The House That She Built movement helps create a sense of urgency to overcome the international labor shortage in construction by elevating the skilled trades within underrepresented communities.

Respondents to ASA’s monthly sales report reported a median sales increase of 1.7% for March 2023 vs. 2022. This represents the lowest this figure has been since February 2021. Year-to-date sales through March 2023 were up 8.9% vs. 2022.

ASA’s Recruitment Marketing Director Steve Edwards recaps a recent live webinar hosted by ASA that focused on one of the key fundamentals of attracting good talent in today’s environment: building and providing jobseekers a good candidate experience on your website.

Every quarter the first thing I do to put together that report is to pull down the most recent ASA Monthly Economic Report and Monthly Sales Report from (both are readily available in the Business Intelligence section of the MyASA members' only portal at www.asa.net).

Nothing gives me better insight to the state of our industry and where the industry is headed.

When it comes to keeping your finger on the pulse of the economy, ASA chief economist Dr. Chris Kuehl does just that through his live monthly ASA economic update webinars (a free member benefit) and through his three-times-a-month podcasts (also a free member benefit) where Dr. Kuehl zeroes in on a specific topic of great interest to ASA members.

While much uncertainty in the economy is ahead, we know we’ve been in this position before and we know we can weather any changes ahead. It will be increasingly important to harness the power of not only our industry trade association, but also the power of the organizations across our industry working together collectively, cooperatively and complementary as buying groups, adjacent industry organizations, and regions to support our overall industry strength.

Fantham served as ASA president in 2015 and was at the helm and played a key role during that timeframe when ASA was able to add a critical codes and standards staff position. Fantham currently is doing a second stint on the ASA board of directors, while many Hajoca team members are volunteer leaders serving on a variety of different ASA advisory councils, task groups and special interest divisions.

I have been fortunate this past year to have traveled the country as ASA president and was able to speak to many different groups. Each time, I talked about what I call the base case for what ASA delivers to its members, which is impressive on its own.

Over the years, there have been plenty of occasions where I have been overwhelmed/flooded with material provided to me on subjects I have written about.

This is a good thing because it tends to reinforce that person’s already known prominence/level of reverence in their particular vocation/walk of life.

Knowledge is power. And knowledge is powered by data. Access to real, actionable data is one of the most important tools for any leader in today’s rapidly changing business environment. The ability to analyze, manipulate and act upon real-time information is not only a need but increasingly a requirement for success in business today.