INVESTIGATION OF FACTORS AFFECTING LABOR PRODUCTIVITY IN BUILDING CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY IN CASE OF WESTERN OROMIA

Main Advisor: Alemu Mosisa (Ass. prof) Co-Advisor: Gemeda Etafa (msc) ABSTRACT The construction industry remains one of the most labor-intensive industries in developing countries. It is therefore very important to understand the concept of construction labor productivity because labor is more variable and unpredictable than other project-cost components; it becomes necessary to understand the effects of different factors on labor productivity. In the construction industry productivity loss is one of the greatest and severe problems in building construction projects and also it is the most obstacles that any company faces, so it needs measurement and method to resolve the problem of labor productivity. The objective of this study was to investigate the various factors affecting labor productivity in building construction industry. It mainly aims to investigate and rank the critical factors affecting labor productivity in building construction projects according to the rate of respondents. For this study, the data was collected using both primary and secondary sources. Depending on the data that was gathered from the respondent to determine the most frequent occurrence of the factor affecting construction labor productivity in both quantitative and qualitative methods were used for data collection and the Relative Importance Index was used to rank the factors. This data was analyzed by using SPSS of version 22 to perform descriptive statistics. A total of 80 questionnaires were targeted to be distributed and out of those 51 which is 63.75% are successfully responded. The top five factors that critically affected labor productivity in building construction projects in case of this thesis are:-Increase of material price/fluctuation/, Effect of Bad weather, Absence of safety training & program,, Lack of Safety tools and Accidents during construction, Lack of Motivation, shortage of material this all three factors are ranked in 5th with in the same RII. For the measurement of the labor productivity approach, 45.1% of the respondents have a practice of measuring labor productivity by different methods. Also, it was describing some techniques suggested by the respondent to improve labor productivity on building construction projects. This research; finally conclude that: Increase of material price/fluctuation/, Effect of Bad weather (rain, wind, high/low), Absence of safety training & program, Lack of Safety tools and Accidents during construction, Lack of Motivation and shortage of materials are the most critical factors that affect construction labor productivity in building construction industry, this study was also provide how to measure and improve labor productivity in building construction. Keywords: - Building, Construction, Industry and Labor Productivity.