Abstract:
"Improvements in project performance due to enhancements in labor skills have been highly
demanding in the construction sector for a long time. It has been widely acknowledged that
project performance is based on the labor’s skills during the project' execution stage, whose
skills and abilities can affect the project's progress to a greater or lesser extent. The project aim
was to examine the impacts of construction skilled labor shortage on the competitiveness of
building sector in Rwanda. Case study: Kicukiro district. The specific objectives were to
investigate the root causes of the shortage of skilled labor in construction industry particularly in
in Rwanda, to identify the effects on the construction industry due to the shortage of skilled
workers and to propose suitable strategies/mitigation methods to reduce impacts caused by
skilled workers shortages in construction industry. The study concluded that the root causes of
the shortage of skilled labour in construction industry particularly in Kicukiro district are skilled
labours salary is less in construction sector, a transfer from another sector to construction sector
requires more duration for become as a skilled labor, labors are not satisfactory about their
salaries, lack of accommodation is the major reason for the shortage of skilled labor, work forced
by the supervises for the skilled labor is high, non-permanent skilled labors receive skill training
within your company, casual skilled labors are less likely to receive skilled training on your
company, contractors do not provide training to labors, less amount of population in our area,
younger generation unwilling to take part in construction firm, lack of food allowances is the
major reason for the shortage of skilled labor, available training facilities are inadequate, delay in
payment of skilled labors, retirement of the skill labors in your company and getting more
projects in same area. Also, the researchers concluded that the effects on the construction
industry due to the shortage of skilled workers are delay in project duration due to skill labor
shortage, more rework due to lack of skill labors shortage, unable to do quality work, lack of
skill labor shortage reason for higher accidents rates and cost overrun. Lastly, the researchers
concluded that the strategies/mitigation methods to reduce impacts caused by skilled workers
shortages in construction industry are boost Salaries, increase apprenticeship programs and
incentivize training, investing in training and education programs and investing in technology
and automation.
