Last I heard, the local hall aws clean out of apprentices here. J-men are hanging on, taking what is available. Most of the guys I know have been finding work recently. It's not booming, but there is work around. Data centers, office reno, and...solar.
Bidding is cut throat, more bids then ever, lots of hungry GCs, who are beating the subs for $$$ any way they can. An EC told me Monday that there were 14 bids on a 75k sq ft whse/office reno project.
Back to the intent of this thread....
IMHO, there are many people (not trades) that, while they are & have been unemployed for an extended period, don't want any type of job that involves physical work, and getting dirty. They also are expecting to start at a salary close to what they had in the 'office/suit' worlds in the financial sectors. Glancing thru the classified ads in the papers, I have not noticed any electrical trade ads in a long time.
