High Demand, High Supply – So Where are the Workers?

Once more it’s September, which makes this is our “Back to School” issue, where we spotlight training programs and opportunities around the industry—some for veterans, some for young people just beginning their careers, and everything in-between.

Speaking of those young people, in my last editorial I asked readers to write in with their answers to the question: do attitudes towards the skilled trades seem to be changing among the youth of today? Are more young people turning to the trades as a career?

I’ve only received a handful of answers, and the answers have been mixed. I fear I might have buried the lede, so I’m going to try my question again in a more formal online poll—something I can get in front of people via social media and our weekly newsletters.

But there was one person I was able to put my question to, and her answer gave me a lot of food for thought. She’s a friend of mine who works for a nearby school district and, among the many hats she wears helping educate high-schoolers, she does some work as a guidance counselor.

After all this time writing about the workforce crisis a formula story has emerged, with certain stock characters. The contractors are the good guys (naturally), trying to deliver gainful employment to young people desperate for meaningful work. The helpless victims of our tale are those young people: directionless, drifting, uninspired—facing a bleak future either flipping burgers or sitting in their parent’s basements while their expensive liberal arts degrees gather dust on the shelf.

And the villains are the well-meaning parents and school guidance counselors who insist that every kid—no matter their aptitudes—needs a four-year college degree to succeed in life.

But, quite to the contrary, my guidance counselor friend was well aware of the good, high-paying jobs to be had in the trades. And she had done her best to help several young people get the training and make the contacts they needed to pursue apprenticeships and employment opportunities.

Her big complaint was how difficult the contractors made it for young people to get a foot in the door. Time and again she had young people, willing and able to work, turned away by the plumbing companies. “You have to know someone,” she said. Someone already in the industry, she said, needs to speak up for you—and speak loudly—before anyone will give you a shot.

Which only makes sense. It costs a lot—in time and money—to train an apprentice, and that investment doesn’t always pay off. The work is physically and mentally demanding and, frankly, not everyone is cut out for it. You want to find a kid that will follow through and not quit one year or two years in. Once they’re trained, you want someone loyal enough to stick around and actually work for you instead of leaving to sell their new skills to the highest bidder.

So, we have this paradox. 3.3% of prime working-age men (ages 25 to 54) did not participate in the labor market in June 2025 (according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics), or about 2.2 million people. At the same time, ABC estimates the construction industry will need to bring in nearly 454,000 new workers on top of normal hiring to meet industry demand in 2025.

Plenty of supply, lots of demand, but the workforce crisis continues. Maybe the industry needs to find a way to better distribute the risk; to make gambling on that new person less of a gamble?