The nation will need to fill about 1.7 million skilled-trades job openings each year through 2035, underscoring a challenge that goes beyond getting more people into training. More students and apprentices also need to finish their programs and land jobs in the trades.
That’s one of the main takeaways from “The State of America’s Skilled Trades,” a new report from the Alliance for America’s Skilled Trades, whose founding members include BlackRock, Carhartt, Ford and Google. The report looks at 124 occupations in construction, production, extraction, installation, maintenance and repair.
More than 18 million Americans work in the skilled trades, contributing an estimated $3.8 trillion to the U.S. economy in 2025. The report projects more than 600,000 net new skilled-trades jobs through 2035, with 86 of the 124 occupations expected to grow or hold steady.
But new jobs are only part of the story. Employers also will need workers to replace people who retire, change occupations or leave the trades for other reasons. Nearly one-quarter of skilled-trades workers are 55 or older, while just 11% are younger than 25.
Joseph B. Fuller, co-director of the Harvard Project on Workforce, said investments in infrastructure, advanced manufacturing, energy, transportation and data centers are colliding with retirements and rapid technological change.
“Those forces are converging faster than our education and workforce systems have historically been able to adapt,” he wrote in the report’s foreword.
Along with the report, the alliance launched a dashboard to examine skilled-trades employment and workforce supply and demand by state and occupation.
Broaden the workforce
One way to help fill the workforce gap is to bring more people into the trades, especially from historically underrepresented populations, the report notes.
- Women account for just 10.5% of skilled-trades workers overall. They represent only 3.6% of construction and extraction workers and 4% of workers in installation, maintenance and repair.
- Black, non-Hispanic workers comprise 8.7% of the skilled-trades workforce and 5.2% of construction and extraction workers.
- Hispanic workers of any race represent 25% of skilled-trades workers overall and 33.3% of construction and extraction workers.
More than adding training seats
The research, led by Jobs for the Future and the Burning Glass Institute, also finds that formal training pathways aren’t producing enough workers to meet expected demand. For every 100 workers the nation will need, about 55 people are being prepared through pathways that can be consistently measured, according to the report. The authors caution that the figure doesn’t capture every route into the trades, particularly jobs in which employers hire and train workers directly.
Community and technical colleges have a major role to play. About 35% of skilled-trades employment is in occupations where a postsecondary credential, such as a certificate or associate degree, is the typical way into the field. Registered apprenticeships are the typical route for occupations representing another 27% of employment.
But the report argues that simply creating more programs or adding seats won’t solve the problem. Students have to make it through. Of every 100 students who enter a related postsecondary program, 48 complete a program and 34 eventually work in a skilled trade, according to the analysis.
The numbers are similar for apprenticeships. Of every 100 people who begin a skilled-trades apprenticeship, 48 complete it and 29 enter a trade occupation within five years of leaving the apprenticeship. The report cautions that the postsecondary and apprenticeship figures come from different datasets and shouldn’t be directly compared.
For colleges and other training providers, that shifts the focus from how many people start a program to what happens to them afterward.
The report recommends tracking whether students complete programs, find related jobs, increase their earnings, stay in the field and advance in their careers. It also calls for stronger connections among career and technical education, pre-apprenticeships, colleges, registered apprenticeships, work-based learning and employers.
Wisconsin model
The report highlights the Wisconsin Technical College System as an example of how colleges can tie programs closely to local workforce needs. Its 16 colleges serve about 290,000 students and offer more than 500 programs leading to associate degrees, technical diplomas and certificates, as well as classroom instruction for apprenticeships. New programs must demonstrate employer demand within a college’s district, and employers serve on program advisory committees.
The approach appears to be producing strong employment results. Among 2025 graduates in the labor force, 92% were employed within six months, and 81% were working in fields related to their education, according to the report. A 2026 employer survey found 97% satisfaction with graduates’ education.
Individual colleges are taking different approaches.
- Chippewa Valley Technical College operates Wisconsin’s only technical-college-sponsored roadway maintenance apprenticeship and offers pre-apprenticeships in welding, machine tooling and mechatronics. The college also uses mobile welding labs to bring training directly to employers.
- Lakeshore College manages a youth apprenticeship consortium involving 13 high school districts.
- Madison College provides related instruction for a youth apprenticeship program that reaches 42 school districts, 83 occupations and more than 100 employer partners.
Community colleges in other states also are featured in the report.
- In New York, Mohawk Valley Community College, Monroe Community College and Onondaga Community College are partners in the Manufacturers Talent Institute, which connects career exploration, pre-apprenticeship and registered apprenticeship with manufacturers.
- In Colorado, Arapahoe Community College and Community College of Denver are among the partners working with the Cherry Creek Innovation Campus. The high school career and technical education campus combines academic and college credit, industry credentials and hands-on learning with pathways to employment, apprenticeships and college.
Not one national shortage
One of the report’s cautions is that there isn’t a single national shortage of skilled-trades workers. The need varies considerably depending on the occupation and where the jobs are located.
Among six occupations examined closely, industrial machinery mechanics, machinery maintenance workers and millwrights collectively rank in the 98th percentile nationally for shortage pressure. Electricians rank in the 85th percentile, while automotive service technicians and mechanics rank in the 54th percentile.
Electrician employment grew about 10% from 2019 to 2025 and is projected to increase another 9.2% over the coming decade. HVAC employment jumped nearly 20% during the same period and is expected to grow another 10.9%. The outlook is even stronger for industrial machinery mechanics, with employment projected to increase about 17.8% over the coming decade.
For colleges, the takeaway is to look locally before expanding. The report recommends examining what’s actually driving worker shortages in a particular occupation and region, giving students more opportunities for workplace experience and strengthening existing pathways that are working before creating new ones.
“We cannot afford to miss this moment,” Fuller wrote. “The decisions we make now will shape the future of American infrastructure and determine who benefits from future investments.”
Editor’s note: AI was used in portions of this article.
