Skilled tradesRead at source, 24 September 2026
Electrician shortage 2026: what the data shows, and where the openings come from
The electrician shortage is mostly a replacement problem: the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects about 72,700 electrician openings a year from 2025 to 2035, many of them replacing electricians who retire or change occupations. In Boostpoint’s 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark, skilled trades campaigns ran a median $14.14 per applicant, with 15% of clickers applying. Growth is real as well, 9 percent over the decade, which BLS calls much faster than average. But it adds about 7,590 jobs a year, so roughly nine in ten openings are seats that someone leaves. And because an apprenticeship takes four to five years, the pipeline cannot refill quickly.
Electrician shortage 2026, in numbers
Two federal surveys count electricians, and they give different totals because they measure different things. Each figure below says which survey it comes from.
| Measure | Figure | Source and what it counts |
|---|---|---|
| Electrician jobs, 2025 | 821,000 | BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook (employment projections base; includes the self-employed, 7% of electricians) |
| Electricians employed, May 2025 | 757,220 | BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (wage survey of employers; as published on our skilled trades shortage page) |
| Projected growth, 2025–35 | 9% (much faster than average), +75,900 jobs | BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook |
| Openings a year, 2025–35 | About 72,700 | BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook |
| Share of openings that are replacements | About 90% | Our skilled trades shortage page: one minus growth per year (7,590) over openings |
| Median pay, May 2025 | $63,190 a year ($30.38 an hour) | BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook |
| Lowest 10% / highest 10% of earners | Under $42,640 / over $108,510 | BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook |
| Typical entry route | High school diploma, then an apprenticeship | BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook |
The handbook and the wage survey are different surveys with different reference points, so we show each as published rather than reconciling them. Some older pages quote the previous 2024–34 handbook edition, which put openings at about 81,000 a year; the current edition, used here, puts them at 72,700.
Is there an electrician shortage? Openings against the apprentice pipeline
Measured by the openings BLS projects, yes: about 72,700 electrician seats open every year for the next decade. Measured by the job openings rate, the picture is looser than the headlines suggest. Construction’s openings rate ran 3.1% over January to July 2026, below the 4.4% across all industries, as our skilled trades shortage analysis shows. The shortage is not a flood of unfilled demand across the economy. It is a steady, large replacement load in a trade that takes years to enter.
That is where the pipeline matters. BLS says most electricians learn the trade in a 4- or 5-year apprenticeship, with about 2,000 hours of paid on-the-job training each year plus technical instruction, and that most states require electricians to pass a test and be licensed. An apprentice who starts in 2026 is typically a licensed journeyworker around the end of the decade. Every retirement a contractor feels this year was, in effect, supposed to be covered by someone who started an apprenticeship around 2021.
The number that would settle the question is how many electrician apprentices complete their programs each year, set against the 72,700 openings. The Department of Labor publishes registered apprenticeship completions only in interactive dashboards, and we could not read a national electrician completion count at source, so we do not quote one. What can be said without it: the pipeline runs on a four- to five-year lag, so a contractor who waits for the market to produce finished journeyworkers is waiting on hiring decisions other employers made years ago.
The practical reading
The shortage you feel is the shortage of licensed, experienced electricians, almost all of whom are already employed. Apprentices and helpers are a different, larger pool, and the contractors who hire and train them are the ones building the next decade’s journeyworkers.
Why is there an electrician shortage? Replacement, not only growth
BLS gives two reasons for the openings, and they are different sizes.
Replacement is the big one. BLS says many of the 72,700 annual openings come from the need to replace workers who transfer to other occupations or leave the labor force, for example to retire. Our skilled trades shortage page does the arithmetic on the published figures: projected growth of 75,900 over ten years is about 7,590 a year, so about 90% of openings are replacements. Nine in ten seats open because someone left, not because the work grew.
Growth is real, and it is concentrated in new kinds of work. The projected 9% increase is much faster than the average for all occupations. BLS attributes it to electricians being needed to connect solar and wind generation to homes, businesses and power grids, to data centers, and to grid upgrades, alongside the ongoing installation and replacement of electrical systems in buildings. That work pulls electricians toward utility-scale and industrial projects, which matters for any contractor competing for the same people.
So there are two kinds of electrician shortage running at once: a steady replacement problem everywhere, and a growth problem that lands wherever the big energy and data center projects are.
Where the electrician shortage bites hardest: what regional data can and cannot show
National figures describe the country; your shortage is a county. A published measure of the electrician gap state by state, openings against available licensed electricians, does not exist in a form we could verify, so this section describes what drives local differences rather than ranking states.
- Licensing is state by state. Most states require a test and a license, so a journeyworker licensed elsewhere may need to qualify again before working for you. Where states recognize each other’s licenses, the effective pool is wider.
- Large projects pull locally. Because growth is tied to power generation, grid work and data centers, a new plant or campus nearby can absorb a large share of a local pool at once, whatever the national numbers say.
- Who employs electricians shapes who you compete with. BLS puts 66% of electricians at electrical contractors, 7% self-employed, 6% in manufacturing, 3% in government and 2% in employment services. A plant or a city hiring its own electricians is competing with contractors for the same people.
- Retirements are uneven. A market with an older workforce will see more of the replacement load land at once than the national average suggests.
For your own market, the BLS state and area data on the handbook’s electrician page gives local employment and wage estimates. Your pay against the next contractor’s, and how many of your own electricians can retire in the next five years, will tell you more than any national ranking.
What the electrician shortage does to pay
A replacement shortage shows up in pay spread more than in a single headline wage. BLS reports a May 2025 median of $63,190 a year ($30.38 an hour), with the lowest 10% earning under $42,640 and the highest 10% over $108,510. The range is wide because apprentices, journeyworkers and masters are all counted as electricians.
| Top industries employing electricians | Median annual wage, May 2025 |
|---|---|
| Government | $79,820 |
| Manufacturing | $74,550 |
| Electrical contractors and other wiring installation contractors | $61,570 |
| Employment services | $57,760 |
Source: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, electricians.
Two things follow for anyone hiring. First, electrical contractors, which employ 66% of electricians, sit below government and manufacturing at the median, so a contractor is often recruiting against employers that pay more and offer steadier hours. Second, the $57,760 median for electricians in employment services, the staffing industry, is below the contractor median, so an electrician working through a staffing firm may be open to a direct offer that names a real hourly rate. BLS also notes that almost all electricians work full time and that overtime is expected during scheduled maintenance and on construction sites, so the schedule is part of the pay conversation.
What contractors are doing about it
The contractors who keep crews staffed tend to do three things. They advertise continuously to employed electricians, with the rate, license level and the truck in the first line, instead of posting when someone quits. They build their own entry route by hiring apprentices and helpers and advertising the apprenticeship itself. And they fix the application, because licensed electricians on a phone between jobs give a form about a minute.
On cost, electricians fall into the skilled trades role family in Boostpoint’s 2026 benchmark: across 35 campaign-months, a $14.14 median cost per applicant, with the middle half between $7.58 and $21.49 and a 15% apply rate. We do not publish an electrician-only figure, because most trades campaigns advertise several trades at once. The full hiring method, from the form fields to cut to the case for and against agencies, is on our electrician recruiting page, and the wider trades picture is in our skilled trades recruiting guide.
What this page cannot tell you
It cannot tell you how short your market is. The BLS figures describe the whole country over a decade, the apprenticeship completion count is not published in a form we could quote, and a state-by-state gap measure does not exist in a form we could verify. What the data does establish is the shape: a large, steady replacement load, real growth tied to energy and data center work, and a pipeline that takes four to five years to refill.
Frequently asked questions
Is there an electrician shortage?
Yes, mainly as a replacement shortage. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects about 72,700 electrician openings a year from 2025 to 2035, and about 90% of them replace electricians who retire or leave the trade rather than adding new jobs. Construction’s overall job openings rate, 3.1% over January to July 2026, is below the all-industry rate, so the tight part of the market is licensed, experienced electricians rather than construction as a whole.
Why is there an electrician shortage?
Because electricians retire and leave faster than a four- to five-year apprenticeship can replace them, and because demand is growing. BLS projects 9% growth from 2025 to 2035, much faster than average, driven by connecting solar and wind generation to the grid, data centers and grid upgrades. But growth adds only about 7,590 jobs a year, so most of the 72,700 annual openings are replacements.
How many electricians are needed each year?
About 72,700 a year on average from 2025 to 2035, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook. That covers both new jobs, a projected 75,900 over the decade, and the much larger number of seats that open when electricians retire or change occupations. The previous 2024–34 edition of the handbook projected about 81,000 openings a year, so older articles often quote that figure.
What does the electrician shortage look like in 2026?
A steady replacement load rather than a sudden spike. BLS counts 821,000 electrician jobs in 2025, projects 9% growth to 2035 and about 72,700 openings a year. The May 2025 median wage was $63,190. BLS ties the growth to power generation, grid upgrades and data centers, so how tight your local market feels depends partly on whether those projects are near you.
How much do electricians make?
The median wage for electricians was $63,190 a year, or $30.38 an hour, in May 2025, according to BLS. The lowest 10% earned under $42,640 and the highest 10% over $108,510. By industry, the median was $79,820 in government, $74,550 in manufacturing, $61,570 at electrical contractors and $57,760 in employment services. BLS notes that apprentices are paid for their on-the-job training.
How long does it take to become an electrician?
Usually four to five years. BLS says most electricians learn the trade in a 4- or 5-year apprenticeship, with about 2,000 hours of paid on-the-job training each year plus technical instruction. The typical entry requirement is a high school diploma or equivalent, and most states require electricians to pass a test and be licensed. That training lag is why the shortage of licensed electricians cannot be fixed quickly.
Why do sources give different numbers of electricians?
Because they come from different BLS surveys. The Occupational Outlook Handbook counts 821,000 electrician jobs in 2025 on its projections base, which includes the self-employed. The Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey counts 757,220 electricians employed in May 2025 from an employer survey. Both are correct for what they measure; neither should be subtracted from the other to estimate a shortage.
What can contractors do about the electrician shortage?
Recruit continuously rather than when someone quits, and recruit the employed. Put the hourly rate, license level and vehicle in the first line of the ad, keep the application to a few questions on a phone, call back the same day, and hire apprentices you train yourself. In Boostpoint’s 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark, skilled trades campaigns ran a median $14.14 per applicant.
Nine in ten openings are replacements. Plan for them.
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