As parts of the U.S. job market show signs of slowing, demand for skilled tradespeople remains strong, with more than 300,000 trade jobs unfilled, according to Home Builders Institute (HBI) President and CEO Ed Brady.
In an interview with Fox, Brady said the shortage is creating challenges across construction and infrastructure. “With 300,000 empty jobs in the trades today—plumbers, electricians, painters, HVAC technicians—we’re really challenged with building the infrastructure, building the commercial bridges, roads, and homes in this country today,” Brady said.
Brady said the rapid construction of data centers is adding pressure by drawing contractors and skilled workers away from residential construction. Data centers themselves are expected to require hundreds of thousands of workers. This gap is partly driven by surging demand for AI infrastructure and cloud computing, increasing competition for specialized workers such as electricians and HVAC technicians.
Around 41 percent of the current construction workforce is expected to retire by 2031, and nearly 20 percent of workers are already over 55. “We have to bring more people into this industry. We have to provide resources and opportunities for our young people to get into the skilled trades,” Brady said. The wave of retirements is also expected to create a significant knowledge gap, particularly in specialized roles.
Brady said attracting younger workers is increasingly important as retirements and turnover continue to strain the industry’s workforce. “We’re losing more than we’re bringing into the industry. So this problem is going to be accentuated even before it is improved,” Brady said.
During the current shortage, Black workers remain underrepresented in the skilled trades. According to a story in the Lexington Herald-Leader, racism, pay disparities and pipeline challenges all contribute to this gap. The number of Black workers in these fields is disproportionately small, representing just 6 percent of skilled tradespeople compared with almost 14 percent of the total U.S. population. Conversely, Hispanic and Latino workers make up 21.9 percent of tradespeople compared with 19 percent of the population, while white workers account for 65.9 percent of all tradespeople and represent 75.3 percent of the total population.
Brady said skilled trades can provide young workers with a path to high earnings and eventually business ownership. “We need to educate our young people. We need to educate parents, educators, and legislators that these are six-figure jobs. These are people that are coming out of high school making $30 an hour, have the opportunity to own their own business, and we need to educate,” he said.
National earnings data also show racial differences among skilled-trades workers. Black tradespeople are the lowest average earners, making about $36,816 per year. In contrast, Asian tradespeople make $40,710 per year, white tradespeople earn an average salary of $39,552, and Latino and Hispanic workers make an average of $38,186.
The broader U.S. labor force is also approaching a demographic shift. The labor force is projected to shrink by 2.7 million workers from 2030 to 2040, according to Steven Ruggles, a professor of history and population studies at the University of Minnesota and creator of the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series, or IPUMS, a widely used population database. Ruggles said the workforce is projected to grow by 9.1 million from 2020 to 2030, marking the smallest number of net entrants into the workforce since the 1960s.
“Some people think AI is going to take away all jobs. But there are going to be very few people who are searching for jobs, relative to the size of the economy,” Ruggles told CBS News.
The demographic shift is already accelerating. In 2025, a record 4.18 million Americans—more than 11,400 people per day—turned 65, according to Census data. “Baby boomers are quickly leaving the scene, and there aren’t very many young people,” Ruggles added.
While Ruggles expects the labor force decline to be relatively short-lived, he said it could create significant opportunities for younger workers. “This is likely to lead to rising wages for young people, stronger unions, and lower inequality,” he said. “For the few people entering the labor force, there is going to be an outstanding economic opportunity. They are going to do very well.”
