U.S. Faces Electrician Shortage as It Tries to Go Green

America is trying to install electric-car chargers, heat pumps and other gear deemed essential to address climate change, but the installers are in short supply

By Amrith Ramkumar | Photographs by Dan Lyon for The Wall Street Journal
March 27, 2023
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Electricians, essential workers in the transition to renewable energy, are busy and getting harder to hire. Demand for green products is surging and many electricians are struggling to keep up.

Many electricians say they are booked several months out and struggling to find enough workers to keep up with demand. Some are raising wages and prices and worried that they won’t be able to keep up as government climate incentives kick in.

Brian LaMorte, co-owner of LaMorte Electric Heating and Cooling in Ithaca, N.Y., said his six-person company is booked roughly six months out. He has been referring potential new customers to other firms in the area.

The 48-year-old brought on two apprentices last year and has seen the price of an average job rise to roughly $20,000 from about $16,000 two years ago due to rising raw materials, equipment and labor prices.

The scarcity is part of a nationwide labor shortage and is most acute in the Northeast and California, where demand for green-energy products is highest. Some economists expect the pinch to spread across the country as incentives from the new federal law known as the Inflation Reduction Act kick in.

The climate law will put several hundred billion dollars’ worth of incentives into the economy designed to accelerate the energy transition and boost clean-energy supply chains in the U.S. Other recent laws are also expected to spur demand for labor and could end up pushing up total construction costs.

The current total of more than 700,000 electricians in the U.S. is expected to grow about 7% over the next decade, slightly faster than the nationwide average of 5%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The shift to renewable energy and the need to update electrical systems is expected to drive that growth.

Some analysts say that expansion needs to be several times faster for the U.S. to meet its climate and electrification goals. Industry analysts say it will be difficult to meet that demand, particularly because more electricians retire every year than are replaced.

The median age of electricians is over 40 years old, in line with the broader workforce. But nearly 30% of union electricians are between ages 50 and 70 and close to retirement, up from 22% in 2005, according to the National Electrical Contractors Association.

On a recent week in Ithaca, three of Mr. LaMorte’s employees were installing a heat pump for Matthew Minnig, a 40-year old engineer who lives with his wife in a four-bedroom house. Mr. Minnig hopes to use the heat pump to replace a natural-gas boiler for heat in the winter and add air conditioning in the summer.

He ordered the units in April, but was told installation would take several months. “There are times I can remember last summer thinking, ‘We’ve already paid a considerable amount for this project, and I’m still sweating in my house,’ ” he said.

Electricians say jobs can be bigger than expected because of the high electricity demands of devices such as car chargers and induction stoves. That often entails upgrading home electric panels to accommodate 100, 200 or 400 amperes, they say.

“I’m tired of telling people I can’t help them,” said Brian LaMorte.

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Produced by: Matthew Riva
Photo Editor: Breanna Denney

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