When George Drazic needs to hire a plumber or electrician for his Austin company, he knows it’s probably going to be an ordeal.
He’ll put an ad online. If he’s lucky, he can hire a qualified applicant within 30 days. But it can take 60. Sometimes 90. Efficient AC, Electric & Plumbing, he said, is running into the same problem many businesses are facing: a shortage of skilled workers. That shortage is already affecting customers.
“If you call and it’s not just a dire emergency, it’s probably next week that we will get to you,” Drazic said. “It’s not today. It’s not tomorrow.”
As the nation continues to struggle with a dearth of skilled workers like carpenters, electricians, plumbers and HVAC specialists, Texas and Austin are seeing the consequences. Construction projects fall behind. Homeowners often wait weeks for help with their air conditioning or clogged sink. What was once an inconvenience is becoming a structural workforce problem, pushing delays, driving up costs and prompting state and local leaders to pursue long-term fixes.
Last week, Gov. Greg Abbott announced the creation of the Texas Jobs Council, an advisory group that will help create training programs in high schools, colleges and through apprenticeships. It will also work with state agencies to develop policy and legislative actions.
The move comes on top of ongoing efforts in Austin to tackle the problem. City leaders launched the Austin Infrastructure Academy last year to recruit, train and support skilled workers, then connect them to jobs. Community colleges, nonprofits and industry leaders are also working on the problem.
But the gap is hard to close in a city booming with construction projects, said Kevin Brackmeyer, CEO of Skillpoint Alliance, a nonprofit that offers free training for electrical, HVAC, plumbing and manufacturing careers.
On the municipal level alone, there’s the $5 billion expansion project at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, the $1.6 billion overhaul of the Austin Convention Center, and the $7.1 billion Project Connect effort to expand Austin’s public transit system.
“There’s $25 billion worth of projects just in the Austin-area alone,” Brackmeyer said. “We’re barely scratching the surface.”
A 2023 report by Austin-based consulting group CivicSol concluded the city would require more than 10,000 new skilled workers every year through 2040 to keep up with demand. But experts say the city doesn’t have enough people to fill that need.
Pitted against billion-dollar projects, average homeowners can scarcely compete and end up low on the list when they need help fixing broken pipes or faulty wiring. That’s when the shortage hits people at home, said David Johnson, executive director of the Central Texas chapter of Independent Electrical Contractors, a trade association.
“It’s affecting us when anybody picks up the phone and calls for an electrician or somebody to come out and work on their swimming pool or their house, and it takes them two weeks to get somebody there,” he said. “The person that shows up doesn’t know what the hell they’re doing because they’ve just been in the trade for only six months.”
Efficient AC, Electric & Plumbing has more than 100 full-time employees. When Drazic advertises for jobs, he said, the company has trouble finding qualified people. Because of that, he sometimes won’t bid on certain projects because he’s not sure he has enough workers to complete them.
The shortage affects customers financially, too, he said. Competition pushes salaries up. Companies also pay for training and licensing of their less experienced employees. It all adds up to bigger bills for customers, he said.
“When you call a plumber and it costs a lot of money, there’s a lot of costs involved in it,” he said.
A career path forward
The shortage stems from multiple factors, Brackmeyer said. Thousands of Baby Boomers have retired from skilled trades, leaving open slots for smaller generations who show less interest in the work. Austin’s booming construction calls for an influx of new workers who don’t exist.
Oftentimes, young people haven’t been exposed to the possibility of becoming electricians, plumbers, carpenters, welders, pipe fitters or other types of skilled workers. Instead, they’ve been steered toward four-year colleges for other professions, he said.
“Many students don’t ever see tools,” Brackmeyer said. “They don’t see job sites. They don’t know what the models are. They don’t know how much money they can make.”
Skillpoint and other organizations connect students with jobs after initial training programs. That can lead to entry-level apprenticeships, where workers are paid as they train with more experienced professionals and can eventually become licensed.
Skillpoint often directs its electrical program graduates to apprenticeships through Johnson’s organization or other contractors, Brackmeyer said. If they do well, salaries for electricians can quickly grow to $45,000. By the time they’re done with their apprenticeships, their salaries often skyrocket.
“There’s the potential that, four years after graduation, they’re pushing six figures,” he said.
Austin’s government, businesses and nonprofits are working hard to recruit people by attending career days at schools, expanding training programs, offering student scholarships and partnering with companies to develop a stronger workforce.
Skillpoint is expanding into other communities and graduating more students, Brackmeyer said. But growth takes money, he said, and progress takes persistence.
While skilled labor jobs are challenging, Johnson said, they can lead to satisfying careers. When he was in the field, he liked the feeling of solving people’s problems.
“There’s nothing more pleasurable,” Johnson said, “than to take a dark building or a dark house and make the lights come on.”
