Skilled trade workers are already in high demand, and researchers say the industry will continue to see steady job growth in the decade to come.
The State of America’s Skilled Trades report, published Wednesday, found that 1.7 million skilled trade jobs will open each year through 2035. Jobs for the Future and The Burning Glass Institute, nonprofits dedicated to expanding economic opportunities for the American public, are the two research leads on the report.
Researchers anticipate that more than 600,000 net new jobs in the skilled trades will open until the end of 2035. Electricians, plumbers, maintenance workers and carpenters are just a few of the high-demand jobs researchers say the industry is struggling to fill.
Infrastructure demand across the country is a major driver of net job creation in the trades. President of the Burning Glass Institute Matt Sigelman tells CNBC Make It that “big infrastructure projects like AI data centers” and “growing parts of the country,” which require new housing developments, commercial buildouts and power grid expansion, are stimulating job growth in the sector. So, while the overall unemployment rate in September 2026 grew to 4.2% and nonfarm payrolls rose below expectations, according to data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, skilled trades opportunities continue to crop up.
However, net job creation fails to account for the need to replace retiring workers, Sigelman says.
Nearly a quarter of skilled trades workers across the 124 job titles included in the report are 55 or older, while workers under 25 make up only 11% of the workforce. In the broader labor market, the workforce participation rate by those 55 and older has been on the decline since 2024.
“One in 12 trade jobs needs to be replaced in just the next five years,” Sigelman says of the projected changes in the skilled trades workforce. He compares the race to fill these jobs to “running in place” as the industry struggles to fill new jobs and replace retirees.
Despite the many available opportunities, skilled trades still suffer from stigma. A study by the Ad Council Research Institute published Wednesday found that only 33% of students say they would feel respected by others if they worked in trades, compared to 50% who said the same about working in healthcare.
The online survey fielded responses from 3,009 high school students and 2,501 parents of high school students from June 2026 through July 2026. The margin of error for students is plus or minus 1.8% and plus or minus 2% for parents.
Despite what the Ad Council study calls “moderate respect” for skilled trade jobs among teens, its data shows that only 9% of teens consider the trades for their post-graduate careers, while college remains the most popular pathway with 56% of teens considering higher education. At the same time, 71% of teens say they would be proud to go to trade school, and 81% of parents would be proud of their teens for pursuing a skilled trades career.
The public often talks about trades “in a single sweep of the hand” that obscures the 124 skilled trades career paths available, Sigelman says.
While some skilled trades pay below the average starting salary for recent college graduates of $56,153, many trades pay above this mean, according to the most recently available data by the Labor Bureau’s Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics Query System. On the higher end, the annual median wage for elevator and escalator installers and repairers is $109,910. Nuclear power reactor operators also break six figures, with an annual median salary of $122,890.
“The [Ad Council] survey tells us that increasingly people recognize the trades, they respect the trades, but there seems to be a navigation gap. People don’t see their own kids in the trades, they don’t see themselves in the trades,” Sigelman says.
Even when young workers choose to enter skilled trades, the industry faces low conversion rates from postsecondary education programs or registered apprenticeships. Just below half of those who begin their careers through either pathway complete their program, according to the State of Skilled Trades report. The percentage of those in the trades 5 years after completing an apprenticeship or postsecondary education drops to 29% and 34% respectively.
Turnover rates are often symptoms of larger structural challenges, some of which are inherent to trade work, the State of Skilled Trades report found. For carpenters, delays and poor weather conditions can disrupt the working hours apprentices need to complete their program, causing some to quit. Aspiring plumbers, for example, face a range of licensing requirements that can vary within a single state, making it harder to work across state and even county lines.
“It’s a very leaky pipe, and we need to figure out how we do a better job of retaining the people who are coming into the field, even before we try to build greater interest,” Sigelman adds.
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