For 13 years, Christy Messina cut and styled hair at beauty salons in the south suburbs. But today, you’re more likely to see Messina wearing a hardhat and swinging a hammer than coifing customers with scissors and blow drier.
“I was working in a salon in Midlothian and needed benefits, so I started working at Jewel. But I was tired of working two jobs–I wanted one good-paying job with benefits,” says Messina, who found one by enrolling in the Carpenters Apprentice & Training Program through the Chicago and Northeast Illinois District Council of Carpenters.
Because her brother is in the field, Messina knew the opportunities carpentry afforded, so she took the necessary aptitude and qualifying tests, completed a nine-week preapprenticeship program at the council’s center in Joliet and is now in the third year of her four-year apprenticeship, which includes on-the-job training plus classes.
“It’s been fun. The journeyman carpenters I’m working with teach me a lot. I’m learning a lot of new, different things. I enjoy going to work every day, and I take home about the same amount of money as I did before (as a beautician and at Jewel),” says Messina, who has worked in residential and commercial construction since beginning her apprenticeship program.
In fact, her career has come full circle with the job she currently is working on: “I’m working for Oakwood Contractors on the remodel of a Jewel store,” Messina reports.
Messina’s decision to change careers couldn’t have come at a better time. The northeastern region of Illinois–including Chicago and its suburbs–is experiencing its greatest economic expansion since the post-World War II era, making it the fourth-busiest region in the nation in terms of residential construction, statistics from the council say.
Additionally, from 1991 to 1996 the number of new businesses increased by more than 30 percent in Will and McHenry Counties, by more than 20 percent in DuPage, Kane and Lake Counties, and by 15 percent in Cook County. Consider also that home-buying loans rose over 67 percent between 1992 and 1996 in Illinois and that Illinois’ unemployment rate is below 5 percent, and you have a climate that’s creating an unprecedented demand for skilled carpenters.
And that demand is expected to continue into the next century, according to the Illinois Occupational Information Coordinating Committee, a group based in Springfield that tracks labor market projections.
“The economy is good, mortgage money is available and rates are down,” says Lou Cooper, executive vice president of the Residential Construction Employers Council, a trade association that represents member subcontractors, builders or developers in the areas of labor, federal and state regulations.
The area’s construction boom has made it so tough to find tradespeople, in fact, that carpenters have been in a “peak-demand period” since June, Cooper notes. That means union contractors can hire any worker currently not in the work force–including non-union employees and people interested in the field who have not yet completed a training program–as long as they obtain the appropriate permits from the Chicago and Northeast Illinois District Council of Carpenters, Cooper says.
But does that affect the quality or safety of the work being done?
“They’re never sent anywhere by themselves. They’re always coupled with experienced workmen and always under supervisory attention,” Cooper says. “You have to remember that in most instances people are working in crews.”
There’s more to carpentry in the residential and commercial arenas than might meet the eye. “Most hours spent building a house are for carpenters,” the RCEC’s Cooper explains. Carpenters, for example, build forms for foundations; do rough framing, trim and cabinetry; install wood, vinyl, carpet and sometimes tile flooring; put in insulation and drywall; and even roof and side the buildings.
Carpenters also can be found putting in conveyor systems and aligning machinery; doing display work for trade shows at venues, including McCormick Place; and at factories away from the building sites creating cabinetry, doors and windows, according to Doug Lid, training coordinator for the Chicago and Northeast Illinois District Council of Carpenters’ Apprentice & Training Program.
Journeyman carpenters (those who have completed the four-year apprenticeship program) in Cook, Lake and DuPage Counties earn $26.45 an hour plus health and benefits and a pension plan, Cooper notes. Apprentice carpenters make 40 percent of a journeyman’s wage during their first year, 50 percent the second year, 65 percent the third year and 80 percent the fourth year, according to the Construction Industry Service Corp., a not-for-profit construction labor-management committee representing union contractors and building trade unions in Northeastern Illinois.
And IOICC statistics list carpenters’ middle wage range as $34,690 to $51,380.
Applicants to the Chicago and Northeast Illinois District Council of Carpenters Apprentice & Training Program must be 17 years old; have an original Social Security card; complete two years of required high school study that meets graduation requirements in an accredited high school, or possess a G.E.D. certificate; live in Cook, DuPage, Grundy, Iroquois, Kane, Kankakee, Kendall, Lake, McHenry or Will Counties; be physically fit to work as a carpenter; and pass an aptitude test that measures vocabulary, arithmetic ability and reasoning power.
In addition, they must be recommended by the Apprenticeship Information Center of the Illinois Department of Employment Security, a union contractor, or a local union affiliated with the council.
There are six apprentice periods a year, with classes starting about every other month. The only money students must come up with is about $80 for books for the program, Lid adds.
Students currently can take classes at the Council’s Carpenter Training Center in Elk Grove Village or at satellite training centers at 1111 W. 21st St. in Chicago or in Joliet. And a new 30,000 square-foot, $3.5 million training center is slated to open later this year at Cermak Road and Union Avenue in Chicago.
“The new training center represents a major commitment on our part to the construction industry and the city of Chicago,” says Earl Oliver, president of the District Council. “The location of the new facility should make it easier for city residents to become apprentices and for carpenters who reside in the city to take additional courses.”
Another resource for those interested in carpentry (as well as the other trades) is the Job Corps training program sponsored by the Home Builders Institute, the educational arm of the National Association of Home Builders. It offers economically disadvantaged individuals between 16 and 24 who are out of school, unemployed or underemployed, and lacking job skills the chance to combine classroom training with hands-on instruction on construction projects.
Job Corps trainees earn a high school equivalency diploma by completing the program. And HBI Job Corps students receive cash and guidance to obtain transportation, secure housing, drivers education, money management training and intensive counseling on an as-needed basis.
Currently, a carpentry training program is available at the Job Corps center in Golconda, Ill. And a new Job Corps Center, scheduled to open in Chicago in early 1999 at 3348 S. Kedzie Ave., also will offer carpentry training, according to Sharon Quayle of the Ogden, Utah-based Management & Training Corp. MTC has contracted with the Department of Labor to operate the Chicago and other Job Corps facilities.
WHERE TO GO FOR INFORMATION ON BUILDING TRADES TRAINING PROGRAMS:
The Northeast Illinois District Council of Carpenters. Contact this organization about its Apprentice & Training Program, and for information about training facility tours, high school outreach programs, and schedules of career fairs at which the council will be represented. Phone 847-640-7373.
– The Construction Industry Service Corp. CISCO offers a comprehensive list of Northeastern Illinois building trades apprenticeship programs, complete with information about wages and benefits, requirements to enter the program, and a detailed description of the entry process. CISCO also provides a list of addresses and phone numbers for the Illinois Department of Employment Security’s apprenticeship information centers, where people can obtain detailed information about apprenticeship programs. Phone 630-472-9411 or visit the Web site at www.cisco.org.
– The Job Corps training program of the Home Builders Institute, the educational arm of the National Association of Home Builders. This program is for economically disadvantaged people between 16 and 24 who are out of school, unemployed or underemployed, and lacking job skills. Training is available in carpentry, brick masonry, building and apartment maintenance, electrical wiring, landscaping, painting, plumbing and solar installation. Call the national toll-free number at 800-959-0052; the Joliet Job Corps office at 815-727-7677; or the Golconda Job Corps center at 618-285-6601. For information about the Chicago Job Corps center set to open in early 1999, phone the Management & Training Corp. at 801-626-2000.
