This Week in Trades, May 4, 2026

2.1 Million Skilled Trades Jobs Could Go Unfilled by 2030, Electricians Are the Bottleneck

2.1 million jobs. That is how many skilled trades positions the U.S. Department of Education projects could go unfilled by 2030, cited in a new report from commercial real estate firm JLL shared exclusively with Fortune. The projected annual economic cost of the gap: $1 trillion.

For electricians, the numbers are stark. Electrician positions are projected to grow 9.5% through 2034, more than triple the 3.1% average across all occupations. Last year alone, nearly 600,000 skilled trades jobs were posted nationwide while only 150,000 new workers entered the labor pool through apprenticeships. A four-to-one gap.

The AI data center build-out is widening it. One in five construction workers is currently over 55. Microsoft, Google, and Oracle are all racing to wire facilities that require high-voltage and medium-voltage experience, the exact workers hardest to replace.

Corporate money is moving. Lowe's Foundation committed $250 million to train 250,000 trades workers over the next decade. Google put $15 million into the Electrical Training Alliance. Neither initiative closes the gap in the near term. The shortage is structural, and it is accelerating.

Source: Fortune

NEC 2026 Is Published, Eight Changes That Will Show Up on Your Job Site

13 new articles were added to the 2026 National Electrical Code. Those changes are now working through state adoption. Massachusetts is expected to approve it soon. Colorado, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Kansas are in active review.

Eight changes are the ones most likely to affect daily work. Section 110.16 expands arc flash labeling to additional equipment beyond what 2023 required, more panels and gear will need labels. Section 110.26 locks in a defined 24-inch egress path measured at a 90-degree door opening around electrical equipment, which may require larger electrical rooms on new projects. Section 210.8(B) extends GFCI protection in non-dwelling spaces and introduces new Classes C, D, and E for locations where standard Class A devices are unsuitable. EV chargers in public and commercial locations now require emergency shutoffs.

Section 392.18(F) replaces the old "sufficient space" language with a firm 12-inch minimum clearance between stacked cable trays. Section 430.98 requires Motor Control Centers supplied by a feeder to display the name and location of the means to disconnect all power. Distributed energy sources, solar arrays, battery storage, now need identification plaques for disconnects not adjacent to the service equipment. And EMS load calculations now allow sizing electrical inputs smaller where software-controlled limits apply.

Your state may not have adopted 2026 yet. Use the state-by-state adoption tracker to see which version is in force where you work.

Source: Jade Learning Source: Interstates

IBEW Electricians Win First Contract at the Nation's Largest Crypto-Mining Power Plant

Unanimous. That was the vote count when workers at Greenidge Generation on Seneca Lake in upstate New York ratified their first union contract with IBEW Local 10, making them the first workers at a combined power generation and bitcoin mining facility to join the Brotherhood.

The plant runs 110 megawatts of generating capacity. When grid prices are high, operators sell power to the grid. When prices drop, up to 60 MW gets redirected to hundreds of servers mining bitcoin. The facility can swing between those two modes in minutes. A conventional peaker plant cannot do that.

The contract introduced a classification the IBEW has never had before: "hash rate tech", the workers who operate the bitcoin mining operation alongside traditional plant operators. Workers said the push to organize came after years of uneven pay scales, advancement blocked by favoritism, and management ignoring training requests. Management threatened to double health care contributions if the union vote succeeded. Workers organized anyway. The final ratification vote was unanimous, including workers who had voted no in the original representation election.

Source: IBEW Electrical Worker

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Related Guides

• Compare Electrician License Requirements by State, See which NEC edition your state currently enforces and how licensing requirements differ across all 50 states
• New York Electrician License Requirements, Licensing rules for the state where workers at the nation's first union bitcoin mine hold their IBEW cards
• NEC 2026 State Adoption Tracker, Check whether your jurisdiction has moved to the 2026 code or is still enforcing the 2023 edition