Why Skilled Trades Matter More Than Ever
America has a lot left to build.
New roads and bridges. New energy infrastructure. New housing. New manufacturing facilities. New schools, hospitals, and defense projects. At the same time, the infrastructure we already depend on needs to be maintained, repaired, and modernized.
The opportunity is enormous. But there's a challenge standing between the plans and the finished projects:
We need enough skilled people to build them.
Associated Builders and Contractors estimates that the construction industry will need to attract approximately 349,000 net new workers in 2026 just to keep labor supply and demand in balance. And the challenge is expected to grow, with the industry projected to need another 456,000 new workers in 2027. Much of that demand isn't being driven by new construction alone. Retirements are expected to account for the majority of the industry's workforce needs in 2026, making the push to recruit and train the next generation of skilled tradespeople even more urgent.
The skilled trades have always been essential to America. Today, developing the next generation of tradespeople has become critical to what comes next.
Nearly 650,000 Construction Openings Every Year
The workforce challenge isn't limited to one trade.
Looking further ahead, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects approximately 587,000 openings in various trades occupations every year from 2025 through 2035, driven by both employment growth and the need to replace workers who permanently leave these occupations.
Those aren't just workforce statistics. They represent hundreds of thousands of opportunities for the next generation to build meaningful careers while helping build, maintain, and modernize the country.
Look at just a few of the trades:
- Electricians are projected to see approximately 72,700 openings each year
- Carpenters are expected to grow by 62,800
- Plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters could see 42,000 openings
- HVAC technician job opportunities could exceed 40,600.
Those aren't abstract workforce numbers.
They're the people who will wire our buildings, frame our homes, install our mechanical systems, maintain our infrastructure and turn the next generation of American projects into reality.
A Generation of Knowledge Has to Be Passed Down
There's another reason those projected openings matter. Many aren't simply the result of economic growth. They're created when experienced workers retire, leave the workforce or move into other occupations. BLS specifically identifies workforce exits and occupational transfers as major drivers behind projected openings for electricians, carpenters, plumbers and other trades.
When a tradesperson with 25 or 30 years of experience retires, a company doesn't just lose an employee. It loses 30 years of lessons learned on jobsites.
That makes mentorship increasingly important. The next generation needs opportunities to work beside experienced tradespeople while that knowledge can still be passed down.
The Trades Are a Career, Not a Backup Plan
For too long, young people have often been presented with a very narrow definition of success after high school.
College can be an excellent path.
So can the skilled trades.
An apprenticeship gives someone the opportunity to develop specialized skills while gaining real-world experience, and apprenticeship remains the typical path to competency for occupations including electricians, plumbers, sheet metal workers, structural iron and steel workers, and elevator installers. And these can be good-paying careers.
In 2024, the median annual wage was $62,350 for electricians, $62,970 for plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters, and $62,700 for structural iron and steel workers.
The message to the next generation shouldn't be, "You don't have to go to college."
It should be: You have more than one great path available to you.
Solving the skilled labor shortage isn't simply about posting more job openings. Our industry has to show young people what these careers actually look like. That means stronger relationships with high schools and trade programs. More apprenticeships. More mentorship. More opportunities to step onto a jobsite and experience the work firsthand. It also means celebrating the people already doing it.
There's something powerful about driving past a bridge, hospital, school, power plant or building years later and being able to tell your family:
I helped build that.
That's a story our industry should be telling.
The Next Generation Deserves a Safer Jobsite
Recruiting hundreds of thousands of workers, both civilians and veterans, also creates a responsibility for the companies bringing them into the industry. We shouldn't simply teach the next generation how to do the work.
We need to teach them how to do it safely.
The habits someone develops during their first months on a jobsite can influence the rest of their career. Proper PPE, modern head protection, eye and hearing protection, hazard awareness, training and a culture where workers look out for one another should be part of someone's introduction to the trades, not lessons learned after something goes wrong.
Safety should be part of the craft itself.
The Future Is Built by Hand
Construction will continue to change. We'll have smarter equipment, better technology, more automation and increasingly sophisticated ways to design and manage projects.
But somebody still has to build them.
Someone has to wire the building.
Someone has to weld the steel.
Someone has to operate the equipment.
Someone has to install the systems.
Someone has to maintain the infrastructure.
And someone has to turn the plans for America's next generation of infrastructure, energy, housing, manufacturing and public facilities into something real.
At BDG Safety, we're proud to protect the people doing that work today. We also believe our industry has a responsibility to invest in, mentor, train and protect the people who will do it tomorrow.
America has a lot left to build.
The next generation will build it.