The Trades Labor Squeeze: Pay, Growth and Openings for HVAC, Plumbing, Electrical and Roofing

Abstract

This public-data brief uses the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook, with May 2025 median pay and 2025-2035 employment projections, to describe the workforce behind four home service trades: HVAC, plumbing, electrical and roofing. Nationally, 2025 median annual pay runs from $55,440 for roofers to $63,800 for plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters. Projected employment growth from 2025 to 2035 ranges from 5% for roofers to 11% for HVAC mechanics and installers. Each year the BLS projects tens of thousands of openings per trade, from about 12,000 for roofers to 72,700 for electricians, and most of those openings come from workers leaving the occupation rather than from new jobs being created. These are national figures. Atlanta metro and Georgia wage tables could not be retrieved for this brief, so nothing here measures local pay, current job postings, the number of unfilled positions, or how hard any single company finds it to hire.

Methodology

This brief was prepared by Make It Loud Digital Marketing as a secondary analysis of public data reviewed in October 2026, and figures are reported as published. It draws on the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook pages for HVAC and refrigeration mechanics and installers; plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters; electricians; and roofers. Median annual pay is the BLS May 2025 figure, and employment counts, projected 2025-2035 growth and projected average annual openings are taken from the same handbook pages. The share of annual openings relative to 2025 employment, and the comparison of growth-driven openings against total openings, are calculations performed for this brief from the published BLS numbers and are labeled as such. These figures are national. Atlanta metro and Georgia wage tables from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program could not be accessed directly for this brief. This is a public-data analysis, not an original survey or peer-reviewed study, and it is not legal, financial or hiring advice.

Findings

Across the four trades, 2025 national median annual pay runs from $55,440 for roofers to $63,800 for plumbers, with electricians at $63,190 and HVAC mechanics and installers at $61,010. Electricians are the largest group at 821,000 jobs and roofers the smallest at 166,900. Projected 2025-2035 growth is 11% for HVAC, 9% for electricians, 7% for plumbers and 5% for roofers. Projected average annual openings are 72,700 for electricians, 42,000 for plumbers, 40,600 for HVAC and 12,000 for roofers. Expressed as a share of 2025 employment, those openings run from about 7.2% for roofers to 9.2% for HVAC, a calculation made for this brief. Most openings come from workers who retire or leave the occupation rather than from newly created jobs: for HVAC, roughly 4,850 of the 40,600 yearly openings reflect growth, and the rest reflect replacement. The data do not show local pay, current job postings, the number of unfilled positions, or per-employer hiring difficulty.

Overview

What federal data show about the workers home service companies depend on, and what they do not show about Atlanta.

Home service companies live and die by the people who do the work. A plumbing, HVAC, electrical or roofing business can win every lead in the market and still turn jobs away if it cannot staff them. This brief uses public Bureau of Labor Statistics data to describe that workforce nationally: what these trades pay, how fast they are projected to grow, and how many openings appear each year. It is deliberate about one limit: every figure here is national, and the local Atlanta and Georgia wage tables could not be retrieved, so nothing here measures the local hiring market directly.

Nationally, these trades pay median wages between about $55,000 and $64,000, are projected to grow between 5% and 11% through 2035, and generate tens of thousands of openings a year each. Most of those openings come from workers leaving the occupation rather than from new jobs. The connection between staffing and marketing is an inference drawn at the end of this brief, not a BLS finding.

Download the full brief

You can download the full public-data brief as a PDF. It is a BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook analysis prepared by Make It Loud Digital Marketing, dated October 2026, and reproduces the tables, methodology, limitations and sources below.

Finding 1: Median pay runs from about $55,000 to $64,000

In May 2025, national median annual pay was highest for plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters at $63,800, followed closely by electricians at $63,190 and HVAC mechanics and installers at $61,010. Roofers were lowest at $55,440. The entry paths differ: plumbers and electricians typically enter through an apprenticeship after a high school diploma, HVAC work usually calls for a postsecondary nondegree award plus long-term on-the-job training, and roofing generally requires no formal credential and moderate-term on-the-job training.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, May 2025 median pay.

Finding 2: Employment and projected growth to 2035

Electricians are the largest of the four groups at 821,000 jobs, and roofers the smallest at 166,900. Projected employment growth from 2025 to 2035 is fastest for HVAC at 11%, then electricians at 9%, plumbers at 7% and roofers at 5%. The projected average annual openings follow the size of each occupation: 72,700 for electricians, 42,000 for plumbers, 40,600 for HVAC and 12,000 for roofers.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2025-2035 projections.

Finding 3: Most openings replace workers who leave, not new jobs

Expressed as a share of 2025 employment, projected annual openings run from about 7.2% for roofers to 9.2% for HVAC, a calculation made for this brief from the BLS numbers. For HVAC, growth of 11% over ten years adds roughly 4,850 jobs a year, yet the BLS projects about 40,600 openings a year. The gap between those two figures is replacement: workers who retire or move to other occupations. In other words, most of the yearly openings exist because people leave the trade, not because the trade is adding positions.

Source: calculated for this brief as average annual openings divided by 2025 employment from the BLS figures above.

Finding 4: What the public data do not show

These are national figures. The handbook pages used here do not provide Atlanta metro or Georgia wages, do not report current local job postings, do not count how many positions sit unfilled, cannot compare one employer’s pay against the local market, and cannot measure how hard any single company finds it to hire. Local wage figures are published separately in the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics tables, which would be the right follow-up for an Atlanta-specific view.

What this means for home service businesses and marketers

Treat hiring as a marketing channel. With openings running 7% to 9% of employment a year, recruiting is a steady need, and a clear careers page and an employer story help a company compete for workers the way its marketing competes for customers. Match the pitch to the training path: apprenticeship-based trades like plumbing and electrical attract different candidates than roofing, which usually hires without a formal credential. Use pay data carefully, because the right local number comes from the Atlanta metro wage tables or a company’s own payroll, not from these national medians.

There is also a capacity point worth stating plainly as an inference, not a published finding: if a business cannot staff the work, additional advertising spend may generate leads it cannot serve. A sensible next step is to pull the local Atlanta wage and job-posting data, which would turn this national picture into a local one.

The data: pay and entry paths

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook.

Limitations

All figures are national. Atlanta metro and Georgia wage tables from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program could not be accessed for this brief. Projected annual openings include both growth and replacement; the growth-versus-replacement split and the openings-as-a-share-of-employment figures are calculations made for this brief. Pay is the median annual figure for May 2025, and employment and projections use a 2025 base. The data do not show job vacancies, turnover, or how hard any individual company finds it to hire, and home service firms often employ workers beyond these four titles. This brief offers general information only. It is not legal, financial or hiring advice, and figures from third-party public sources may change, so confirm current details before relying on them.

Sources

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook: Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook: Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook: Electricians.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook: Roofers.