As development booms, an effort to pair workers with construction jobs near home
Despite Brooklyn’s seemingly unstoppable building boom, Shaquille Charles struggled for months to find full-time work in the construction industry.
A carpenter since he was a kid, the 26-year-old resident of East New York recently shifted focus to electrical work. All told, he’d amassed five years of professional experience in the field. He’d been able to find some freelance gigs, but the security, health insurance and paid time off of a full-time position proved elusive.
That changed soon after Charles attended a construction industry recruitment session in September, with job opportunities presented by Building Skills New York, a nonprofit that connects local workers — primarily those who are unemployed or underemployed — to open construction positions with a collective of partnered contractors.