Alabama ranks 6th nationally for skilled trades employment growth, best in Southeast

What this means

Montgomery, Alabama – Alabama’s skilled trades employment grew 11.3% from 2019 to 2025 and ranks sixth nationally, according to a new industry report. The top five states for skilled trades growth were all in the West, and Alabama’s expansion to a skilled workforce of 366,240 outpaced all its Southeastern neighbors, including No. Sixteen states lost skilled workers in the same period, according to the report by The Alliance for America’s Skilled Trades.

Official release

Source material from Alabama Department of Commerce. The wording below is the issuer’s statement.

Montgomery, Alabama – Alabama’s skilled trades employment grew 11.3% from 2019 to 2025 and ranks sixth nationally, according to a new industry report.

The top five states for skilled trades growth were all in the West, and Alabama’s expansion to a skilled workforce of 366,240 outpaced all its Southeastern neighbors, including No. 7 Florida (11.1%), No. 10 Tennessee (10.4%) and No. 14 Georgia (7.4%). Sixteen states lost skilled workers in the same period, according to the report by The Alliance for America’s Skilled Trades.

Nationally, for every 100 skilled trades workers needed, training programs are producing just 55 people, according to the report. It establishes a national benchmark for understanding workforce demand, training capacity and career pathways across 124 skilled trades occupations.

Alabama gains a net average of 984 skilled trades workers from other states each year and is projected to see an additional 8.1% growth from 2024 to 2034.

The report also notes that Alabama has one of the nation’s younger skilled trades workforces, with 21.4% of workers age 55 or older.

“In Alabama, we are actively recruiting and supporting manufacturing, automotive, aerospace, defense and other industries that depend heavily on technicians, mechanics, electricians, welders, equipment operators and other skilled occupations,” said Commerce Secretary Ellen McNair. “Alabama’s skilled-trades growth is evidence that the state’s economic-development strategy and workforce strategy are increasingly reinforcing one another.”

The Alliance for America’s Skilled Trades is a coalition founded earlier this year by industry leaders at BlackRock, Carhartt, Ford Motor Company and Google to strengthen the skilled trades workforce and expand access to career pathways. More than a dozen other companies have since joined the effort.

“We’re proud to join the Alliance for America’s Skilled Trades,” said Meta President and Vice President Dina Powell McCormick. “America needs hundreds of thousands of electricians, welders and fiber technicians to build AI infrastructure, and through America’s Workforce Academy, we’re paying for the training, removing the barriers that keep people from stepping into these careers, and guaranteeing a job at the end of it. Together we can expand that work so that the future we’re building is for everyone.”

According to the report, more than 18 million people work in skilled trades occupations and contributed an estimated $3.8 trillion to U.S. gross domestic product in 2025. Employers are projected to fill about 1.7 million skilled trades openings each year through 2035 because of job growth and the need to replace workers who retire, change occupations or otherwise leave the field.

The report also looked at states’ workforce supply and demand.

Alabama scored a 57 for demand for skilled trades in this state. A higher demand pressure score indicates more demand for skilled workers. Florida ranked highest with 95.

The Yellowhammer State scored 50 for supply. The lower the score, the lower the skilled workforce supply. Maine had the lowest score at 23. Florida’s was 26.

Fields with the greatest demand for skilled workers in Alabama were: industrial and refractory machinery mechanics, tool and die makers, stationary engineers and boiler operators, avionics technicians, and aircraft mechanics and service technicians.

The report identifies four priorities to strengthen skilled trades workforce pipelines nationwide:

Focus on training program quality and outcomes;

Strengthen and connect the systems that prepare people for skilled trades careers;

Improve career exposure, guidance and navigation into the skilled trades;

Plan workforce investments around the source, scale, timing and duration of demand.

Alabama leaders have already made skilled trades education a priority across its education and workforce training systems.

In the two most recent state education budgets, $250 million has been dedicated to expanding K-12 career tech programs.

Separately, the Alabama Department of Workforce’s Office of Apprenticeship has programs with more than 500 companies, training people in more than 150 occupations.

And Alabama Industrial Development Training, Commerce’s workforce recruitment and training arm, has trained more than 1 million employees for industries locating or expanding in the state.

Release text attributed to Alabama Department of Commerce. Consult the official publication for any subsequent corrections or updates.