Apprenticeships help position people for various career paths. One might be inclined to believe that the number of apprenticeships in the U.S. would have fully recovered since the recession. After all, economic output surpassed its previous peak more than four years ago. As reported by the Wall Street Journal among others, many businesses, especially in sectors like construction, complain about shortages of skilled workers.
The fact that there are skills shortages in construction is particularly remarkable given the fact that industry employment is still about fourteen percent below its pre-recession peak. However, many workers left that industry for good after the housing bust and there are few ready replacements.
But despite the ongoing lack of skilled workers, according to data from the U.S. Labor Department, the number of active apprentices across all industries has fallen from four hundred and fifty thousand in two thousand and seven to only three hundred and fifty thousand last year.
Because demand is outstripping supply, pay for non-supervisory construction workers was up by more than 4 percent last year, and by more than eight percent among plumbers.
