Those initiatives are an attempt by Blum’s president, Mike Lancaster, to answer a question that resonates across the industry: Faced with an aging workforce, how can construction companies attract the young workers they need for the ongoing expansion?

“The old days of hiring someone and sticking them on the job site and saying, ‘Go learn construction,’ that’s gone,” said Lancaster. “We have to show new talent that we will develop you, appreciate you, and engage you.”

The construction industry shed about 2.3 million jobs, or 29 percent of its workforce, from the beginning of 2007 through the end of 2010. It regained close to 900,000 workers through January of this year but has been slower to bring back workers aged 19 to 24, according to an October analysis by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Read the article “Builders Are Desperate to Hire Millennials” on bloomberg.com.