Functional Illiteracy in Construction Industry

Abstract

There is a commonly held perception that the United States is failing to adequately educate its young people, and some would suggest the construction industry is inordinately exposed to educational shortcomings. The validity of this notion of literacy skill deficiencies in the construction industry relative to the nation is addressed through a focused, exploratory assessment. This assessment involved administering standardized literacy tests to employees of participating construction companies at various job sites around Birmingham, Ala., and statistically analyzing the collected data. This analysis on the exploratory sample provides a comparison of literacy skills between the Birmingham construction workforce and the general population, an assessment of literacy skills by job categories, and observed differences in employee literacy skills between contractors.