Thirty-four states added construction jobs between November 2015 and November 2016 while construction employment increased in 29 states and the District of Columbia during the past month, according to an analysis of Labor Department data released today by the Associated General Contractors of America. Association officials said even as firms in many starts are adding jobs amid growing residential and public sector construction investments, the number of states adding construction jobs for the year has declined compared to a year ago.

A number of problems could be hurting your ability to turn a profit and endangering the long-term success of your company, writes Jayson DeMers, founder and CEO of AudienceBloom.

Construction companies often have to battle weather when building a project, just as Stantec is doing at an international airport on an island in northern Canada where the average temperature is 11 degrees below zero. This article looks at much of the technology and techniques developed to make construction possible in extreme conditions.

Contract document comparisons typically include ConsensusDocs and the American Institute of Architect (AIA) contract documents as the most used in the industry. ConsensusDocs staff, an AGC member, and a board member of Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA) have teamed up to create a comparison of design-build standard contracts that will be presented at the DBIA National Convention as well as Construction Superconference in December.

The Business Development Forum Steering Committee continues to bring more BD resources and best practices to the AGC membership. A section has been added to the Business Development Forum webpage titled Business Development Best Practices. The goal is to continue to develop this section of the website so it is your one stop for information regarding all things Business Development.

The Collaboration Chronicles are an ongoing effort by the AGC Public/Private Industry Advisory Council (PIAC), the AIA-AGC Joint Committee and the Construction Owners Association of America (COAA) to capture and share the results from successful project collaborations.

A great crowd participated in AGC BuildCon 2016 held October 18-19, 2016 at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta in Atlanta, GA. The event brought together 140 high-level leaders in the building construction industry where they gained first-hand knowledge and insight from industry peers on the risk and benefits of utilizing Design-Assist and BIM; improving their organization’s project delivery approaches, Lean strategies and Business Development practices.

Marcia Kellogg There are just some clients that your business cannot afford to have - you know who they are: the ones who are highly commodity-based and have limited experience, whose projects result in little or no profit, and who are a drain on your firm and its resources. Instead of trying to find projects that suit the firm, client-based firms identify clients with whom they can develop and nurture a partnership over time. It’s a philosophy that is primarily interested in owning the client, not the project. Most importantly, the focus of a client-based business is maintaining the relationship at all costs. Firms that align their cultures with the business goals and objectives of their clients realize a vast improvement in performance, because they have a true belief and purpose in the project and the client with whom they are working, and this spirit resonates throughout everything they do.

Julie Huval, Beck Technology The acronym “BIM” is showing up more and more in our industry. Owners are requiring it on projects, countries are setting standards for it, and firms are touting expertise in it. But what is Building Information Modeling (BIM) and, as marketers and business developers, why should we care?

AGC members are developing young professionals to lead their firms and the construction industry into the future through a group of programs that form AGC’s Construction Leadership Council (CLC). AGC chapters give them different names — Construction Leadership Council, Young Constructors Forum, Emerging Leaders Group, Young Executives Committee, Future Leaders Forum, Young Leadership Program — but they share the mission of nurturing talent.