Latest news with #JimTobin
Yahoo
28-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
This construction project was on time and on budget. Then came ICE
By Tim Reid MOBILE, Alabama (Reuters) -Under a broiling Alabama sky a frustrated Robby Robertson, a construction site superintendent, surveys an 84,000 square foot, mostly built recreation center close to the Gulf coast port city of Mobile. The site is eerily quiet. Last month, the $20 million project was on track for on-time completion by November 1. Now Robertson says he is looking at a three-week delay after about half of his workers - scared by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid on a job site in Florida 230 miles (370 kilometers) away - have stayed away. Immigration raids on building sites - part of an expanding crackdown by Donald Trump on work sites across the country - are causing major disruptions to the construction industry, according to Reuters interviews. "The threats and the reporting of raids have caused workers to not show up at job sites, just whole crews for fear of a raid," said Jim Tobin, the CEO of the National Association of Home Builders, which has 140,000 members. While immigration enforcement agents have stepped up their raids on other work sites in recent weeks, detaining farmworkers, restaurant staff, meat packers, and day laborers, the construction industry is especially vulnerable to disruptions in the labor supply, according to Reuters interviews and government data. Reuters interviewed 14 people in construction - CEOs, trade association officials and site supervisors - who said the raids are causing project delays and cost overruns and exacerbating existent shortages of skilled labor. They said it was too early to quantify the scale of the damage in terms of lost labor and revenues. Some of the people Reuters spoke to were in Texas and Florida, where there have been several raids. ICE has also been active in California, Illinois, Washington, Louisiana and Massachusetts, construction association officials said. Of the roughly 11 million people in the U.S. illegally, about 1.4 million work in construction, according to the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank - more than any other industry. Construction spending hit a record high in May 2024 but then slid 3.5% through this past May, according to U.S. Census Bureau data, an annual drop rarely seen outside of recessions. The deportation push is beginning to affect public opinion. Trump's public approval rating on immigration fell to 41% in a Reuters/Ipsos poll this month, the lowest since his return to the White House. Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman at the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, said such raids helped combat dangerous activities such as labor trafficking and exploitation. "Worksite enforcement remains a cornerstone of our efforts to protect public safety, national security, and economic stability," she said. COST SPIRALS It is in places like Robertson's construction site that the impact of the raids is most obvious, because of the potential for costs to spiral with lengthening delays. Robertson says the problems started the day after about 100 workers were detained in an immigration raid in Tallahassee, Florida, on May 29. Most of his workforce of more than 100 workers are immigrants from Mexico and Central America and nearly all of them stayed away from work for several days. Seven weeks later just over half of those immigrant workers have trickled back, leaving Robertson significantly short-staffed. The 22-person roofing team is down to 12. The roof, which should have been completed by now, is not finished, exposing parts of the interior to rain at a time of year when thunderstorms are common. Electrical work, plumbing, finishing off the dry wall and installation of sports equipment are all behind schedule. Robertson said his company is facing potentially $84,000 in extra costs for the delays, under a "liquidated damages" clause of $4,000 for every day the project runs beyond its November 1 deadline. "I am a Trump supporter, but I just don't think the raids is the answer," he said. He said the company and its subcontractors already verify that workers are in the country legally through the government's E-Verify program, a widely used online system which checks employment eligibility. Industry officials noted that the E-Verify system is not foolproof, because immigrants can produce fake documents. Robertson said even Hispanic workers who are in the U.S. legally are scared of being detained by ICE, "because of their skin color. They are scared because they look the part." Tim Harrison, whose company is building the recreation center, said he cannot easily replace construction workers born in Mexico and Central America with native-born Americans, because most do not have the skills. Finding replacement workers is especially difficult in Alabama, which has a tight job market, he said. The state has only 3.2% unemployment. "The contractor world is full of Republicans. I'm not anti-ICE. We're supportive of what the president is trying to do. But the reality of it is our industry has to have the Hispanic immigrant-based workers in it," Harrison said. The company CEOs cited a chronic lack of investment in training native-born Americans in construction skills such as plastering, carpentry, roofing and welding. The White House and Labor Department pointed to an executive order signed by Trump in April that aims to support more than a million skilled apprenticeships a year, including the skills needed in construction. "There is no shortage of American minds and hands to grow our labor force, and President Trump's agenda to create jobs for American workers represents this Administration's commitment to capitalizing on that untapped potential while delivering on our mandate to enforce our immigration laws," Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, said. The Labor Department in June created the Office of Immigration Policy, aimed at streamlining temporary work visas for foreign workers. HAZARD PAY For Brent Taylor, who runs a construction company in Tampa, Florida, the impact of the ICE raids has gone beyond filling jobs. It's directly impacting his labor costs. Immigrants count for nearly a quarter of Florida's population. Taylor said he has lost between a third to a half of his subcontracted workers in trades such as roofing, concrete work and dry wall. And his subcontractors are having to pay more to replace them, he said. Some of his subcontracted immigrant workers are demanding extra wages for running the risk of being detained by ICE. That has pushed individual daily labor costs to $400 to $500, up from between $200 and $300 a day. "They're factoring in basically a hazard rate," Taylor said. "And then I'm going to pass it on to my customer, whether it be a homeowner, or a commercial building owner." Building trade associations, together with representatives from the agriculture, hotel, restaurant and other sectors, traveled to Washington this month to lobby officials at the Department of Labor, and the Department of Homeland Security for reform. Most want a process that would grant foreign-born workers in the U.S. who pass background checks temporary legal status to work at construction sites. That is highly unlikely to pass Congress because many Republican lawmakers oppose the idea. Brian Turmail, vice president of public affairs at the Associated General Contractors of America, said the group stressed the harm being caused by the ICE raids at its meetings with DHS and Labor officials. They urged the Trump administration to focus on people in the U.S. illegally who have criminal records, and find ways to allow others to work. "For 40 years, this country has done little to encourage or prepare American workers for careers in fields like construction," Turmail said. He said the officials listened, but the delegation left with the impression that the Trump administration believes workers in the country illegally can be replaced with lower-income Americans who are now required to work to access health insurance benefits, under the recently signed Republican spending bill. "Administration officials are very resistant to anything that smacks of amnesty. It is a place they just won't go," said another trade association official who has attended meetings with administration officials. Harrison, the construction CEO in Alabama, said he knows many contractors facing cost overruns and delays because workers have gone into hiding. "That's because of the fear that's out there, the hysteria that's out there," he said. Solve the daily Crossword
Reuters
28-07-2025
- Business
- Reuters
This construction project was on time and on budget. Then came ICE.
MOBILE, Alabama July 28 (Reuters) - Under a broiling Alabama sky a frustrated Robby Robertson, a construction site superintendent, surveys an 84,000 square foot, mostly built recreation center close to the Gulf coast port city of Mobile. The site is eerily quiet. Last month, the $20 million project was on track for on-time completion by November 1. Now Robertson says he is looking at a three-week delay after about half of his workers - scared by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid on a job site in Florida 230 miles (370 kilometers) away - have stayed away. Immigration raids on building sites - part of an expanding crackdown by Donald Trumpon work sites across the country - are causing major disruptions to the construction industry, according to Reuters interviews. "The threats and the reporting of raids have caused workers to not show up at job sites, just whole crews for fear of a raid," said Jim Tobin, the CEO of the National Association of Home Builders, which has 140,000 members. While immigration enforcement agents have stepped up their raids on other work sites in recent weeks, detaining farmworkers, restaurant staff, meat packers, and day laborers, the construction industry is especially vulnerable to disruptions in the labor supply, according to Reuters interviews and government data. Reuters interviewed 14 people in construction - CEOs, trade association officials and site supervisors - who said the raids are causing project delays and cost overruns and exacerbating existent shortages of skilled labor. They said it was too early to quantify the scale of the damage in terms of lost labor and revenues. Some of the people Reuters spoke to were in Texas and Florida, where there have been several raids. ICE has also been active in California, Illinois, Washington, Louisiana and Massachusetts, construction association officials said. Of the roughly 11 million people in the U.S. illegally, about 1.4 million work in construction, according to the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank - more than any other industry. Construction spending hit a record high in May 2024 but then slid 3.5% through this past May, according to U.S. Census Bureau data, an annual drop rarely seen outside of recessions. The deportation push is beginning to affect public opinion. Trump's public approval rating on immigration fell to 41% in a Reuters/Ipsos poll this month, the lowest since his return to the White House. Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman at the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, said such raids helped combat dangerous activities such as labor trafficking and exploitation. "Worksite enforcement remains a cornerstone of our efforts to protect public safety, national security, and economic stability," she said. It is in places like Robertson's construction site that the impact of the raids is most obvious, because of the potential for costs to spiral with lengthening delays. Robertson says the problems started the day after about 100 workers were detained in an immigration raid in Tallahassee, Florida, on May 29. Most of his workforce of more than 100 workers are immigrants from Mexico and Central America and nearly all of them stayed away from work for several days. Seven weeks later just over half of those immigrant workers have trickled back, leaving Robertson significantly short-staffed. The 22-person roofing team is down to 12. The roof, which should have been completed by now, is not finished, exposing parts of the interior to rain at a time of year when thunderstorms are common. Electrical work, plumbing, finishing off the dry wall and installation of sports equipment are all behind schedule. Robertson said his company is facing potentially $84,000 in extra costs for the delays, under a "liquidated damages" clause of $4,000 for every day the project runs beyond its November 1 deadline. "I am a Trump supporter, but I just don't think the raids is the answer," he said. He said the company and its subcontractors already verify that workers are in the country legally through the government's E-Verify program, a widely used online system which checks employment eligibility. Industry officials noted that the E-Verify system is not foolproof, because immigrants can produce fake documents. Robertson said even Hispanic workers who are in the U.S. legally are scared of being detained by ICE, "because of their skin color. They are scared because they look the part." Tim Harrison, whose company is building the recreation center, said he cannot easily replace construction workers born in Mexico and Central America with native-born Americans, because most do not have the skills. Finding replacement workers is especially difficult in Alabama, which has a tight job market, he said. The state has only 3.2% unemployment. "The contractor world is full of Republicans. I'm not anti-ICE. We're supportive of what the president is trying to do. But the reality of it is our industry has to have the Hispanic immigrant-based workers in it," Harrison said. The company CEOs cited a chronic lack of investment in training native-born Americans in construction skills such as plastering, carpentry, roofing and welding. The White House and Labor Department pointed to an executive order signed by Trump in April that aims to support more than a million skilled apprenticeships a year, including the skills needed in construction. "There is no shortage of American minds and hands to grow our labor force, and President Trump's agenda to create jobs for American workers represents this Administration's commitment to capitalizing on that untapped potential while delivering on our mandate to enforce our immigration laws," Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, said. The Labor Department in June created the Office of Immigration Policy, aimed at streamlining temporary work visas for foreign workers. For Brent Taylor, who runs a construction company in Tampa, Florida, the impact of the ICE raids has gone beyond filling jobs. It's directly impacting his labor costs. Immigrants count for nearly a quarter of Florida's population. Taylor said he has lost between a third to a half of his subcontracted workers in trades such as roofing, concrete work and dry wall. And his subcontractors are having to pay more to replace them, he said. Some of his subcontracted immigrant workers are demanding extra wages for running the risk of being detained by ICE. That has pushed individual daily labor costs to $400 to $500, up from between $200 and $300 a day. "They're factoring in basically a hazard rate," Taylor said. "And then I'm going to pass it on to my customer, whether it be a homeowner, or a commercial building owner." Building trade associations, together with representatives from the agriculture, hotel, restaurant and other sectors, traveled to Washington this month to lobby officials at the Department of Labor, and the Department of Homeland Security for reform. Most want a process that would grant foreign-born workers in the U.S. who pass background checks temporary legal status to work at construction sites. That is highly unlikely to pass Congress because many Republican lawmakers oppose the idea. Brian Turmail, vice president of public affairs at the Associated General Contractors of America, said the group stressed the harm being caused by the ICE raids at its meetings with DHS and Labor officials. They urged the Trump administration to focus on people in the U.S. illegally who have criminal records, and find ways to allow others to work. "For 40 years, this country has done little to encourage or prepare American workers for careers in fields like construction," Turmail said. He said the officials listened, but the delegation left with the impression that the Trump administration believes workers in the country illegally can be replaced with lower-income Americans who are now required to work to access health insurance benefits, under the recently signed Republican spending bill. "Administration officials are very resistant to anything that smacks of amnesty. It is a place they just won't go," said another trade association official who has attended meetings with administration officials. Harrison, the construction CEO in Alabama, said he knows many contractors facing cost overruns and delays because workers have gone into hiding. "That's because of the fear that's out there, the hysteria that's out there," he said.
Yahoo
17-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Why tax changes are a 'huge deal' for small homebuilders
Homebuilder confidence edged up in July after 15 months in negative territory. Jim Tobin, CEO of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), joins Market Catalysts to discuss what's driving cautious optimism amid high interest rates and new tax policies. To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Market Catalysts here. Homebuilder confidence rose slightly in July with the National Association of Homebuilders Housing Market Index rising to 33, up from 32 in June. The index has remained in negative territory for 15 months straight. Here with more on the outlook for homebuilders is Jim Tobin, NAHB CEO. Jim, it is good to see you here. So, a small improvement, I guess we'll take it, right, in this environment? Um, what, uh, do you think drove that improvement in confidence? Well, good morning, Julie. Uh, I I think I think we're bouncing along at the bottom here. Uh, I I think, you know, one one one point up, which which is great to see us to move move in any positive direction. Uh, really, I just think we've reached the bottom and, you know, I travel across the country speaking to home builders in every market and every state. Uh, and and they're still there's still a level of confidence in in the market even though things have slowed considerably over the last couple of months. I also think the news out of Washington with the passage and and and enactment of the one big beautiful bill act, I think that sets the the business and individual tax taxation in this country ahead for the next 10 years. I think that is a positive aspect. Plus the deregulation that President Trump is starting to to implement, I think there's some good signs on the horizon. We're just stuck in a, you know, high interest rate and still a regulatory environment that's uh, that's hurting home building. Hey, Jim, um, in that bill, can you point to some specific stuff for people who might not be, well, I mean, I guess it would be difficult for anyone to be familiar with all of the intricacies of the bill. But in terms of the parts of the bill that are most relevant for your industry, what can you point to that, uh, could potentially be helpful? The vast majority of homes built in this country are built by small and medium-sized businesses. So locking in that 20% deduction for pass-through entities to keep them competitive with the corporate rates, that is a huge deal and that has been made permanent. Uh, so that's great for the business side of the home building industry. For consumers, they didn't touch any of the housing tax incentives, meaning the loan to housing, sorry, meaning the mortgage interest deduction or the, uh, the the exclusion of capital gains on the sale of a home. Uh, but also, we've also created the pathway to build more low-income affordable rental units, allowing people to get into safe, decent, affordable rental, and then build build, uh, a nest egg so they can move into home ownership. So, there's a lot in there both from the business and individual side for housing. Uh, and again, setting the setting the tax structure of this country for the next five to 10 years, a really big, uh, a really big boost for the industry. And I think as we see that move into the economy over the next several months, that's going to add to to more optimism for our industry. Related Videos United CEO is 'adjusting to the new realities' of the industry Novartis CEO on pharma tariffs, raised outlook, competition PepsiCo, Citizens Financial, US Bancorp: Earnings movers Retail sales jump in June: Consumer is 'powering through' Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Homebuilder stocks gain as housing market braces for tariffs
Homebuilder stocks, including D.R. Horton (DHI), Lennar (LEN), PulteGroup (PHM), KB Home (KBH), and Toll Brothers (TOL), rise as the housing market prepares for the impact of Trump's new tariffs. National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) CEO Jim Tobin joins Market Domination with Yahoo Finance Head of News Myles Udland, RSM chief economist Joe Brusuelas, and Epistrophy Capital Research chief market strategist and host of "The Drill Down" podcast Cory Johnson to discuss the current state of the homebuilding market. To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Market Domination here. housing got a bit of a reprieve from Trump's sweeping new tariff agenda. Looking here at some of the best performers that we can find in the market today. DR Horton, Lennar, those stocks up among others. Several key building materials are exempt from facing further tariffs at this point in time. But markets under pressure, worries about the global economy. How's the housing outlook shaping up as we move into the teeth of the spring selling season? Joining us now to discuss is Jim Tobin, CEO of the National Association of Home Builders. So Jim, let's just start with what you and your members have been talking about through the, you know, kind of the whole tariff discussion, where we're at, rates, the whole situation on how you stand as we enter, I guess a grand new era for US trade policy. Yeah, a lot of uncertainty in trade policy. You know, in 2023, we used over $200 billion in building materials in this country and about 7% of that came from over our own borders. So trade policy is critically important. China, Canada, Mexico, in that order, are our largest building material trade partners, plus a lot of materials come from many other countries. So we are watching the tariff situation very carefully and working with the White House, talking to the White House about the uncertainty that we've created, not only in the macro economy, but also in the building material sector, which is critically important to building affordable housing in this country. All right. So I think that we're short about 3 million homes relative to demand and demographic change in the United States economy right now. Give me your quick elevator pitch on how we would fix that. Bill baby bill. It's pretty simple. The only way we are going to create a more housing affordability in this country is to build more housing. We've underbuilt since the Great Recession. This year, we're going to underbuild again. We're predicting about 1 million single family units this year, two to 300 multi-family units this year. We need to build about 1.5 to 1.6 million units, that's both single and multi-family, not only to meet household formation, immigration, and replacing older housing stock, the traditional drivers of building demand in this country. But then we've got to talk about that backlog that you cited. And the only way to do that is to get up to that trend line of one and a half to 1.6 million units. That's the only way we're going to do that. We need all levels of government to jump on board. We need to make sure that we can keep building material prices low. We need to extend the Trump tax cuts and we need a deregulatory environment that is really going to help reduce the regulatory burden on home creation in this country. So many questions. How about a science question? Want to talk about lumber. I think that there's a misunderstanding that we can replace Canadian lumber with trees and lumber that comes from the US. Can you talk to us about why Canadian lumber is particularly necessary for home construction in the US and why it's different than US lumber? We don't produce enough lumber in the United States to meet demand. We get about 30% of our lumber supply from over our shores and the bulk of it, about 70% of that 30%, comes from Canada. The species of wood that comes from Canada, specifically from their Northwest provinces, that is a preferred building material for studs and framing. That is, it is different than southern yellow pine, which is the predominant southeastern species of pine trees that we use. Now, we also have that particular Canadian species of lumber in our Pacific Northwest, but since the late 1990s, we have no longer cut and harvested timber off our national forests. In fact, in the late 1990s, we were pulling about 12 to 14 billion board feet off our national forests. Since then, we've treated our national forests like national parks. We've really slowed down timber production of our own domestic renewable resource on our forest service lands. Last year, we cut about two billion board feet. Guess where that delta of 10 billion board feet now comes from? Primarily Canada. So, while there is a preference for Canadian lumber, it's really a supply and demand issue. Until we cut enough and mill enough in the United States, we have to look over our own borders to meet demand for lumber in this country. And, you know, Jim, last question for you. I want to talk about the immigration situation and the labor constraints that we've also seen in the housing market over the last, you know, years now. But sort of, what's that dynamic been like this year with some of the administration's new policies? And how your members are thinking about that constraint as well, with this potential, you know, with this built-in demand backlog as Joe was talking about. Yeah, the construction industry continues to have a persistent labor shortage, about 200 to 300,000 jobs every month for the better part of a decade. We're just not bringing the next generation of men and women to work in the trades and train them in this country, whether it's starting in grammar school and high school, and moving through the trade schools after high school. So again, we've got to look at immigrant labor. About a third of the trades is immigrant labor right now. So when you talk about an immigration policy that is very constrictive, it is going to hurt our industry particularly hard. So we are watching that very closely as well. Of course, we believe in securing our borders and providing a pathway for people to come into this country to work in the construction industry. But right now, there is a lot of confusion in not only enforcement policy, but how are we going to bring people in? And that's only going to add to the cost of housing right now as well. All right, Jim Tobin, CEO of the NAHB. Thanks for the time. Sign in to access your portfolio
