No More 10 Minute Breaks: What’s Holding Back U.S. Apprenticeships

: A contractor measures wood in a home under construction in San Ramon, Calif., last month. Many businesses complain about a shortage of skilled workers, but apprenticeship programs still lag their prerecession numbers.; DAVID PAUL MORRIS/BLOOMBERG NEWS

You would think the number of apprenticeships in the U.S. would have recovered since the recession.

Economic output surpassed its previous peak more than four years ago. Many businesses complain about a shortage of skilled workers. College costs look increasingly daunting.

And yet, they haven’t. Why not?

“The numbers are climbing back up,” said Sean McGarvey, president of North America’s Building Trades Unions. “But like any business, we don’t recruit people for jobs that don’t exist.”

The building-trades group coordinates and supports construction unions around the country. As with many apprenticeship programs, organized labor only takes on new recruits when it’s sure there will be enough work to keep them occupied.

It seems like there should be plenty of opportunity in trades like plumbing and carpentry. The Commerce Department reported that nationwide construction spending last year rose to the highest level since 2007. And while the construction industry has been hiring at a steady clip over the past year, employment is still about 14% below its prerecession peak. Many workers left the industry for good after the housing bust and there are no ready replacements.

But there appears to be some dissonance in the labor market. Contractors want more workers. But would-be workers want a lot more pay before signing up for physical labor. Industrywide, construction pay for production and nonsupervisory workers was up 4.4% from a year earlier in January, well above the national average of 2.5% for all sectors, according to the Labor Department. For plumbers, the figure was 8.5% in December, the most recent data available for the subsector.

That shows employers are having to compete on wages. But the overall pay and benefits package at many union shops is still better, leading to waiting lists to get into apprenticeship programs. The downside: Those compensation packages can make union labor too expensive for some contractors, limiting the amount of work that’s available.

Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 5, which spans Washington, D.C., and parts of Maryland and Virginia, estimates it captures about 15% of the local market for plumbing with the rest going to open-shop workers. The union local gets about 10 applicants for every opening in its apprenticeship program, according to training director Tim Haley.