Building Inspection Technology in Northern California

Transcription

1 Building Inspection Technology in Northern California Research Brief, March 2013 Prepared By: Theresa Milan Center of Excellence Los Rios Community College District

2 Table of Contents Introduction... 3 Occupation Overview... 3 Supply-Demand Gap Analysis... 7 Summary... 7 Important Disclaimer All representations included in this report have been produced from secondary review of publicly and/or privately available data and/or research reports. Efforts have been made to qualify and validate the accuracy of the data and the reported findings; however, neither the Centers of Excellence, host District, nor California Community Colleges Chancellor s Office are responsible for applications or decisions made by recipient community colleges or their representatives based upon components or recommendations contained in this study Chancellor's Office California Community Colleges Economic and Workforce Development Program Please consider the environment before printing. This document is designed for double-sided printing. Northern California Center of Excellence 2

3 Introduction The purpose of this report is to determine if there is sufficient ongoing demand for occupations in the building inspection technology sector to warrant investment in a training program in Northern California. For purposes of this study, the Northern California Region is defined as and includes the following counties: Butte Colusa Del Norte El Dorado Glenn Humboldt Lake Lassen Mendocino Modoc Nevada Placer Plumas Sacramento Shasta Sierra Siskiyou Sutter Tehama Trinity Yolo Yuba This study also includes data for California as graduates may relocate to other areas of the state to find employment in their field. In this report, there is an overview of occupations in the building inspection technology sector, including definitions, education requirements, current and projected labor market demand, and a supply-demand gap analysis for Northern California and California. Occupation Overview The Building Inspection Technology (BIT) program at Butte College prepares students for entry-level careers in the building inspection profession, such as: building inspectors, plan examiners, permit technicians, insurance inspectors and home inspectors. The following table provides a description of the entry-level careers in BIT, including a crosswalk to the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) code. The SOC code is needed to pull data on employment demand and outlook. Building inspectors and home inspectors directly crosswalk to SOC , construction & building inspectors. However, plan examiners, permit technicians and insurance inspectors are embedded in SOC codes that encompass a larger group of occupations. As such, data for these occupations are considered secondary, as they may require education, training and/or work experience outside the scope of, or in addition to, the BIT curriculum. Table 1: Building Inspection Technology Occupations 1 Job Title Description SOC Crosswalk Building inspectors () Home Inspectors () Inspect the structural and general safety of buildings based on model codes Conduct inspections of newly built or previously owned homes and commercial buildings (Construction &building inspectors) (Construction &building inspectors) Insurance Inspectors (Secondary) Permit Technicians (Secondary) Plan Examiners (Secondary) Investigate, analyze, and determine the extent of insurance company's liability concerning property loss or damages Embedded in (claims adjustors, examiners & investigators) Provide the initial contact at a government agency for Embedded in (Court, permit submittal and insurance, also perform plan review municipal & license clerks) and answer code related questions for the general public Determine whether the plans for the building or other Embedded in structures comply with codes and whether they are suited (Compliance officers) to the engineering and environmental demands of the building site 1 Occupation list obtained from the Butte College catalog, Northern California Center of Excellence 3

4 Education Level According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the minimum education level for building inspectors is work experience in a related occupation. However, as shown in Exhibit 1, nearly half (47%) of building inspectors have attained an Associate degree or completed some college and another 20 percent have a Bachelor s degree. This indicates that employers prefer and typically hire building inspectors that have obtained a formal education. There is no licensure requirement to work as a home or building inspector in California. However, national certification may be obtained by the International Code Council (ICC) and/or California Real Estate Inspection Association. In the secondary occupation group, plan examiners has a minimum education level of a bachelor s degree. Permit technicians and insurance inspectors (based on the minimum requirements for the correlated occupation groups) learn job functions through on-the-job training. While a formal education is not required for permit technicians and insurance inspectors, completing building inspection technology courses may give applicants an edge in the hiring process or in advancing up the career ladder in an existing position. Table 2: Minimum Education Level for Building Inspection Technology Occupations 2 Occupation Minimum Education Level Building and Home Inspectors (SOC ) Work experience in a related occupation Secondary Permit Technicians(SOC ) Moderate-term on-the-job training Plan Examiners (SOC ) Bachelor's degree Insurance Inspectors (SOC ) Long-term on-the-job training Exhibit 1: Education Attainment Levels for Building and Home Inspectors 2 40% 35% 34% 30% 27% 25% 20% 15% 20% 13% 10% 5% 3% 3% 0% Master's degree Bachelor's degree Associate's degree Some college, no degree High school diploma or equivalent Less than high school diploma 2 EMSI, Northern California Center of Excellence 4

5 Wages Occupations in the building inspection technology sector are paid above average wages in both Northern California and across the state. 3 Plan examiners is the highest paid occupation with median average wages of $32 per hour in Northern California and $35 per hour in California. Exhibit 2: Median Average Wages, California Northern California Permit Technicians (SOC ) Building and Home Inspectors (SOC ) Insurance Inspectors (SOC ) Plan Examiners (SOC ) $23 $22 $29 $26 $30 $28 $35 $32 $0 $10 $20 $30 $40 Median Hourly Wage Labor Market Demand In Northern California, there are approximately 1,250 building and home inspection jobs, about nine percent of California s total employment in the occupation. Over the next five years, Northern California employers are expected to add about 100 new jobs as well as need to replace an additional 185 workers, due to retirements or other general separations. In the secondary occupation group, the largest occupation is insurance inspectors (3,800 jobs), followed by plan examiners (1,880 jobs), and permit technicians (935 jobs). Across the state, the building and home inspector occupation is projected to grow by seven percent from 14,260 jobs in 2012 to 15,240 jobs in With replacement jobs, California employers are projected to need 620 workers to maintain their existing business operations and keep pace with new business growth. Among secondary occupations, insurance inspector is the largest occupation with more than 33,000 jobs, followed by plan examiner (26,340 jobs) and permit technicians (8,680). The insurance inspector occupation is projected to decline by just one percent, while permit technicians and plan examiners are projected to grow by six and nine percent, respectively. Reminder: Because there is not an exact crosswalk among the secondary occupations and the Standard Occupation Classification system, data for the secondary occupations include employment outside of the building inspection technology sector. 3 Median average wages across all occupations is $22 in California and $20 in Northern California. 4 EMSI, Northern California Center of Excellence 5

6 Table 3: Building Industry Technology Employment Outlook, Northern California, Description 2012 New Job % Replacement Jobs Building and Home Inspectors (SOC ) 1, % Secondary Permit Technicians (SOC ) % Plan Examiners (SOC ) 1, % Insurance Inspectors (SOC ) 3,808 (40) -1% Description 2012 Table 4: Building Industry Technology Outlook California, New Job % Replacement Jobs Building and Home Inspectors (SOC ) 14, % Secondary Permit Technicians (SOC ) 8, % Plan Examiners (SOC ) 26,341 2,261 9% Insurance Inspectors (SOC ) 33,041 (335) -1% 4, Real-time Data According to Burning Glass, a system that aggregates online job posting data, there were 116 job postings for building and home inspectors over the last three months in California. As shown to the right, the majority were for positions located in Southern California, followed by the Bay Area. The average salary advertised was $66,000. The employers with the most job postings include Psomas Associates, Bureau Veritas, JAS Pacific, and Marin Municipal Water District. Twenty-eight percent (28%) of the positions required one to four years of work experience, 22 percent required four to seven years of work experience and nine percent required over seven years of work experience. Forty-one percent (41%) of the jobs did not specify any work experience requirements. As shown below, the knowledge/skill set in greatest demand is inspection, followed by plumbing, building codes, and green building. 6 New Construction Contract Review Green Building Building Codes Plumbing Inspection 11% 12% 15% 15% 28% Location Job Postings % of Total Southern California 62 53% Bay Area 22 19% Inland Empire 14 12% Greater Sacramento 13 11% Central Valley 5 4% Total % 100% 5 EMSI, Burning Glass, data aggregated for the last three months, 12/20/ /19/2013. Northern California Center of Excellence 6

7 Supply-Demand Gap Analysis Table 5 provides an estimate of the gap between the supply of newly trained workers and the projected number of job openings in the next 12 months. The total job openings in the next 12 months include growth and replacement estimates. Based on the available information, there is a projected oversupply of building and home inspectors in Northern California but a training gap in California overall. In the Northern California region, Butte College and Cosumnes River College are the only colleges that offer building inspection technology training. In California overall, there are 23 education institutions that offer BIT training, including eight in Southern California, six in the Bay Area, five in the Inland Empire, and two each in the Central Valley and Northern California. Table 5: BIT Occupations Gap Analysis, Northern California and California 7 Description Building and Home Inspectors (SOC ) Northern California Completes Gap / Surplus California Completes Gap / Surplus Summary Building inspector technology curriculum prepares students for careers as building inspectors, plan examiners, permit technicians, insurance inspectors and home inspectors. This report highlights building and home inspectors as the primary occupation as there is a direct crosswalk to these occupations and the Standard Occupation Classification system. Plan examiners, permit technicians and insurance inspectors are designated as secondary target occupations. In Northern California, the building inspector occupation is projected to grow by eight percent over the next five years, adding about 100 new jobs. With replacement demand, Northern California employers will need to hire about 60 building and home inspectors each year. This represents about 10 percent of the total job openings for California. To meet the state s training needs; there are 23 education institutions that offer BIT training, two in the Northern California region and 21 located throughout the remaining four regions. While there is a higher concentration of training providers south of the Sacramento Region, most of these education institutions awarded fewer degrees than the training programs in Northern California. Last year, the two Northern California education institutions conferred 79 BIT degrees and the 21 Southern California education institutions conferred 196 BIT degrees and certificates. Based on available supply and demand information, there is a projected oversupply of building and home inspectors in Northern California but a training gap in California overall. As such, there is a mismatch between the local economic demand and the local training programs. 7 EMSI, Northern California Center of Excellence 7