The home services industry is a nuts and bolts business, with real people that do real work. Most people don’t wake up in the morning and get excited about their plumbing or their HVAC systems. But if a faucet leak turns a homeowner’s kitchen into a puddle overnight or if their AC stops working in the middle of a heat wave, our work becomes the most important thing in their life. We don’t just provide something people want — we provide something people need. And that point of difference is exactly why this industry offers one of the most secure, overlooked career paths. 

The challenge is the industry is running out of people to do the work. 

According to U.S. Department of Education estimates, by 2030 there will be about 2.1 million unfilled skilled trades jobs in the U.S. Our workforce is aging out faster than we’re replacing it. Industry turnover sits around 50% — which means that companies are constantly rehiring and retraining just to maintain the status quo. Every company is competing for the same pool of experienced talent. The reality is that a good technician can leave a job today and then have two offers within a week.

For years, the go-to solution has been to compete harder for that same pool of talent. Maybe it’s a signing bonus and an updated work vehicle. But the real winners are realizing that you can’t continue to buy talent — you have to develop your own.

Build vs. Buy

Every employer would love to hire the perfect person at the perfect time. But that just isn’t realistic. At Southern Home Services, for example, instead of waiting for experienced trades workers to appear, we’ve essentially opened our own trade school inside the company.

We built a structured program that develops HVAC helpers into installers, and plumbing helpers into plumbers. This goes beyond the typical ride-alongs when you pair a new employee with a technician, and they take them under their wing. That is still a part of our program, and can have immense value, but only if the person doing the teaching is teaching the right things. Otherwise, bad habits get passed down from trainer to trainee. Our programs are built through rigorous instructional design with defined objectives, outcomes, and specific on-the-job tasks we call “homework.”

Here’s why this is valuable for recruiting: a trade school education can cost $10,000 before a young person ever earns a penny. Our trainees get equivalent instruction for free — and collect a paycheck while they learn because they are employees from day one. From a retention standpoint, participants in our longest-running program turn over at 2.5 times lower rates than technicians who didn’t go through the program — proving that investing in training and development isn’t just a recruitment tool but a retention strategy. 

The Recruiting Blind Spot

By most estimates, women make up about 15% of the broader trades business. Less than 5% of that group are actually doing the hands-on technical work. The message is clear: women represent one of the biggest growth opportunities for this industry. They represent an entire pool of skilled, capable people who could make a real difference for companies willing to open the door. And opening the door starts with what we project.

Take a look at recruiting materials in the industry. How many women are featured in the images? That’s a simple fix with a real impact. When a young woman sees someone who looks like her doing this work and succeeding, she can picture herself in it. When your company speaks at trade show school visits, how many of those speakers are women? Who appears in your company’s ads, who you hold up as the face of your company — these are small, deliberate changes that are already within every company’s reach. The more women we show thriving in the trades, the more women will see the trades as a place to build a career.

That visibility, coupled with the kind of structured pathways mentioned earlier — paid training, no prior experience required, no debt — helps remove the barriers that may have kept women from pursuing a career in the trades for so long.

The Next Generation

There’s a stigma that this industry is still trying to overcome — the idea that jobs in the trades are a backup plan. The truth is closer to the opposite. This type of work is rewarding and meaningful to our customers, and far less likely to be replaced by AI or automation. AI can’t fix a burst pipe or restore power to a home. This is hands-on work that will always require skilled people on site. Job security is strong, and the earnings potential for a skilled technician is very healthy.

Younger workers won’t discover that on their own, the industry has to deliver that message to them. And that means showing up where they are — in high schools, trade schools, career events — and making the case that the trades offer what their generation says it wants: stability, a clear path to advancement, and a career that won’t start them in debt. We also need to speak honestly about growth opportunities. A motivated person can go from entry-level helper to skilled technician to a leadership position, and the industry needs to make that path visible, not just available. 

The payoff goes beyond filling open positions. Younger workers are curious, and they ask questions. They want to know why we do things a certain way — which forces those of us who have been doing this a long time to justify our methods. Fresh eyes and thoughtful questions challenge the “that’s how we’ve always done it,” mindset — and that’s a good thing.

Teaching Is Our Responsibility

If there’s one takeaway, it’s that as an industry, we have to do a better job developing people. As more young people and more women become interested in the trades, somebody has to teach them — and not everyone can afford trade school. This opens the door to an incredible opportunity to help train the future generations of our industry. Home services centers around real people doing real work. The companies that recognize that their people are their greatest asset — and that recruiting well, training well, and developing well benefits everyone — are the ones that are going to win. 

The bad news is that the talent shortage isn't going to fix itself. The good news is that it’s fixable — one structured career pathway at a time.