Hiring technicians during a skilled trades shortage

The shortage in numbers

Every home service owner feels it: good technicians are hard to find and harder to keep. The data agree. US construction job openings stood at 289,000 in September 2026, up from 194,000 a year earlier^[1]. Pay is rising in response: average hourly earnings of production and nonsupervisory employees at specialty trade contractors reached $39.05 in September 2026, up 4.7% on a year earlier^[4].

The long-term outlook is the same. BLS projects employment of HVAC mechanics and installers to grow 11% from 2025 to 2035^[3] and electricians 9%^[2]. Most openings come from people retiring or leaving the trade, so even slow-growing trades hire constantly.

Customers feel the shortage too. On average 53% of homeowners reported difficulty finding pros in 2025^[8]. The company that can staff its trucks wins work others turn away.

Build a pipeline, not a job ad

Posting an ad for an experienced technician and waiting is the slowest way to hire in a shortage. Experienced people mostly move through referrals and direct approaches. Build several sources and keep them warm all year.

• Apprenticeships. Most electricians learn the trade through an apprenticeship^[2], and some HVAC technicians train that way too. Registered programs, union or open-shop, give you a steady flow of trainees who earn while they learn.
• Trade schools and community colleges. HVAC postsecondary programs generally last from 6 months to 2 years^[3]. Offer ride-alongs, guest talks and paid summer helper roles to students before they graduate.
• Helpers promoted from within. Warehouse staff, installers' helpers and even CSRs with mechanical interest can become technicians with a clear training path.
• Career changers. Mechanics, maintenance workers, military veterans and manufacturing workers bring tool skills and work habits. Train the trade-specific parts.
• Referrals. Your technicians know other technicians. Pay a referral bonus in stages, such as part at hire and part after 90 days.
• Former employees. People who left on good terms sometimes come back; a friendly check-in once a year costs nothing.

Write a job ad that gets replies

Most trade job ads read the same: ‘Fast-paced company seeks motivated self-starter.’ Technicians skim for four things: pay, schedule, truck and tools, and how they will grow. Put those first.

• Show a pay range. Applicants skip ads without one, and some states require it.
• State the on-call rotation honestly; it's a top reason technicians leave.
• Name the equipment, not just ‘company vehicle’.
• Describe the first 90 days: ride-alongs, training, when they work alone.
• Make applying possible from a phone in two minutes: name, phone, experience, licenses. Ask for a résumé later, if at all.

Outreach scripts

Direct, respectful messages work better than generic recruiter spam. Keep them short and specific.

1. To a referred technician: ‘Hi Sam, Luis on our team said you're one of the best service techs he's worked with. We're hiring for a service role with a take-home van and a four-day schedule option. Would you be open to a 15-minute call this week? No pressure either way.’
2. To a trade school student: ‘We take on two paid summer helpers from your program each year, with a technician job offer for those who do well. Could we come and speak to your class for 20 minutes?’
3. To a former employee: ‘We've changed a few things since you were here, including the on-call rotation. If you're ever thinking about a move, we'd like to talk.’

A fast, fair interview process

1. 01

   Call back within one business day

   Good candidates have several options; the first company to call often wins.

2. 02

   15-minute phone screen

   Experience, licenses and certifications, schedule needs, pay expectations, driving record.

3. 03

   One in-person meeting

   Meet the service manager, see the shop and trucks, and do a short practical task relevant to the role.

4. 04

   Ride-along for experienced hires

   Half a day with a senior technician, paid. It shows skill and customer manner, and lets the candidate see your company.

5. 05

   Offer within a week

   In writing, with pay, schedule, on-call terms, benefits, training path and start date.

Track every applicant in one simple list with the date they applied, the date you called and the outcome. When hiring stalls, the list shows where: too few applicants, slow callbacks, or offers turned down. Each needs a different fix.

Keep the people you hire

Hiring in a shortage is wasted if new technicians leave in their first months. Plan the first 90 days before they start.

• Day one: truck, tools, tablet, uniform and logins ready. Nothing says ‘we weren't expecting you’ like waiting for equipment.
• First two weeks: ride-alongs with a named mentor, covering your processes, not just the trade.
• First month: simpler calls alone, with a mentor reachable by phone.
• Day 30, 60 and 90: short check-ins with the service manager about training, schedule and anything that's frustrating them.
• Clear raises tied to skills and certifications, written down.

See the technician onboarding checklist for the full plan, and keep pay in line with the market using HVAC technician pay benchmarks and electrician pay benchmarks.

Hire in the slow season

Most companies start hiring when the phones are already ringing off the hook, which is exactly when good candidates are busiest and least likely to move, and when nobody has time to train a new hire. Turn the calendar around. Recruit and interview in the months before your peak, start new technicians in the shoulder season, and use slower weeks for ride-alongs, certification classes and practice on maintenance calls. A technician who joins in spring and has six weeks of supervised calls behind them is ready for July; one who joins in July spends the summer overwhelmed.

Make the job worth staying for

Pay gets technicians in the door; daily working conditions decide whether they stay. Ask your current team what would make them leave, and fix the top answers before advertising.

• A fair, predictable on-call rotation with pay for being on call, not only for calls run.
• Reasonable daily schedules, with dispatch that doesn't stack impossible routes.
• Well-stocked trucks so technicians aren't driving to the supply house three times a day.
• Recognition and a visible path to senior technician, trainer or service manager.

Example: from one source to four

Example: a fictional HVAC company with eight trucks had relied on job boards and filled one technician role in six months. It added a referral bonus paid in two stages, partnered with a local college program for summer helpers, promoted a warehouse employee into a paid training path, and rewrote its ad with a pay range and the on-call schedule. Within a season it hired an experienced technician through a referral, a recent graduate from the college program and the internal trainee. The job board produced applicants, but none of the hires.

Mistakes to avoid

• Waiting until the busy season to start hiring.
• Ads with no pay range, schedule or truck details.
• Interview processes with three rounds over three weeks.
• Hiring experienced technicians and giving them no onboarding because ‘they know the trade’.
• Promising training that never happens because the schedule is always full.