Electricians are in high demand, and the field of electricity is a lucrative specialized trade to dedicate oneself to. But what does it take to become an electrician? Learn more about the job obligations, education, job growth, and salary of electricians with similar occupations. Most electricians learn through an internship, but some start by attending technical school. Most states require electricians to be licensed.
Apprentices receive less pay than fully trained electricians, but their salary increases as they learn to do more. The Payments tab describes typical incomes and how workers in the occupation are compensated: annual wages, hourly wages, commissions, tips, or bonuses. Within each occupation, earnings vary depending on experience, responsibility, performance, seniority and geographical area. For most profiles, this tab has a table with salaries in the main industries that employ the occupation. It does not include the salaries of self-employed workers, agricultural workers or workers in private households because these data are not collected by the Employment and Occupational Wage Statistics Survey (OEWS), the source of BLS wage data in the OOH.
The Job Outlook tab describes the factors that affect employment growth or the decline in employment and, in some cases, describes the relationship between the number of job seekers and the number of job offers. Five years later, there are still concerns about the shortage of certified electricians. But what is behind the scarcity and what has changed? Here's a summary of the current state and what you can expect in the future. As with many problems, this is the result of a mismatch between supply and demand. On the supply side, not enough young workers are entering the construction industry, as experienced electricians retire in record numbers.
But there is also a demand problem. More electricians will be needed to meet our nation's growing electricity needs. The first cause of the shortage of electricians is that experienced electricians are leaving the industry. While many of these retirees are part of the normal employment cycle, some are premature exits. This means that the pandemic may have pushed some electricians to retire earlier. While it's too early to know how COVID-19 affected the long-term outlook for electrician jobs, the short-term impact isn't promising.
One of the reasons for this change is that younger generations aren't as interested in skilled labor. Instead of attending trade school or seeking an apprenticeship position, young adults enroll in two- or four-year colleges and universities. Millennials are much more likely to attend college than previous generations - 39% of millennials have a bachelor's degree or higher compared to 29% of Gen X members. Members of Generation Z, the generation behind Millennials, are even more likely to enroll in college. This change is one of the reasons why hiring staff in high school is a key tactic for addressing the shortage of electricians.
When high school students learn what it's like to be an electrician, they can get excited about the field and consider pursuing it as a profession. Another factor that confirms this point is the increase in residential electrical permits which have currently increased by 31.6% compared to times before pandemic and approval of permits takes an average of up to 30 days. This is without taking into account increase in charging residential and light commercial electric vehicles, storage batteries and proliferation solar integration - people are consuming more electricity than before and more electricians are needed to install and maintain these electrical systems. Not all industries are experiencing a shortage of electricians in same way - while overall demand for electricians is increasing some industries are growing more than others. The construction industry employs majority of electricians with about 537700 people which is expected to grow by 11.3% over next 8 years including influx residential demand in residential and light commercial sectors (electric vehicle chargers battery storage solar energy) demand will almost double to almost 21%. While shortage skilled labor is huge problem taking action this way can help mitigate overall impact on our industry businesses - since January Qmerit has been working hard to help solve current shortage electricians - Qmerit workforce development team has successfully helped hire 153 electricians by helping contractors maximize best hiring practices hire apprentice official electricians - staff team also provides consulting support help retain staff develop skills electricians - once hired Qmerit contractor can access Qmerit contractor network collaborate access Qmerit Resource Center (QRC).
The QRC provides you and your technicians with access to latest training tutorials technical guides best practices updates latest trends emerging electrification technologies - story recent years been demand electricians growing field electricity lucrative specialized trade dedicate themselves - but still case? So should consider career field electricity? Only if enjoy satisfaction being one most demand fields specialization good salary without worrying job security - downside? If want become first-rate electrician have study hard work hard - will have do formal internship need obtain license so if looking easy way out might want look elsewhere (good luck finding job easy pays well) other hand if have work ethic want create fantastic life yourself family career field electricity may perfect you. So how do you start? Simply complete form page IEC representative will contact you - our training programs include combination classroom instruction hands-on work will assigned apprentice position which along with...
