The third annual Georgia Construction Outlook Survey indicates that labor shortages and reliability from sub-contractors continues to be a looming concern for 83 percent of the state’s privately-held construction companies.

The survey was conducted by Bennett Thrasher, one of the country’s largest full-service public accounting and consulting firms, in collaboration with Kennesaw State University’s Department of Construction Management. Designed to provide benchmarking data of the state’s general contractors and subcontractors, the survey is led by Scott Hazy and Tom Jollay, co-leaders of Bennett Thrasher’s Construction Practice, along with Khalid Siddiqi, chair of Kennesaw State University’s Department of Construction Management.

Results are based on responses from 149 Georgia-based privately-held construction companies in categories including compensation, recruiting and retention strategies, profitability, healthcare costs and benefits, innovation, business challenges and project backlog.

“The labor shortage has become increasingly acute over the last three years. It’s no surprise that recruiting and retaining qualified individuals remains the top challenge for the construction industry,” said Siddiqi. “However, it is encouraging to see that the number of organizations focusing on innovation and technology continue to rise as we address this significant issue.”

“In our third year of this groundbreaking survey, the number of participating firms continues to increase. We are excited to have significant benchmarking data available to show the strength of the construction industry and address the challenges, technology and best practices that are evolving within the industry,” added Hazy, co-leader of Bennett Thrasher’s Construction Practice, along with Jollay.

Other major takeaways from the survey include:

84.38 percent of respondents projected an increase in revenue in the next year, which is up from 77.78 percent in the previous year.

Respondents reported an average gross profit per full-time equivalent employee of $45,289, a 32 percent increase from the previous year.

Respondents reported an average gross profit margin of 11 percent.

57 percent of companies reported a higher backlog over the last year.

83 percent of the companies surveyed said recruiting and retaining qualified individuals was their biggest business challenge.

68 percent of the privately held construction companies in Georgia are located in metro Atlanta.

67 percent of the companies surveyed said they are a family-owned business and 58 percent of surveyed participants said they have a succession plan in place.

The average salary increase was slightly lower than in the previous year, but companies reported paying out higher bonuses and other benefits not reflected in salary.

The survey also compiled data on compensation, including average salaries for all contractors:

President/CEO: $189,754

CFO: $118,489

Controller: $92,488

IT Manager: $79,857

Project Manager: $81,042

Sales/Marketing Manager: $90,571

HR Manager: $59,531

Estimator: $78,410

Superintendent: $76,003

Cost Engineer: $62,708

Foreman: $53,017