In addition to the huge problem of non-working EV chargers, the push to electrification has another major issue: the lack of qualified journeymen electricians for residential and commercial installations.
According to Eric Feinberg, chief workforce officer at Qmerit, which connects installation companies and automakers with skilled electrical professionals, there were 1.2 million electricians identified by the 2000 US Census and just 610,000 in 2020.
Although the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) says the number had grown to 762,600 by 2022, the current trend is negative with retirements and other factors. BLS expects the labor pool of electricians to shrink 14% from 2023 to 2030. It’s currently shrinking 2% a year, says Qmerit.
The demand for new electricians is definitely growing. BLS reports, “About 73,500 openings for electricians are projected each year, on average, over the decade. Many of those openings are expected to result from the need to replace workers who transfer to different occupations or exit the labor force, such as to retire.”
According to BLS, “Employment of electricians is projected to grow 6% from 2022 to 2032, faster than the average for all occupations.”
Qmerit estimates that more than 142,000 new US electricians (over a 710,000 base) will be needed on the job by 2030 to meet the goals established by the Biden Administration, which wants half of all new cars sold by that year to be battery electric.
“A key factor is that, over the last 20 years, the majority of high school students gravitate to college, not blue-collar jobs,” Feinberg said. “What’s happened over the years is that demand for services is increasing with the electrification renaissance—but without enough trained electricians.”
Trends in the labor force point to the larger problem. Baby Boomers 55 and older are heading into retirement in larger numbers, says Pew Research. In the third quarter of 2020, Pew said, 28.6 million Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) retired, compared to 25.4 million who retired in the same quarter of 2019.
And younger people entering the job market aren’t all that enthusiastic about the building trades—just 16.7% wanted work in construction, according to a 2021 high school and college student survey cited in the Electrification Institute Electrification 2030 report, compared to 76.5% interested in working in technology.
