Speaker 1: Well, August was a good month for the construction industry. It added 34,000 jobs and saw unemployment fall to a monthly record low of 3.2%. Of course, things can always be better, and that's the aim of our next guest. Joining us now, Maria Davidson, CEO of Kojo. Thanks so much for being here, Maria. Appreciate it. Thank you for having me. So, let's start with what Kojo does to sort of situate you in the construction industry so people understand where you're coming from. You guys are a platform to help construction firms sort of manage supply chains, et cetera. Can you talk us through a little bit?

Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely. So, Kojo is the largest materials management platform in the U.S., we're a software company that helps more than 500 of the largest trade contractors process more than $3 billion a year of materials and make sure that they get them at the best price, delivered exactly when they need them, and know where all their materials are at any given moment.

Speaker 1: So, you have a good handle on what is happening in the industry, in other words. And so, when we talk about what's going on on the jobs front in the construction industry, demand is not the problem, from what I understand. It's the supply of workers, and specifically skilled workers who are able to do those jobs. How has that changed over, say, the past year? What have you been seeing?

Speaker 2: Well, right now, construction backlogs are actually at all-time highs. So, you're exactly right, demand is not the problem. The problem is that there are 600,000 construction workers that are currently missing from the industry. If you look at just electrical construction, we're going to need a million more workers to keep up with all of the demand over the next 10 years. And so, what's currently happening is we have a huge labor shortage. A lot of the contractors across the country can't actually take on jobs that they're being offered because they can't find the workers to actually fulfill those jobs. And as a result, that's a problem that we've seen be extremely top of mind for people.

Speaker 1: Why is this happening? Is it because people are not going into construction? Is it because people who were in construction have migrated to other industries?

Speaker 2: What's going on? Well, there are a few things. One is that construction is not as exciting an industry for a lot of young people who see construction as an industry that's very manual, that has an embrace technology, and that honestly is outdated. Also, if you look at construction as a whole, only 11% of the workforce is female. And if you look at specifically the trades, so companies like the electrical, the mechanical, the concrete companies, only 4% of the workforce is female. And so, I think construction specifically struggles with hiring a more diverse workforce. And the third piece of this is that without embracing technology, it's very hard for workers who are currently in the field to become more and more productive at the rate we need, given how much work there is with manufacturing, with data centers, with improvements in infrastructure that we're building.

Speaker 1: So, what kind of, I mean, technology is where you come into the equation, obviously. But when we're talking about stuff that is manual work, I mean, there's only so much that technology can replace there. So, where are those opportunities, though?

Speaker 2: A lot of the opportunities come with being very well planned. So, knowing exactly what you need to order and knowing exactly what labor is needed to be scheduled and when. And for us, that's where we come in with helping people know that they've compared prices across materials, that they know that they're getting the best possible bid, that they can track in real time how they're doing compared to estimates. And that helps you avoid any of these last-minute delays that can throw an entire project off. Because if you miss something like a concrete pour, it might be another three months before you can reschedule the next one.

Speaker 1: Something else I'm interested in, to go back to the idea that it is not a very diverse profession. When you're talking about commercial projects in particular that are government-funded, some of those government contracts have certain requirements about what diversity the contractors need to have. Correct? So, has that motivated the industry at all to try to bring in more diverse workers?

Speaker 2: I think it definitely has. Last month was actually the first month where there were more than a million women in construction in the U.S., which is a huge accomplishment. But those types of projects are only a fraction of the total projects that exist. And especially when we look across the range of jobs that exist within construction companies, we're seeing that jobs in the field or in project management are still really underrepresented by women compared to jobs, for example, in office work or in management.

Speaker 1: How do you think that gets changed?

Speaker 2: Or does it? Well, I think number one is, we've got to invest in making the workplace more appealing to women. And so that starts with offering policies like better childcare or more support. I also think it starts truly at high school with investing more in vocational training and doing things like career fairs, where companies can come and present to high school students about the benefits of a career in construction. Because a fact that's not talked about is that in construction, the gender wage parity is actually one of the best in the U.S., and it is an extremely stable career to go into. And you get paid a decent amount in a lot of these skilled trades as well. Oh, you absolutely do, especially now that the shortage has meant that companies are really working the hardest that we've seen to recruit and retain the best talent that they can find.

Speaker 1: Maria, thanks for coming in. Really appreciate it. Thank you for having me. Thank you.