Where Are The Carpenters!?

America has a carpenter problem we've

had a regular shortage as far back as

the 1940s in fact there have only been

two significant reprieves for

construction as a whole since then the

2008 Great Recession and the 2020

pandemic but in 2022 as American home

construction approaches pre-2008 levels

it's all coming to a head across all the

construction Fields there's an estimated

shortage of some 650 000 trades people

but it was specifically Carpenters above

all that topped the National Association

of home builders 2021 list of

subcontractors that are in short supply

Builders just can't find them and it

will be even worse if it wasn't for the

pandemic fueled supply issues so of all

the skilled trades why carpentry what

are the main culprits for carpentry's

falling appeal where have they all gone

we can break down the mass Exodus down

to three reasons compensation

certification and early retirement the

median annual income of a carpenter is

just over forty eight thousand dollars

that's significantly less than

Boilermakers plumbers brick masons and

electricians Ethan James The Man Behind

the YouTube channel the honest Carpenter

says low pay is a result of the long

hours it needed to do the job our trade

as opposed to many of the other trades

is a i hour volume job plumbers are

often in and out if it's a repair many

of those repairs occur in a day but

Carpenters a deck or something like that

is going to translate into hundreds of

labor hours it's going to be tricky for

your Carpenter to demand

90 an hour if they're going to be there

for 300 hours or something depending on

the complexity of the job but the

nation's lack of qualified Carpenters is

part of a bigger Trend in 2021 Stanley

Black and Decker and KRC research spoke

to 800 high schoolers 200 parents and

500 workers in skilled trade professions

the survey found that the majority of

young people have favorable views of the

skilled trades but that many believe

that the starting pay was even less than

what it actually is

so not only is carpentry one of the

lowest paying skilled labor jobs but the

public thinks that the pay is even lower

than it actually is we've kind of been

beating it down for so long and making

it seem like a dead end path or career

more like a punishment is how I see it

like if you mess up

you're gonna have to build stuff

certifications and licenses or lack

thereof also play a big role in

Carpenter's pay to become an electrician

or plumber in Most states you need a

certification or license to practice

carpentry however has less rigid

standards

Ethan James worries that when just about

anyone can call themselves a carpenter

it may lose its meaning and value if you

were in North Carolina with me you could

put a tool belt on and say I'm a

professional Carpenter and advertise

yourself as a professional Carpenter

there's not a lot of red tape you have

no way of knowing what the breadth of

their experience is or what their

qualified to handle I mean these days

everybody's level of carpentry

experience is like 100 percent unique to

them the pandemic spurred a lot of early

retirees in the carpentry field suddenly

a large group of them was gone according

to the associated builders and

contractors the average age of

retirement for construction workers is

61. today a staggering one-fifth of the

current Workforce is over the age of 55.

there's a fear that in the next 10 years

the majority of the remaining carpenters

will retire and will be left with even

fewer we're losing and we're not

replacing them we're also losing their

knowledge base which is just as

important because uh we're not seeing

the kind of information transfer from

the older generation to the younger

generation that we've had essentially

for every generation in human history

for thousands of years for the first

time ever we're not getting it there is

some hope though in our high schools

according to the Department of Education

there was a major dip in construction

class enrollment in American high

schools from 2007 to 2017. the past few

years though have shown a rise in

interest once again some attribute this

to social media and reality television

programs centered around homes and

general construction the Carpenters with

these accounts inject humor and

personalities into their educational fix

it yourself videos like many things in

America the future of carpentry depends

on its youth my dad always said when I

was young doctors will always be

necessary because people always get sick

it's like Carpenters are just doctors

for houses and houses will always get

sick too so carpenters will always be

necessary in the future.