1.7 Million Skilled Trades Openings a Year Through 2035, Report Says

The United States projects roughly 1.7 million skilled trades job openings every year through 2035, yet current training programs produce just 55 workers for every 100 needed. That is the headline finding of a new report from the Alliance for America's Skilled Trades, a coalition formed over the summer by BlackRock, Carhartt, Ford Motor Company and Google and published October 1, 2026.

The report, developed with the national nonprofit Jobs for the Future, examines 124 skilled trades occupations across all 50 states to assess where workers are needed and whether training capacity is keeping pace. It also comes with an interactive dashboard that lets employers, educators and policymakers drill down to the most acute local shortages.

Where the demand sits

At the national level, close to 70% of the 124 occupations studied should add jobs or hold steady through the next decade, according to the Alliance. Role-level detail is sharper still: employment of electricians is projected to grow at twice the rate for all occupations, HVAC technicians at three times, and industrial machinery mechanics at five times.

Geography matters. The report identifies nine states where demand for skilled workers outpaces supply: Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas.

For an individual, the arithmetic is blunt. In those nine states and in the fastest-growing occupations, an apprentice who completes training enters a market structurally short of qualified labor — a shortage the Alliance does not expect training pipelines to close at current capacity.

Why pipelines leak

"We absolutely need more people entering the skilled trades, but that's only part of the challenge," said Maria Flynn, president and CEO of Jobs for the Future. "What stood out to us in the research is how many different places we're losing people or simply don't have enough capacity to meet demand."

The report finds no single choke point. Only a quarter of high school guidance counselors often recommend an apprenticeship, compared with nearly 9 in 10 who often recommend a four-year college. Of those who do start an apprenticeship, fewer than half complete the program, and only about 29 out of every 100 are working in a trade occupation within five years.

Practical barriers compound the attrition. Trainees face transportation gaps, child care needs and out-of-pocket costs for tools and work boots they cannot yet afford. Paid apprenticeships — where workers "earn while they learn" — can make training feasible at all. "For many workers, that makes training possible in the first place," Flynn said.

Employer design matters too. The Newark Electrical Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee in Ohio strengthened its up-front orientation and first-year training model after analyzing where apprentices dropped out; roughly 90% now make it through the first year.

A bigger coalition

The Alliance announced Wednesday that it is expanding with 14 new partners: AT&T, Barton Malow, Blackstone, Cintas Corporation, DEWALT, Dycom, The Hershey Company, ManpowerGroup, Meta, Microsoft, Milwaukee Tool, NVIDIA, Verizon and Waymo. Member companies commit to expanding access to training, apprenticeships and career pathways.

For workers weighing an entry point, Flynn's advice is to research outcomes rather than enrollment: "What does the training cost? Are you paid while you learn? How many people finish? Does the program connect directly to employers? What do people earn afterward?"

With 1.7 million annual openings projected through 2035 and completion rates below 50%, the shortfall — and the bargaining power it hands qualified tradespeople — looks set to persist well into the next decade.