note that a variety of educational pathways, including college education, trade schools, and apprenticeships, can lead to successful preservation trades careers. These jobs can be particularly engaging due to their creative qualities and connections to academic disciplines like history, engineering, chemistry, and art. Ample mentorship and access to hands-on, field-based learning experiences are critical elements of trainee development.
Understanding how to build upon the acknowledged strengths of these career paths and foster a robust future workforce are key concerns of the League and its colleagues in NH, VT, and ME. These organizations plan to work collaboratively to develop action plans, engage new business and educational partners, and build awareness and enthusiasm for these notably creative, highly-rewarding, hands-on career paths. Several promising partnerships are already underway, such as apprenticeship and fellowship programs for youth and new professionals.
Funders of the report include the Moe Family Fund for Statewide and Local Partners through the National Trust for Historic Preservation and The 1772 Foundation.
Reactions to the study and work in the field:
Arron Sturgis, owner of Preservation Timber Framing Inc. and a board member of the New Hampshire Preservation Alliance and Maine Preservation, is one tradesperson who has been actively engaged with preservation organizations to help expand the workforce. Sturgis believes that this recent research “provides a basis for action that will create really good jobs and much needed aid to homeowners and historic commercial ventures.”
Jennifer Goodman, Executive Director of New Hampshire Preservation Alliance, is looking forward to working with partners to put this research into action. "Tradespeople's reports of high job satisfaction, positive trends like the trades becoming more welcoming to women, and strong examples of existing informal and formal mentorships and training that could grow make addressing this huge challenge feel more personal and doable," said Goodman.
Long-time old barn expert Ian Blackman offers these sentiments of why he’s worked in the field: “I love preservation work because of the variety of the skills you need to do the job, and because each project brings new challenges. When you are working on a barn that was built in the 1700s, you are repairing timbers from trees that were saplings in the 1500s. The connection to the landscape and the people that worked it is very rewarding.”
Contacts:
Katy Peace, Director of Communications, Preservation League of NYS, kpeace@preservenys.org
Dr. Jada Lindblom, UNH Cooperative Extension Research Team, jada.lindblom@unh.edu
About the Northeast Regional Initiative for the Preservation Trades
This four-state research collaboration aims to develop recommendations for how statewide preservation nonprofit organizations in New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine can advance the training and placement of historic preservation tradespeople (such as carpenters, masons, and other workers with traditional skills) and create a more robust, diverse, and sustainable workforce.
The Northeast region is currently experiencing a workforce shortage of preservation tradespeople, limiting means for historic buildings – whether notable or “everyday” – to be maintained, improved, and adapted to current needs. This problem has been exacerbated by a variety of factors: the increasing number of buildings at a critical age for repairs, the widespread retirement of existing tradespeople, and rural in-migration trends across the Northeast region increasing labor demand. Historic preservation not only contributes to a local sense of place and connections to heritage, but it can also be an important environmental sustainability strategy toward climate change mitigation and resource conservation. For more information about the initiative, please visit www.preservenys.org/preservation-trades.