Why America is running out of Carpenters?

America has a carpenter problem we've had a regular shortage as far back as the 1940s 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 tradespeople 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 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 honest Carpenter says low pay is a result of the long hours needed to do the job our trade, as opposed to many of the other trades, are often 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 skilled trades but many believe that the starting pay was even less than what it is so not only is carpentry one of the lowest-paying public thinks that the pay is even lower than it we've kind of been beating it down for so long and making it seems 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 there are not a lot of red tapes 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 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 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 fix-it-yourself 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.