The U.S. is seeing about 10,000 baby boomers (those born between 1946 and 1964) retire per day. That means every day we lose knowledge from our industry due to retirements. The fact that so much of the construction industry is experience- or knowledge-based work makes this fact especially sobering, but the challenges don’t end there.
Not only is our industry’s knowledge basin shrinking, but the knowledge needed to be an effective professional in our industry continues to become more and more specialized. The growth of plumbing over the last decade is a great example of this shift — the sheer number of deaths and lawsuits due to dental gas and legionella outbreaks alone are anecdotal evidence that our industry is becoming increasingly complex.