Alabama beats Texas, Florida and Georgia in skilled trades job growth, ranks No. 6 in the nation in new report

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September 30, 2026

Alabama added skilled trades jobs faster than Texas, Florida, Georgia and Tennessee over the past six years, according to a national report released Wednesday by a corporate alliance founded by BlackRock, Carhartt, Ford and Google.

“The State of America’s Skilled Trades,” produced by Jobs for the Future and the Burning Glass Institute for the Alliance for America’s Skilled Trades, ranks Alabama No. 6 in the country for skilled trades employment growth. The state’s trades workforce grew 11.3% from 2019 to 2025 and now numbers 366,240 workers.

The five states ahead of Alabama are Arizona, Utah, Alaska, Idaho and Nevada. All five are in the West. Alabama finished first in the South and first among every state east of the Rocky Mountains. Florida posted 11.1%, Tennessee 10.4%, Texas 8.4% and Georgia 7.4%.

The states at the bottom are losing ground. Michigan, home of alliance founder Ford, lost 3.5% of its skilled trades jobs from 2019 to 2025. New York lost 5.2%. California lost 1.5% and loses a net 17,784 trades workers to other states every year. New York loses 9,254.

Alabama gains a net 984 skilled trades workers from other states each year.

The report projects Alabama’s trades employment will grow another 8.1% from 2024 to 2034, the 14th-best outlook in the nation. Alabama also has one of the youngest trades workforces in the country.

Just 21.4% of the state’s skilled trades workers are 55 or older, the seventh-lowest share in the nation, against 24% nationally and 32.3% in Connecticut.

The report says the country must fill 1.7 million skilled trades openings a year through 2035 and that training programs turn out 55 workers for every 100 needed. It names nine states where demand for trades workers has outrun supply, including Georgia, Florida, Texas, North Carolina and South Carolina. Alabama is not on that list.

“These careers deserve respect,” said Jim Farley, president and CEO of Ford Motor Company.

The report found that half of the people who enroll in skilled trades training finish, and that nearly 9 in 10 school counselors often recommend a four-year degree while 1 in 4 often recommend an apprenticeship.

Alabama’s leaders are already spending on that problem. House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter (R-Rainsville) unveiled the $250 million Alabama Career Pathways Program in July, noting that only about 36% of Alabama students graduate from college.

Last week the Alabama Road Builders Association launched a heavy equipment operator program in four Alabama schools, which Ledbetter called a “workforce development blueprint that every skilled-trades industry should work to replicate.”

The Alabama Office of Apprenticeship now supports 4,018 apprentices statewide.

“There are multitudes of opportunity available in Alabama, for all sectors of our workforce,” Alabama Secretary of Workforce Greg Reed said this month while announcing a nearly $4 million skilled trades training initiative on the Gulf Coast.

Grayson Everett is the editor in chief of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on X @Grayson270.