MSCA of NY Member Survey Results: State of the HVACR Industry

We recently surveyed New York City HVACR contractors (MSCA of New York members) to understand the impact of COVID-19 on our local market, to gather their projections about returning to work and plans to hire this year, and to learn about their biggest concerns moving forward.

Here’s how they responded.

Current impact of COVID-19 on HVACR business (as of mid-May 2020)

As of mid-May, the business impacts to HVACR service companies due to COVID-19 are mixed, possibly due to different markets served. Companies servicing customers that provide essential services (such as food service and data centers) have not been affected as severely.

Nearly a third of HVACR service contractors reported no impact to their business (still working at full capacity), and a small portion reported relatively small declines (workforce decreased by up to 25 percent). However, 19 percent of companies reported steep declines (workforce decreased by more than 75 percent), and another 25 percent of companies reported losses of 50 to 75 percent of their workforce.

During the worst of the COVID-19 outbreak, most HVACR service companies continued to operate as essential businesses, and most continued to provide HVAC and Refrigeration maintenance, air conditioning startups, and emergency repairs. Only a small percentage (6 percent) were completely shut down.

Hiring projections for 2020

In spite of the downturn, many of the HVACR companies we surveyed expect a quick return to full capacity once the economy opens up, which presumably will coincide with the start of peak air conditioning season. More than 50 percent do plan to hire this year.

A large majority of companies plan to hire this summer.

Government funding for HVACR companies

The vast majority of the companies we surveyed applied for government loans through the Payroll Protection Program (PPP) and/or EIDL (Economic Injury Disaster Loan) through SBA.

Of those that applied, more than 85 percent were approved for loans, and 57 percent had received the funds as of mid-May.

And, the vast majority of companies do expect to be able to use all or most of the funds as required so that they won’t have to pay back the loan.

Areas of concern for HVACR companies

We asked companies to rate their level of concern about potential issues facing our industry.

Because the largest portion of respondents indicated that labor relations is a primary concern for them, MSCA of New York is investigating those concerns so we can address them with the union.

MSCA members will receive a follow up survey from us soon where you can share your thoughts and opinions on some additional questions about labor relations.

We are also working on publishing some educational resources on our HVACR Career Connect NY website. Those resources will be available to help you train your workforce.

Looking ahead

No one can be sure exactly what will happen in the coming months and how quickly our industry can recover from the pandemic crisis. It’s certainly possible that the economy will rebound quickly once New York City begins to open up. A number of our members did express concern about a second wave of the virus. However, it appears that the majority of HVACR companies we surveyed are currently optimistic about getting back to normal capacity of work this year.

We do plan to repeat this survey during and after the peak summer season, and we will keep you up to date on the results.