> This is the markdown version of https://www.classet.ai/blog/trades-shortage-small-shops > Learn more at https://www.classet.ai ![Low-poly illustration of a small service van and a phone signal arcing toward a cluster of faceted figures](/_next/image?url=%2Fimages%2Fblog%2Ftrades-shortage-small-shops.png&w=3840&q=75) # The Skilled Trades Shortage Is Real. Your Small Shop Is Losing Techs to the Callback. A new national report says the U.S. needs 1.7 million skilled trades workers a year through 2035. Here is why small HVAC, plumbing, and electrical shops still lose the applicants they already have, and how to fix it this week. [![Paul Jones](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.basehub.com%2Fe0b5701f%2F6599306507912123f90f150a8bfaaf6c%2Fscreenshot-2026-01-28-at-10.53.16-am.png%3Fwidth%3D100%26height%3D100%26quality%3D100&w=96&q=75) Paul JonesHead of Growth at Classet ](/blog/authors/paul-jones) October 9, 2026 Skilled Trades, Hiring Tips A new national report says the country needs about 1.7 million skilled trades workers every year through 2035. If you run a ten-truck HVAC shop, you already knew that. The report can't tell you why the plumber who applied to your Indeed post on Saturday night took a job somewhere else by Tuesday. For a small shop, the shortage shows up as a lost callback race: the tech you wanted went to the bigger shop, or the data-center contractor, that called him first. Quick answer The skilled trades shortage in 2026 is large: the Alliance for America's Skilled Trades projects about 1.7 million openings a year through 2035, with training producing 55 workers for every 100 needed. Small shops can't fix the pipeline, but they can stop losing the applicants already in their Indeed inbox. Call applicants the moment they apply, check must-haves on that first call, and spend your own time only on the few who qualify. ## How bad is the skilled trades shortage in 2026? It's large, and the workforce is getting older. The Alliance for America's Skilled Trades, a group founded this year by Ford, Carhartt, BlackRock, and Google, released [The State of America's Skilled Trades](https://skilledtradesreport.com/) in October 2026, built with the Burning Glass Institute. According to [Community College Daily's coverage](https://www.ccdaily.com/2026/10/skilled-trades-need-1-7m-workers-a-year/), the report finds: - About **1.7 million** skilled trades openings a year through 2035. - Nearly **25%** of trades workers are 55 or older, and just **11%** are under 25. - Of every 100 people who start an apprenticeship, 48 finish and only **29** are working in a trade within five years. The report also projects HVAC technician jobs to grow at three times the rate of all occupations and electrician jobs at twice the rate, and says training programs produce [just 55 workers for every 100 needed](https://abcnews4.com/news/nation-world/americas-skilled-labor-gap-17-million-needed-yearly-to-meet-growing-demand-report-says). Then there are the data centers. In the [AGC's 2026 workforce survey](https://www.agc.org/sites/default/files/users/user21902/2026%20Workforce%20Survey%20National%20Release%20%285%29.pdf), 58% of contractors working on data-center projects said those projects increased competition for skilled workers, and 49% reported more wage pressure. The same survey found that only 30% of the smallest firms grew headcount by at least 5% last year, against 79% of firms doing more than $500 million of work. The big employers are adding people while small ones hold steady, and they're drawing from the same pool of techs. We dug into the data-center side in [the data center labor shortage](/blog/data-center-labor-shortage-2026). ## Why do small trades shops lose applicants they already have? Because the hiring process runs on the owner's phone, and the owner is on a roof. Here's the funnel Hambleton Handyman counted before they changed anything: Step Count Applicants 50 Calls made 30 Picked up 15 Interviews booked 6 No-shows 3 Hires 1 Read that from the top. Twenty applicants never got a call. Half of the calls that did go out went unanswered, which is what happens when the owner calls at 2 p.m. on a Wednesday and the candidate is on a job site for his current employer. Of the six interviews booked, three people didn't show, and a no-show in a hot market usually means somebody else made an offer first. The timing makes it worse. About half of applicants apply outside business hours, at night and on weekends, when your office is closed. The shop that calls back Monday afternoon is competing with a regional outfit that has a full-time recruiter, and with a data-center contractor offering overtime. In trades hiring, the first team to call gets the hire. If your applicants aren't picking up when you finally call, we covered why in [Indeed applicants not answering](/blog/indeed-applicants-not-answering). ## How do you hire skilled trades workers as a small business? Make the first call happen the night someone applies, and hand that call off so you only pick up the phone for people who already cleared your must-haves. Most small shops already have enough applicants in Indeed to fill the job. That's what [Classet Hiring Hub](/hiring-hub) does. It's an applicant tracking system (ATS) for shops with no recruiter, with an AI recruiter built in: 1. **Connect your Indeed account.** Post jobs organic or sponsored from Hiring Hub, and applicants land on your board. 2. **Joy calls the moment they apply.** Joy, Classet's AI recruiter, calls applicants the moment they apply, 24/7, including 10 p.m. on a Sunday. 3. **Must-haves get checked on the call.** License, own tools, a valid driver's license, on-call availability: whatever you'd ask first, Joy asks. 4. **Candidates get answers.** Joy answers questions about pay, schedule, and the work from the FAQ you set, so a tech doesn't drop off because nobody told him the pay range. 5. **No-answers get followed up.** Joy texts and emails applicants who miss the call and retries at better hours. 6. **You get a summary.** Each candidate lands on the board (Applied, Needs Review, Outreached, Interview, Offer) with a summary, the recording, and the transcript. You call back the few worth it and decide who moves forward, since nothing gets rejected by software. Joy reads only what the candidate said on the call, never a résumé or the sound of anyone's voice. Most shops go live the same day. You start with 20 free interviews, and Starter is $249 a month billed annually with no per-seat fees ([see pricing](/pricing)). If you're weighing tools, our guide to the [applicant tracking system for small business](/blog/small-business-applicant-tracking-system) compares the options. ## What must-have questions should you ask by trade? Keep the first call short and stick to the questions that end the conversation if the answer is no. Everything else can wait for your callback. Trade Must-have questions for the first call HVAC Do you hold EPA 608 certification? How many years on residential or commercial service? Do you have your own hand tools? Can you take on-call rotation? Plumbing Are you a licensed journeyman or apprentice in this state? Service or new construction experience? Comfortable with drain and sewer work? Electrical What license do you hold, and in which state? Residential, commercial, or both? How many years? Roofing How many years on steep-slope or low-slope roofs? OSHA 10 or fall protection training? Can you start at 6 a.m.? Handyman / general Which trades can you handle unsupervised? Do you have your own tools and a reliable vehicle? All trades Do you have a valid driver's license and a clean enough record to drive a company vehicle? What pay are you looking for? Three to five questions is plenty, because a good tech on his lunch break won't sit through fifteen. ## What should a small shop do about the shortage this week? The national pipeline is out of your hands, but you can cut your own callback time by Friday. - **Pull up your Indeed inbox** and count how many applicants from the last 30 days never got a call. That number is the real cost of how you hire now. - **Write your must-haves down.** Pick three to five from the table above. If you can't name them, you can't screen for them. - **Write a five-line FAQ** with pay range, schedule, on-call expectations, truck policy, and start date. Most early drop-offs come from questions nobody answered. - **Decide who calls back and when.** Block 30 minutes a day for callbacks to people who already cleared your must-haves. - **Put your pay range in the job post.** Data-center and union work pull techs with overtime and stated rates. Put a number on yours. - **Test an automatic first call.** Run your next 20 applicants through [Hiring Hub](/hiring-hub) and compare the board to your old inbox. If you'd rather see what a call sounds like first, [why phone calls beat texts in the trades](/blog/phone-calls-beat-texts-trades) explains why we lead with a call. ## When is Hiring Hub the wrong fit? If your company already runs a larger ATS such as iCIMS or Greenhouse, you don't have to switch to get Joy. We integrate: Classet ATS Sync puts Joy's phone interviews inside the system you already use, and you can see it on a [demo](/demo?ref=blog-trades-shortage-small-shops-mid). If you hire two people a year, a free Indeed post and your own phone will do. Hiring Hub pays off when applicants come in faster than you can call them back. For the broader playbook, see our [skilled trades hiring page](/use-cases/skilled-trades). ## Common questions ### How big is the skilled trades shortage? The Alliance for America's Skilled Trades projects about 1.7 million skilled trades openings a year through 2035, driven by growth and retirements. Nearly a quarter of trades workers are 55 or older, and only 11% are under 25. Training programs produce about 55 workers for every 100 needed. ### How do I hire HVAC technicians faster? Call applicants the moment they apply, not days later. Ask the must-haves on that first call (EPA 608, years of service experience, own tools, on-call availability) and answer pay and schedule questions right away. Then spend your own time calling back only the techs who qualified. ### Do small businesses need an applicant tracking system? If you hire a few people a year, probably not. If Indeed applicants pile up faster than you can call them, a small-business ATS keeps everyone on one board so nobody gets lost. Classet Hiring Hub is an ATS that also calls applicants for you. ### Will tradespeople talk to an AI on the phone? Across 10,167 post-interview ratings, 88% of candidates rated their Classet interview positively, and under 1% opted out. A phone call works for techs because it needs no camera, no app, and no quiet room. They can take it from the truck. ### Does the AI decide who I hire? No. Joy asks your questions, checks your must-haves, and puts a summary, recording, and transcript on your board. You read them and decide who to call back. Nothing is rejected by software. ## Key points - The Alliance for America's Skilled Trades projects about 1.7 million trades openings a year through 2035, and only 29 of every 100 apprentices are working in a trade five years later. - Data-center work is pulling skilled labor: 58% of contractors on those projects told the AGC competition for workers went up. - Small shops mostly lose techs to slow callbacks, not to a lack of applicants. Hambleton Handyman's 50 applicants turned into one hire. - Ask three to five must-have questions on the first call and answer pay and schedule questions right away. - Classet Hiring Hub connects to Indeed, and Joy calls applicants the moment they apply so you call back only the few worth it. [Start with 20 free interviews on Classet Hiring Hub](https://app.classet.ai/signup), or [book a demo](/demo?ref=blog-trades-shortage-small-shops-bottom) to see it on your own job post. [![Paul Jones](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.basehub.com%2Fe0b5701f%2F6599306507912123f90f150a8bfaaf6c%2Fscreenshot-2026-01-28-at-10.53.16-am.png%3Fwidth%3D100%26height%3D100%26quality%3D100&w=128&q=75) Paul Jones Head of Growth at Classet Paul comes from an operator background running an Alpine-owned company, and brings firsthand experience with the hiring challenges Classet was built to solve. He's driven by a belief that the right technology can make meaningful work more accessible. ](/blog/authors/paul-jones) Follow Classet in Google Add classet.ai as a preferred source and our hiring research is more likely to show up in your Top Stories and AI Overviews. 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