Chattanooga construction worker wages up 16.2% in 2 years
Chattanooga’s booming housing market, which boosted home prices to record high levels this summer, also raised local wages for those building new homes at a far faster pace than most of the country.
Wages paid to construction laborers in metropolitan Chattanooga jumped 16.3% from 2019 to 2021, according to a new report on wage gains by construction workers by Construction Coverage magazine. Even with higher inflation, the wage increases for construction laborers in Chattanooga outstripped rising prices by 10.4% and were up nearly four times as much as the U.S. average.
The median pay for construction laborers in Chattanooga still remained below most jobs and the U.S. average, however. Among the 1,560 construction laborers in Chattanooga, the average pay in 2021 was $36,080, up $5,050 from the $31,030 average pay in 2019.
Nationwide, construction laborers were paid an average of $37,770 last year, up from $36,860 in 2019.
Since the beginning of 2020, inflation-adjusted residential construction spending has risen by more than 33% as the industry has experienced shortages of workers for much of the last decade since the Great Recession. Research from earlier in 2022 from Associated Builders and Contractors, a construction industry association, estimated a shortage of 650,000 construction workers this year.
Georgia lands auto supplier with 630 jobs
An auto parts manufacturer plans to hire 630 workers at a new factory in southeastern Georgia to supply Hyundai Motor Group’s first U.S. electric vehicle plant that’s under construction nearby, state officials said Monday.
Joon Georgia will invest $317 million to produce parts in Bulloch County, Gov. Brian Kemp’s office said in a news release. The supplier will open shop roughly 30 miles west of the site where Hyundai executives broke ground on the new EV plant two weeks ago.
The company is “the first of many” expected to come to Georgia to supply the $5.5 billion Hyundai plant in Bryan County, Kemp said in a statement. The automaker plans to open its Georgia plant in 2025, producing up to 300,000 electric vehicles per year.
Joon Georgia is a subsidiary of Ajin USA, which supplies parts to other Hyundai plants. It already operates a facility in Cusseta, Alabama, near the Georgia line that makes parts for Hyundai’s plant in Montgomery, Alabama, as well as for Kia’s auto plant in West Point, Georgia.
The Joon Georgia factory near the Hyundai EV plant is expected to open near Statesboro in mid-2024, Kemp’s office said.
“Joon Georgia’s announcement today is a landmark moment as we drive Georgia’s automotive industry into the future,” said Pat Wilson, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Economic Development, in a statement.
State and local officials in Georgia lured Hyundai with tax breaks and incentives worth $1.8 billion, making it the state’s largest economic development deal.
Mueller sales up but profits decline
Mueller Water Products, Inc. boosted sales by 12.1% in the company’s fourth quarter to nearly $1.25 billion, but profits for the Atlanta-based manufacturer fell during the three-month earnings period ended Sept. 30.
Mueller, which operates production plants and research and training facilities in Chattanooga, reported Monday net income of $7.1 million in the most recent fiscal quarter. That was less than half the $18.4 million earned in the same period a year earlier. The results were below Wall Street expectations for profits, although sales were above what was forecast.
“We delivered our second consecutive year of double-digit net sales growth with fourth quarter net sales growth that exceeded our expectations due to continued higher price realization,” Scott Hall, president and CEO of Mueller Water Products, said in an earnings report Monday. “Healthy order activity in the quarter, despite an evolving macro environment, is a testament to the resiliency of our end market demand. However, fourth-quarter results were impacted by lower than expected volumes of service brass products and manufacturing inefficiencies at our brass foundry.”
China trade shrinks with curbs from virus
China’s trade shrank in October as global demand weakened and anti-virus controls weighed on domestic consumer spending.
The customs agency reported exports declined 0.3% from a year earlier to $298.4 billion, down from September’s 5.7% growth. Imports fell 0.7% to $213.4 billion, compared with the previous month’s 0.3% expansion.
Forecasters expected Chinese trade to weaken as global demand cooled following interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve and other central banks to rein in surging inflation. Chinese demand has been hurt by a “Zero COVID” strategy that has repeatedly shut down large sections of cities to contain virus outbreaks.
Tyson Foods heir and CFO charged with intoxication
Tyson Foods heir and Chief Financial Officer John R. Tyson has been charged with public intoxication and criminal trespassing after allegedly entering a stranger’s home and falling asleep on her bed.
According to the Fayetteville, Arkansas, police department, officers received a call early Sunday from a woman who returned home to find a man she didn’t know sleeping in her bed. When officers arrived, they tried to wake Tyson but said his movements were “sluggish and uncoordinated.”
Tyson faces a court hearing in December. He apologized Monday in a companywide memo, saying his behavior was inconsistent with his and the company’s values.
— Compiled by Dave Flessner