Status Analysis and Trend Prediction for the Labor Costs of Chinese Construction Industry
Chinese huge low-cost labor force provided motive power for the development of construction industry in the past decades. However, Chinese labor costs soar quickly in recent years, which bring pressures to construction enterprises. In order to analyze the problems of rising labor costs of Chinese construction industry in depth, a questionnaire survey is conducted among construction workers and project managers. According to the result of the investigation and statistical data, the rising actuality and influence factors of labor costs in Chinese construction industry are analyzed comprehensively. Then the medium and long term prediction of labor cost is carried out by using GM (1, 1) grey model. The results show that the average pay of Chinese construction workers rose quickly over the past 5 years. Changes of supply–demand relation of labor force, soaring prices and the rapid economic development, and other aspects are the reasons causing the labor costs increase. The average daily pay of Chinese construction workers will keep rising in coming years, and will achieve 337 RMB yuan by 2020. The research results present valuable reference basis for construction enterprises to grasp the development trend of labor costs and takes steps to address the labor cost pressures.
A different approach to construction labour in Turkey: comparative productivity analysis
This paper reports an investigation of construction labour productivity described as numerical values. First, a general knowledge is given about labour productivity. Then, the system which is the source of the man hour values in Turkey, is introduced and criticism of it is carried out. To this aim, labour productivity rates of 82 work items were obtained by a questionnaire applied to planning engineers, site managers, sub-contractors, architects and consultants of 32 large-scale construction firms in Turkey. The results were evaluated by one sample t-test, and hence, today's situation of the construction sector in Turkey on labour productivity was displayed.
Construction baseline productivity: Theory and practice
In this paper, the theoretical basis for construction labor productivity measurement is presented. In particular, the theoretical basis for baseline productivity measurements is developed by examining a productivity database consisting of 23 projects involving masonry construction. An important hypothesis is presented showing that as the design becomes more complex, the baseline productivity worsens. It is also hypothesized that higher values of the coefficient of variation indicates a higher variability in management and craft skills and in the use of technology. Two measures are proposed to measure the performance of individual projects: the disruption index and the project management index. These two measures identify the best and worst performing projects. Cumulative probability distributions of the disruption index and the project management index were also developed to evaluate the 23-project database and compare it with other databases. The hypotheses developed from the 23-masonry project database were tested against an eight-project database of concrete formwork and a 12-project database of structural steel erection. Strong support for each hypothesis was found using the two additional databases.