Facilities management teams and building organizations are bringing new talent into the skilled trades, and the opportunities they’re offering are becoming increasingly attractive to younger workers, experts say.
Buildings’ increasing complexity and strong construction activity in high-growth sectors are expanding the need for skilled trades, according to JLL’s skilled trades talent research report, released in April. These trends are creating demand for workers with advanced skills that can handle more complex building assets, mechanical and electrical specifications and health and safety regulations, the report states.
Though U.S. labor conditions aren’t as tight as they were immediately after the pandemic, demand for skilled trades has been surpassing demand for other major job categories, with annual job postings doubling over the past decade. This outsized growth is expected to continue as the rapid expansion of AI infrastructure and the emphasis on energy efficiency and emissions reduction drive the need for electricians and HVAC technicians in particular. The wave of older workers nearing retirement is also driving demand.
“It’s been building over a number of years,” Paul Morgan, global chief operating officer of real estate management services at JLL, told Facilities Dive. Skilled labor demand is “more acute now than we’ve seen before. And the reason that it’s probably becoming more acute is the fact that we’ve got a retirement cliff that’s building.”
From 2024 to 2034, employment is projected to grow 9.5% for electricians, 8.1% for HVAC technicians, 6% for construction workers and 4.5% for plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters, according to JLL, citing data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. This compares with a 3.1% increase during that time for all occupations, the report says.
Existing talent pipelines are not sufficient to meet the demand: Some 2.1 million skilled trade jobs are expected to go unfilled by 2030, potentially resulting in $1 trillion in annual economic losses. Last year, only about 150,000 new workers entered the skilled trades labor pool through apprenticeship programs, compared with the nearly 600,000 jobs that were posted for major skilled trade positions in the U.S., JLL says in its report.
“The pendulum, however, may be swinging back,” the JLL report states, in part because of the high costs of higher education and the uncertain job outlook for those with four-year degrees.
College tuition has risen 900% since 1983, nearly double the growth rate of medical costs and four times that of housing prices, the JLL report states. “The math is recalibrating” the demand for training by young people, JLL says.
To attract new labor and develop talent in the skilled trades, some organizations are working to lower the barrier of entry to education and help train technicians in the field.
Unlimited Service Group, a coalition of companies that service commercial kitchens across the U.S., has bolstered its worker pipeline using an in-house training school, Training Unlimited, according to Kristen Nowak, USG president of field services.
The training process involves “a mix of sitting in a classroom [and] traditional school learning, plus some hands-on equipment learning within that classroom,” Nowak told Facilities Dive. “And then we pair [trainees] with senior technicians out in the field. It’s that mix of classroom and on-the-job [training] that we think is really critical. That is the ticket to moving them into a [role as a] future technician in our industry.”
The proportion of students and teens considering apprenticeships, vocational schools and technical programs more than tripled from 2018 to 2024, from 12% to 38%, signaling a “generational shift in career expectations,” JLL says. Community college enrollment has also risen 12% over the past five years, compared with 3% growth in enrollment at four-year institutions. Trades-related majors are among the fastest-growing programs at two-year schools.
Worries about white-collar jobs being replaced by AI are adding to the dynamic. “The continued dialogue around AI … doesn’t seem to be abating in any shape or form,” JLL’s Morgan said. “Some roles are starting to get more disrupted. … Some people are now thinking, maybe long term, [that if] this AI disruption continues, ‘Where’s a safer place that I can get longevity in my career?’ I think skilled trades is exactly that.”
Increasing building complexity is helping to attract talent, too, Morgan said. Smart building technologies like IoT platforms, automated building management systems, real-time sensors and analytics are transforming the requirements of certain jobs.
The increased deployment of sophisticated technology like LiDAR scanning and thermal imaging in building maintenance and repairs is a case in point, JLL says in its report.
It’s a “compelling proposition for young, digitally native talent entering the workforce,” the report states, “and a defining opportunity for the industry to rebrand skilled trades as the next-generation, technology-empowered profession it has become.”
Companies are investing $1 billion annually to bring robots into the building trades, according to JLL Research. Robots can conduct building inspections and act as security patrols, among other things, and while still early in development and adoption, can elevate the scope and sophistication of skilled trades in the evolving built environment, JLL says.
“If you think about the broader sense of operations and buildings in the future, that resource is going to be a combination of humans plus robots plus AI agents,” Morgan said. “The workforce of the future is going to be a combination of the physical and the electronic that needs to work in harmony.”
Ensuring that harmony has emerged as a training focus at Unlimited Services Group, according to Nowak. When Training Unlimited began, it just trained technicians on the equipment, without giving much weight to what the customer interaction looks like. That has changed with the amount of technology that its customers are using, she said. The technology and soft skills pieces have become really important to the training, she said.
“We find that, as we bring younger candidates into our school, they’re more savvy with that than maybe some of our older technicians are, and they are bringing some new skills along with them as well,” she said.
Integrating supply and demand
Looking ahead, everyone who has a stake in the skilled workforce should look at both the supply and the demand sides of the equation, JLL said.
The supply side includes trade schools, community colleges, professional advocates like trade associations and unions, government agencies and private organizations, including coalitions of employers.
Unlimited Services Group is trying to boost supply by offering prospective technicians a stipend as they train. “We pay to partner them up with our senior technicians,” Nowak said. “We pay them the whole time, in order for them to be able to make that investment in themselves. That’s what kind of flips the script for these technicians. They are able to invest that time without it impacting their family [or] their personal finances.”
On the demand side, organizations can build school-to-employer pipelines and provide career pathways for upskilling to drive retention. JLL’s report states. Contractor partnerships, co-invested skill-building and pay-for-performance incentives that tie compensation with asset outcomes can also play a role, it states.
In addition, tenants and other building occupiers can use procurement decisions to reward workforce development and partner with operators to identify emerging skills needed, it states.
