From the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act’s corporate tax cut, to the 20 percent deduction under section 199A for pass-through entities that helps level the playing field for small businesses, to encouraging purchases of new equipment to grow and build businesses through the increase of the first-year bonus depreciation, to the temporary relief from the alternative minimum tax and doubling of the estate tax exemption, changes out in motion by the law's passage continue to provide the U.S. construction industry with the economic freedom and global competitiveness needed to grow and thrive.

For many contractors, financing existing jobs while investing in new work is a big balancing act that forces them to constantly weigh one financial obligation — i.e. payroll, taxes, subcontractors, material suppliers — against another. And the star of that act is cash. 

U.S. government bond prices surged Friday, March 22 after data showed the European economy continuing to weaken and a Wednesday Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting in which the Fed downgraded its 2019 GDP forecast and paused its plan to raise interest rates two times in 2019. Threats to U.S. economic stability encouraged investment in 10-year bonds, which depressed their returns below that of 3-month bonds.

The health of the economy depends, in part, on the safety of the construction industry, which is affected by such things as whether construction workers are free from danger and are not a danger to themselves; they get the help they need, which means construction executives improving how they test workers for drugs and alcohol; and testing kits are accurate.

The United States' worker fatality rate has not changed between 2008 and 2017, remaining at 3.5 workers per 100,000. Despite rising investments in employee health and safety over the same period (12 percent annually, according to Verdantix), we have not moved the needle on fatal workplace injuries.

Undocumented workers make up more than 30 percent of Houston’s 300,000-person-strong construction labor force, and a policy of deportation, according to some of the city’s industry leaders, would slow down projects. Allowing these workers some type of legal status, however, would provide a more stable labor pool, reduce project costs and result in more workers receiving training and benefits. 

Wallet cards are a time-honored safety tool. Many companies now provide suicide prevention wallet cards to employees in a new hire orientation program. Some companies are making these wallet cards readily accessible by placing them in areas where employees gather, including lunchrooms, training rooms and break rooms.

Recruitment of women into New York City union apprenticeship programs is up 50 percent, according to a Commercial Observer op-ed piece penned by Kathleen Culhane, president of Nontraditional Employment for Women (NEW), and Gary LaBarbera, president of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York (BCTC). In the last 10 years, more than 1,500 women have been placed in BCTC apprenticeships.

When long term care is needed, there are only a few options available to pay for those types of expenses. Genworth Life Insurance Company and CISCA are working together to provide members with access to long term care insurance protection.

The labor market is tough right now. If you're like 78 percent of construction companies out there that can't find enough workers to fill their open jobs, then you know the value of a good employee, and you don't want to lose them. Turnover in the construction industry doesn't just mean losing a body to do a job, it means losing a skilled worker.

Not many people would turn down an opportunity to earn more money doing what they love. However, it is common that construction contractors do that indirectly every day because of the way they operate their businesses. Whether a contractor is a sole proprietor or part of a team, there are easy ways to generate more money in a construction business without taking on more projects or gaining new skills.