“We’ve always been able to fill the jobs we need to fill, but it’s something we’re spending a lot of extra time on now,” says Dirk Elsperman, executive vice president of Tarlton Corp. He estimated that construction unions in St. Louis all have 95% to 100% of their members employed, up from less than 80% in 2008 and 2009.

Today’s worker shortage is, in part, a legacy of the recession. More than 25,000 St. Louis-area construction jobs, or 30% of the industry, disappeared between 2007 and 2012, and many workers left the building trades for other careers.

Now that there’s a need to replace those workers, company and union representatives spend a lot of time at schools touting the advantages of a construction career. They’re making efforts to recruit women and African Americans, who historically have been underrepresented in the industry.

“You have to convince the parents and influencers of young kids that construction is a viable option,” Elsperman says. Part of the industry’s pitch is that college isn’t for everybody, and instead of amassing debt you can get paid to learn a trade through an apprenticeship program.