Walmart tackles labor shortage with new paths for workers | Official Website of Louis Velazquez, entrepreneur, finance guy and tech innovator

America needs more skilled trade workers.

“While millions of Americans affected by pandemic job loss are still looking for work, the number of skilled trade jobs in the U.S. is far outpacing the supply of qualified workers to fill them. A new analysis by the skilled trades division of staffing leader PeopleReady finds that the most in-demand skilled trade jobs are remaining unfilled the longest — roughly a month on average — due to the shortage of qualified workers,” PeopleReady shared.

In the company’s analysis of hundreds of thousands of skilled trade jobs across the nation, PeopleReady found the following helper and apprentice-level areas in most need of workers based on growth in demand over the past month and length of time that jobs typically remain unfilled:

Plumber apprentices: Job postings have increased by 24% in the past month, and jobs are sitting unfilled for an average of 29 days.
Roofer apprentices: 50%; 39 days.
Carpenter helpers: 12%; 28 days.
Carpentry apprentices: 33%; 31 days.
Construction workers: 17%; 27 days.
Electrician helpers: 15%; 27 days.

That’s a shortage that hurts Walmart, and the chain has decided to take concrete steps to fix the problem by training its own workers to fill these positions.

Walmart creates opportunities for employees

Every Walmart store has plumbing, electricity, and HVAC systems that need to be maintained. When something goes down, the chain needs to address that immediately or customers will simply go elsewhere.

Back in my days leading retail stores, we once had our lights go out on a day when multiple buses were visiting the toy store from a model train convention. We could not get an electrician to the store to rig up an alternative solution (the lights went out due to a car hitting a transformer down the road), so the best we could do was buy a lot of flashlights.

Our trains did not run that day, and we likely lost tens of thousands of dollars in sales. That’s a problem Walmart faces multiplied by thousands of stores.

Walmart has the workers on staff to prevent downtime, but it has struggled to find those workers. To fix that, the retail giant has created an “Associate to Technician” program.

“With the country facing a shortage of skilled trade workers, we’re creating pathways for our own associates to fill these critical jobs in our stores and supply chain facilities. We’re piloting a new Associate to Technician program with 100 associates in the Dallas-Fort Worth area that will help hourly store and supply chain associates move into facilities maintenance, refrigeration and HVAC, reliability and automation technician roles,” Walmart shared in a press release.

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The jobs offered to graduates of the program will be higher-paying compared to traditional associate roles, and workers will earn real certifications that can be used outside the company.

“These jobs make between $19 and $45 an hour and offer opportunities to build a meaningful career while meeting a business need for the company. This program is part of our Walmart Academy, one of the largest training ecosystems in the country,” Walmart shared.

The United States needs tradespeople

While going into a trade rather than pursuing a college degree is stigmatized in some families, it can be a very lucrative path to follow.

Just in terms of a hard number, wages earned among the skilled trades outpace those earned in all other occupations by about $6,660, according to the US. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“When compared to Glassdoor’s list, the“20 Most Popular Jobs for College Graduates,” with some positions pulling in as little as $20,000 per year, it’s easy to see why a career in the skilled trades can begin to look even more compelling for a young professional,” One Key reported.

There’s a clear demand across the trades.

“The labor shortage is widespread — as of early 2024, there were more than 456,000 unfilled construction jobs, just shy of the record high of 488,000 in 2022. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects an average of over 157,000 openings per year from 2023 to 2033 for general maintenance and repair workers alone,” Today’s Homeowner reported.

Using Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers, the website identified some troubling shortages.

Workers ages 25 and under represent about 11% of the construction workforce, a modest increase from 9% in 2015.
Finished carpentry faces a 65% labor shortage, making it one of the most strained trades among the 16 key specialties tracked in residential construction.
Occupations such as maintenance and repair workers are projected to have over 157,000 openings per year from 2023 to 2033, mostly due to labor force exits and job changes.
Some trades are growing faster than others. Over the next decade, electricians are projected to increase by 11%, HVAC techs by 9%, and insulation workers by 4%. Drywall installers are expected to increase at just over 3%.