by John Crowley | May 18, 2026 | Uncategorized
AI Is Your New Apprentice: Why Contractors Need Training, Guardrails and an AI Game Plan in 2026 AI TECHNOLOGYAt its heart, artificial intelligence differs from traditional software because it uses probability, not instructions, to get work done. This gives it enormous power to handle real world inputs, without requiring expensive reformatting and collection. But it also means that outputs are not automatically reliable.We address this by engineering AI systems that surround the core AI models with guardrails. Think of AI like a smart but inexperienced worker. It can read fast, write fast and find things fast, but it needs supervision and clear direction, just like a green apprentice.AI RISKSLeaders should consider six main risks as they assess AI strategy and implementation:Security: AI systems are not inherently prone to cybersecurity risk than other cloud software. An AI model will not remember what it has worked on, contrary to popular misconception. However, AI has unique risks, because we are exposing our software to more of the real world than traditional software. The biggest concern amongst cybersecurity specialists is “prompt injection,” which means the AI is exposed to malicious instructions because of a document, website or other source that tells it to do unwanted things.
Mitigation: Ensure the IT department is trained and aware of AI-specific risks and recommends and enforces policies to avoid them. This should not be a heavy lift but needs to be ongoing as new risks evolve.Agentic control: The power of AI agents is that they develop their own plans and execute them. But, just like a human, they can go off track. This can become problematic because it wastes time and resources. Also, whenever you give an agent access to tools and resources, it can do things you’d prefer it not, like delete or alter files.
Mitigation: Ensure extensive testing, strict permissioning and periodic testing. Easy Button: Workers trust AI because it sounds confident and looks polished, but it can lead to over-reliance on a tool that still makes mistakes..
Mitigation: Treat AI training the same way you’d treat safety training. Essential, non-negotiable and ongoing. Basic training on how to use AI well is not expensive and does not need to be extensive. Part of this training should be in-person groups, where coworkers learn from each other. Overwhelm: In an industry with long hours and stressful days, AI presents another challenge: burying people in information faster than they can process it.
Mitigation: Train workers how to think about integrating AI into their work and how to effectively instruct AI. Long, overdone answers are not inevitable, and brief training can make them both aware of the problem and how to get the right number of inputs.Overautomation: More than one AI vendor is promising automation of key workflows. This sounds attractive, but there is a reason experienced workers do certain things. Good AI solutions maximize context and opportunity for workers to apply judgment and creativity where needed, while automating the supporting functions that make judgment possible. EDITOR’S NOTE: For March/April and May/June, I am honored to cede my article space to SMACNA’s AI Leadership consultant, Hugh Seaton. Hugh has been providing valuable insights, webinars and thought leadership to our members over the last two years. Visit SMACNA’s Construction Technology & AI site (www.smacna.org/business-resources/business-management/construction-technology-ai) to learn more about the topic. This is part one of two.
by John Crowley | May 18, 2026 | Uncategorized
Workforce Strategies: Finding and Retaining Talent
in a Shifting Workforce When Marie Kumabe takes the stage, she doesn’t begin with statistics or corporate buzzwords. She starts with a question: “How did you get into your field?” It’s a simple prompt that reveals something profound about the state of today’s workforce: most of us didn’t plan our paths. “More than half of people at the SMACNA Annual Convention, and nearly 40% nationally, say they never had a plan,” Kumabe says. “That tells us something about how little exposure young people have to different industries, and how much work we have to do to change that.”As Principal of Kumabe HR, Hawaii’s leading executive recruitment firm for the past seven years, Kumabe has made a career of helping employers find and keep the right people. With 35 years in human resources and as Faculty Director of the Executive Master’s of Human Resources program at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa’s Shidler College of Business, she’s witnessed waves of economic and demographic change. But she says the current moment, marked by record-low unemployment, high turnover and a shrinking pool of new entrants into the workforce, is particularly challenging.“The U.S. fertility rate hit its lowest level ever recorded,” Kumabe says. “That means fewer people will be around to fill jobs in the next generation. It’s not just a temporary labor shortage; it’s a structural one.”THE STATE OF TALENTRecruiters and managers across the country are feeling the squeeze. The 2024 SHRM Talent Trends Report found that nearly 70% of organizations struggled to fill open roles. In Hawaii, the unemployment rate hovers around just 2.7% — tighter than the national average of 4.3% — while the average annual turnover rate across sectors exceeds 40%.“In a market like that, you can’t just post a job listing and hope for the best,” Kumabe says. “You have to compete not only on pay and benefits, but on meaning, mission and flexibility.”She emphasizes that recruiting is no longer the sole domain of HR. “It’s everyone’s job,” she says. “Your brand, managers and employees — everyone contributes to how your organization is perceived as a place to work.”RECRUITMENT IS MORE THAN PAYCHECKSRecruitment, as Kumabe frames it, begins long before a job offer is extended. “It starts with telling your story,” she says.“If your job description starts and ends with duties and requirements, you’re missing the heart of what it could be.” A compelling job listing, in her view, highlights the company’s mission, values and community impact before diving into the logistics. “People want to know how they’ll make a difference,” she explains. “Include photos, stories and the things you’re proud of as an organization.”Kumabe says that employers also need to “monetize benefits” by clearly distinguishing what sets them apart, whether it’s an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), flexible hours or wellness initiatives. These tangible and intangible perks, when properly communicated, can influence a candidate’s decision as much as base pay.For younger generations, she adds, the definition of “total rewards” has shifted. “Generations Y and Z are looking for fair pay and personal meaning,” Kumabe says. “They care about inclusive benefits that go beyond parenthood, equity at all levels and flexibility that supports their well-being.”She cites a telling observation from Business Insider: younger employees are unapologetically setting boundaries by taking mental health days, delegating work when necessary and defining success by balance rather than burnout. “That’s not laziness,” she says. “That’s evolution. They see work as part of life, not life itself.”THE ART OF RETENTIONRecruiting talent is hard enough but keeping it can be even harder. Kumabe believes retention strategies must adapt to reflect the same human-centered thinking that drives modern recruitment. “You retain people by creating conditions where they can grow, connect and belong,” she says.That means addressing the fundamentals — competitive pay, flexible scheduling and job security — but also nurturing a sense of purpose. “Offer paid volunteer days, support community engagement and make sure employees see how their work ties to something bigger,” she suggests.Kumabe says companies should treat retention like a living system, not a one-time initiative. “It’s about personalized, evolving rewards,” she explains. “That could mean offering hybrid work for parents, professional development for mid-career workers or leadership pathways for rising stars.”She encourages employers to listen actively through employee surveys and feedback loops. “Job security today doesn’t just mean keeping your position,” she says. “It means knowing your employer is invested in you, including your skills, your well-being and your future.”DEVELOPING TALENTOne of Kumabe’s recurring themes is the idea of strategic workforce development, which is the long-term process of cultivating talent from within. “Cultivating internal talent is a strategic imperative. By upskilling and reskilling your workforce, you unlock their hidden potential and ensure they thrive into the future.”She points to both formal and informal learning opportunities. Formal options include industry certifications, such as the Sheet Metal Career Certification, and professional learning through platforms like LinkedIn Learning or SMACNA’s development webinars. Informally, she recommends mentorship programs, shadowing opportunities and inviting emerging employees to sit in on meetings where they can observe leadership in action.“These experiences build confidence and a sense of belonging,” she says. “And they tell your employees, ‘We see a future for you here.’”PRACTICAL APPLICATIONTo make all of this real, Kumabe urges leaders to reimagine how they present their organizations, starting with job descriptions. “At the top of every posting, tell them who you are and what you believe in,” she says. “Describe why your people love what they do before you list qualifications or duties.”She suggests attending job fairs and industry events to tell your story and show pride in your field. “Ironically, very few people outside certain professions know what realistic career paths look like,” Kumabe says. “We have to bridge that gap early, especially with high school and college students.”That visibility, she argues, can inspire new generations to discover fields they might never have considered. “If we want to find them, get them and keep them,” she says, “we have to show them why our industries matter and that they can belong here.”THE FUTURE OF WORKKumabe says building a strong workforce is about cultivating community. “Talent doesn’t grow in isolation,” she says. “It grows in environments where people feel valued, challenged and connected.”For her, that’s the essence of the future of work: recruiting with authenticity, retaining through empathy and developing through opportunity. “Everyone in your organization plays a role in that,” Kumabe says. “We all share the responsibility to build workplaces that people want to be part of — not just for a paycheck, but for purpose.” “Everyone in your organization plays a role. We all share the responsibility to build workplaces that people want to be part of — not just for a paycheck, but for purpose.Marie Kumabe, Principal, Kumabe HR
by John Crowley | May 18, 2026 | Uncategorized
Workforce Strategies: A Trade Without Walls The story of the American trades has long been told as a story of inheritance — fathers handing off tools to sons, knowledge passed down through bloodlines and bench time. And while that lineage still runs deep through the sheet metal and HVAC industry, something new is happening. Across the country, a growing cohort of professionals is choosing the trades not because they were born into them, but because they sought something the corporate world couldn’t give them: tangible work, real community and the kind of legacy that outlasts a quarterly earnings report. The numbers tell part of the story. Ninety percent of SMACNA contractors report facing a labor shortage. The pipeline is not keeping pace with demand, and that gap represents both a challenge and an opportunity for career changers willing to make the leap.The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects steady demand for HVAC and sheet metal workers for years to come, driven by infrastructure investment, green energy retrofits and the complexity of modern construction. These are cloud-connected, data-driven and precision-engineered industries hungry for the exact kinds of minds that Wall Street, academia and Silicon Valley have been cultivating.Meet three of those minds: Garrett Montrone of Western Sheet Metal in Salt Lake City, a former Goldman Sachs technology analyst now three generations deep in a family legacy that started in a chicken coop; Ernie Menold, newly installed president of Ernest D. Menold Inc., a Philadelphia-area firm with seven decades of history; and Devon Madon, co-owner of Madon Sheet Metal, who holds a Ph.D. in Shakespeare and helped build a specialty welding shop from the ground up.Their paths could not be more different, but what they found on the other side is remarkably the same.From Wall Street to the Shop Floor: Garrett Montrone, Western Sheet MetaLThe phone call came at the worst possible moment … or maybe the best. Garrett Montrone was in the middle of his annual performance review at Goldman Sachs, the kind of meeting where compensation gets set and futures get decided, when a separate conversation with college friends was pulling at him. They were launching a tech startup and wanted him in. He was weighing two versions of his future when his father threw a third one on the table.“He said, ‘I think you would be a great fit at Western,” Montrone recalls. “I think you have the composure, the mental toughness and the capacity to do this, and it’s something that’s like a legacy.’”At first, Montrone didn’t even register it as a real option. He had grown up around Western Sheet Metal, the Salt Lake City HVAC and mechanical contracting firm his grandfather founded in 1968, starting from scratch in a chicken coop on his alfalfa farm while his grandmother kept the books in the farmhouse living room. But the trade had never figured into his plans. He had gone to Utah State University for a degree in management information systems, worked at a cloud computing firm called the K2 Group, and landed at Goldman as a technology analyst. He was moving up. He was immersed in a world of live data, global finance and enterprise software that most people never see.Then he thought about what the work actually required.“I naturally do things that I like to do — I’m a problem solver. A firefighter, whatever you want to call it,” Montrone says. “I can come into any hectic environment with problems all over the place. And once I realized that’s what sheet metal contracting is all the time — it’s just being a problem solver — I could see that I would thrive there.”He took the pay cut and came home.The culture shock was immediate. “It was just a total night and day difference,” he says. “It was almost like a different century.” At Goldman, everything ran on live data, integrated systems and was synchronized across offices around the world. At Western, information lived in filing cabinets. Processes were localized on individual machines. When something broke, there was a dusty troubleshooting binder in a cabinet — one that hadn’t been opened in decades, with a support phone number for a company that had been out of business for years.“The future is here. Technology is going to be a massive part of your business if you haven’t already taken advantage of it. In the next five years, it might be too late.” — Garrett MontroneThe first major win was cloud migration. At Goldman, cloud infrastructure was the baseline assumption — everything was accessible, always and from anywhere. At Western, nothing was. Montrone made it his mission to change that. “The first order of business was basically just let’s get our stuff into some sort of cloud situation,” he says. “Now we’re at a place where you could technically work from home and have everything you possibly could need.”That transformation required trust. Coming in as the owner’s son — the third-generation heir in a company full of veterans who had watched other owner’s kids come and go — Montrone was working against assumptions he hadn’t made. “You have to work harder to earn trust, get to know everybody and be accepted,” he says. “They automatically assume you’re just the owner’s kid who has no business being there.”Eight or nine years later, that trust has been earned. “Now we’re a solid team,” he says. “Everybody relies on me. They talk to me about personal things. We go out and do things outside of work.”His message to the industry is urgent: technology adoption is not optional, and the window for proactive change is closing“The future is here,” he says. “Technology is not just looking at a phone or a tablet. It’s going to be a massive part of your business if you haven’t already taken advantage of it. In the next five years, it might be too late.”For Montrone, the legacy is everything. His grandfather, an Italian farmer’s son who couldn’t fully understand his own parents because they spoke Italian and he didn’t, built something from nothing. “He’s the perfect example of the American dream,” Montrone says. “And that’s something I value greatly. So, it’s not about money. It’s about the legacy.” THE DATA MAN COMES HOME: ERNIE MENOLD, ERNEST D. MENOLD INC.Before Ernie Menold became president of one of the Philadelphia region’s established sheet metal contracting firms, he was teaching English in Bangkok, managing SEO campaigns in Boston and watching a fintech startup grow from 150 employees to 400. He came to his family’s business not despite those detours, but because of them.Menold grew up in the orbit of Ernest D. Menold Inc., a company now more than 70 years old that specializes in HVAC, dry-side sheet metal, pharmaceutical work and custom stainless architectural metals. He started painting fences and doing general maintenance at 14, worked the shop floor in college, got field experience hanging ductwork and shadowed project managers as a summer assistant. The exposure was deep, but the expectation was never automatic.“The way our family operates as a family business is there isn’t a pressure mandate to come and work,” he says. “That decision needs to be an independent one — one that comes from a place of wanting to work there, not from a mandate.”So, Menold left. He taught abroad for a year, came back, left again for Boston and built a career in digital marketing at a time when the discipline was still forming. He ran SEO and paid search campaigns for multiple clients at a marketing agency. He eventually landed as search engine marketing manager at Flywire, a financial technology platform, where he watched a mid-sized company build and scale a digital infrastructure from the inside.“I got to see how a company scales digitally, building and implementing a tech stack very methodically,” he says. “That set a great foundation.”When his father approached him in 2018, the company was growing, taking on bigger work and experiencing an expanding preconstruction workload. So, Menold came back as business development manager. The title suggested marketing and sales. The reality was process mapping and digital transformation. “It was a lot of operations — going through our processes, seeing how paper flows throughout a 70-year-old company and figuring out digital solutions to really get information into foremen’s and project managers’ hands quicker,” he says.The skill that carried over most directly, Menold says, was data fluency. Years of turning raw analytics into client-ready stories had trained him to wrestle meaning from messy spreadsheets, find patterns in dirty CSV files and make data tell a story rather than simply report it. In construction, that same ability became the foundation for operational decision-making.“I view it as: find those three dots and hit export on a messy CSV and play with that data,” he says. “That gave me the tools to find insights and actually make decisions for the company based on actual data rather than gut feelings.”“Our work is tangible. Sheet metal is the one trade turning flat metal and metal stock into actual fabricated items that go and live somewhere for years to come. To actually be able to go and touch and see your installed work is easily the most gratifying part of it all.” — Ernie MenoldThe challenge he encountered upon returning was experiential. Walking into scope meetings for large duct jobs, Menold was sometimes the least qualified person in the room to nail down the nitty-gritty of a bid. That knowledge — knowing where your risk sits, recognizing the position an owner or general contractor is trying to put you in and protecting profitability — takes time to build and can’t be imported from another industry.“That is something you learn over time,” he says plainly.What he could import was a fresh set of eyes. The company’s shop foreman was receiving work orders through a chaotic mix of text messages, emails and hand sketches. There was no standardized process and no centralized visibility into where jobs stood. Menold started there.By 2020, he had built a workflow management layer on top of existing company software. In recent years, the firm has migrated to the Microsoft Power Platform, building custom solutions across its multiple lines of work after discovering that off-the-shelf construction management tools couldn’t accommodate their particular mix of pharmaceutical, architectural and HVAC work.Now, foremen can pull up iPads and see where a job stands in the shop in real time without chasing down a phone call.Menold sees his generation — the 40-somethings entering family businesses with digital backgrounds — as a pivot point for the industry. He sits on SMACNA’s construction technology committee and regularly encounters peers navigating the same transition. For those considering the leap into the trades, Menold offers a distinctly tactile rationale. Coming from a software company, where success was measured in clicks, impressions and customer feedback loops, the physical reality of construction work hit differently.“Our work is tangible,” he says. “Sheet metal specifically is the one trade turning flat metal and metal stock into actual fabricated items that go and live somewhere for years to come. To actually be able to go and touch and see your installed work is easily the most gratifying part of it all.”THE SHAKESPEARE SCHOLAR WHO LEARNED TO WELD: DEVON MADON, MADON SHEET METALDevon Madon’s academic dissertation was on Shakespeare. She spent 15 years in classrooms, college lecture halls and at a prestigious math and science academy in Illinois, teaching literature, theory and close reading. Her husband, John, was an apprentice sheet metal worker becoming a journeyman, coming home with stories about what he built with his hands.“I got my PhD in literature while he got his PhD in sheet metal,” she says with a laugh.They were, by any conventional logic, on divergent tracks. Devon had deliberately fled family business after watching her father’s graphic design company — Wallace Church, a firm her grandfather had founded in the 1950s that did brand design for major clients including the Pillsbury Doughboy — sell rather than pass to the next generation. She had gone as far from entrepreneurship as she could get, all the way to a doctoral program, precisely because the experience of watching her father face that transition had been painful to witness. Even when his story turned out fine — he became happy, less stressed and wildly successful in other pursuits — the lesson Devon absorbed was about the weight of legacy.So, when she and John decided in late 2019 to open Madon Sheet Metal, a specialty welding shop, she went in clear-eyed about the risks. They had two young boys, they were combining marriage and business, and they were opening their doors just before COVID hit.“We had a really hard time for the first two years getting over that initial hump,” she says. “All kinds of bumps and turns and changed directions. But this is now our sixth year in business. We’re still here. And now we’re finally running a profitable shop and have found our niche.”John brought the generational knowledge — his grandfather had come back from World War II with nothing, gone to Chicago and got a union sheet metal job. Both his father and uncle are sheet metal workers. His father’s guidance helped Devon and John understand the relationship between the shop, the office and the field in ways that no book could teach.Devon brought everything else: the ability to plan, connect with people and 15 years of community-building experience.“My job was being a teacher, and I think there are a lot of transferable skills,” she says. “My ability to connect with people and understand where their real pain points were is very similar to the kind of work I had to do as a teacher. Community building is basically what good teaching is, and that is a really transferable skill when it comes to small business ownership, especially in an industry that’s so much about relationships.”The complementarity of their skill sets, Devon says, is the heart of what makes the partnership work. John can visualize a three-dimensional object in his head, understand the air pressure that has to flow through it, design it, weld it and put it together. Devon communicates through language with clients, contractors and the broader business ecosystem around the shop.Working with her husband has required the same discipline she found in all the literature she’d read about family business, and she read a lot of it. She is, after all, a scholar. When things got hard, she went to the library. She talked to other people who had done it. She got financial, spiritual and mental health support, and she isn’t shy about saying so.“I think that it’s really good to normalize getting some help,” she says. “It’s not like you’re done once. You have to keep renegotiating how to get back to that place where everybody can communicate and work together from a place of strength.”She rejects the narrative that family business is a particular kind of trap or dream. It is, she says, whatever you make it, and it is sustained by the same things that sustain any relationship: respect, transparency, empathy and honesty about when you need help.Her advice to anyone sitting on the fence about entering the sheet metal and HVAC world is know what specific problem you can solve.“One of the huge misconceptions about this industry is that it’s only people who have one particular mindset or one skill set who can go into this,” she says. “This industry needs all kinds of minds and all kinds of different skill sets. But what is yours, and how can your particular skill set contribute?”THE TRADE THAT NEEDS ALL KINDSMontrone left Goldman Sachs and found himself running a plasma table. Menold left a fintech firm and found himself untangling 70 years of paper-based workflows. Madon left a university lectern and found herself co-running a specialty welding shop. What they share is a disposition. They are people who recognized something in the sheet metal and HVAC industry that the industries they came from couldn’t offer: permanence and real work. The kind of legacy you can drive past and point to.The labor shortage, data management challenge and technology gap is real. But so is the community. That inclusive culture, combined with the urgent need for new talent, new skills and new perspectives, makes the sheet metal and HVAC industry rare.“This industry is wide-open,” Montrone says. “Get involved and get as much knowledge as you can.” “One of the huge misconceptions about this industry is that it’s only people who have one particular mindset or one skill set who can go into this. This industry needs all kinds of minds and all kinds of different skill sets.” — Devon MadonFrom left to right: Devon Madon, Ernie Menold and Garrett Montrone.
by John Crowley | May 18, 2026 | Uncategorized
Powering the Trades However, we cannot simply rely on one week of advocacy to grow the trades. We must all make a year-round pledge to drive home the need to build a talented, highly skilled workforce and get the word out about the amazing opportunities working in our space can provide.Everyone knows that a long career in the trades provides a sense of long- and short-term financial security that no other field can rival, all without the crippling college debt weighing down so many young professionals in the current economy. There are also some other benefits that making this investment in yourself can present.One of the big things that I’ve taken away from interacting with tradespeople is their fundamental ability to understand and explain how things work. While traditional education has renewed its focus on STEM careers, going through an apprenticeship and starting your career gives you the unique ability to get your hands on complex systems and understand their impact. This is a skill that will not merely serve you well in the shop or on a job site, but it is critical in almost every other part of life. In that same spirit, you will never stop learning either. With all the incredible technological innovation happening before our very eyes, you need to remain a student to remain competitive. This training, which is available through so many avenues, whether it be through SMACNA or our labor partners, gives our workers the opportunity to remain on the cutting edge. Beyond the pay, a career in the trades provides so many other additional dividends that no other sector can really supply. Wellness, both during and after your career, is a top priority. Knowing that you can retire securely and prosperously after making the commitment to the trades grants incredible peace of mind. Knowing that your employer has your back with top-notch health benefits for you and your family is something that cannot be understated. On the theme of “having your back,” the sense of brotherhood/sisterhood that exists within the trades simply cannot be rivaled. You are not merely coworkers; you build a bond that rivals family with teammates who will be there for you through thick and thin.The trades also present unrivaled prospects for growth and achievement. While many careers promise unbounded potential, our industry delivers on that promise. Whether you want to assemble hospital ductwork, create iconic structures, improve school safety or advance from apprentice to business owner, these goals are truly attainable in the trades.Many skilled professionals in our trade are approaching retirement. The best way to honor their legacy is by developing the next generation of workers. Programs like the Heavy Metal Summer Experience introduce young people to the rewarding possibilities of a career in the trades. This is an exciting time for our industry. We have a chance to not just survive, but thrive. I am looking forward to what the future holds! Frank WallSMACNA CEO
by John Crowley | May 18, 2026 | Uncategorized
How a Father’s Advice Built a Career I had just finished high school and was planning on being a CAD operator/engineer in the automotive industry. Around that time, my dad (a journeyman sheet metal worker) made a suggestion that changed my life. He told me to go take the sheet metal apprentice test. When he mentioned it, I joked, “I don’t want to be a dumb sheet metal worker.” He looked at me and said something that changed everything: “Don’t be a dumb one, be a smart one.”I’m really glad I listened to my dad. More than 35 years later, I’ve worked my way up from being an apprentice to owning my own business. I am fortunate that my career has always felt more like my hobby than a job. I can’t think of another job that offers so many opportunities. Where else can you make a good living working with your hands? This career is about much more than just installing ductwork. There are so many ways to use new technology that’s changing our industry. We’ve moved past paper plans on job sites and can now work with project models from anywhere. We’re even starting to use AI to help our companies become smarter and more flexible. Can you name another field where this is possible, and you don’t have to worry about huge college debt? I can’t. Where else can someone start at the bottom and work their way up to owning a business and leading in the industry? I feel lucky to have had this chance, all because of a talk I had with my dad.But not everyone thinking about this field has someone like my dad to guide them. That’s why we need to do more to show high school students and young adults that there’s a real alternative to college. As I travel around the country during my Presidency, this seems to be a common theme. This path offers great benefits, financial security and the chance to build a rewarding career. That’s why SMACNA programs like National Careers in Trades Week are so important. We are and continue to work with SMART to raise awareness about these opportunities. Many of our coworkers are getting ready to retire, and it’s up to us to find the next generation of “smart” sheet metal workers. They’re out there, ready to start their future. Let’s help give them the same push I got back in 1990. Thank you and take care. I can’t think of another job that offers so many opportunities. Where else can someone start at the bottom and work their way up to owning a business and leading in the industry? — Todd Hill
by John Crowley | May 18, 2026 | Uncategorized
Workforce Strategies: Building the Workforce
of the Future When the first National Careers in Trades Week launched in April 2025, it was a coordinated measure by SMACNA, SMART, and the International Training Institute to see if the nation was ready to have a different conversation about work. One year later, the returns are in. The Wall Street Journal covered it. So did CNN and Fox News. Local outlets coast to coast ran features and interviews. And the initiative walked away with a Gold W3 Award in the Educational & Instructional section of the Social Campaigns category, one of the most recognized honors in digital outreach.National Careers in Trades Week was back April 6 – 10 this year, and it was bigger, better funded and more urgently needed than ever. This year, the Mechanical Contractors Association of America (MCAA), the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA), the National Energy Management Institute (NEMI), the Sheet Metal Occupational Health Institute Trust (SMOHIT) and the Heavy Metal Summer Experience joined the founding coalition, and new research commissioned by SMACNA from Wakefield Research tells a story that no amount of marketing could have manufactured. The American public — Gen Z, in particular — is already coming around to the trades on its own.The industry just needs to meet them there.A LABOR MARKET AT A CROSSROADSThe 2026 edition of National Careers in Trades Week arrived at a peculiar moment in the American economy. The broader job market has stagnated — fewer postings, harder-to-land positions and a white-collar hiring freeze in sectors that once felt bulletproof. But skilled trades tell a different story. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, professions in the skilled trades are projected to experience faster-than-average job growth from 2024 through 2034. The BLS Occupational Outlook predicts more than 600,000 construction job openings annually, and the median annual wage in the trades has risen to $58,000 — up from $55,000 just a year earlier — surpassing the median for all occupations, depending on your local collective bargaining agreement.For union members, the picture is even stronger. Nationwide, full-time union construction workers earn a median that is more than $23,500 per year higher than their nonunion counterparts, according to BLS median weekly earnings data. And the Construction Labor Research Council reports that wages across the industry are rising above 4% annually as employers compete for workers in an increasingly tight labor market.In the sheet metal and HVAC space specifically, the stakes are especially clear. Approximately 35,000 sheet metal workers are expected to retire in the coming years. Over half of the current workforce is already over 45. For every five workers who leave the trade, only two are entering it. The deficit is structural, and it is deepening.“There is a lot that has changed about our country over the years: technology, artificial intelligence, you name it,” says Michael Coleman, general president of SMART. “But one thing that won’t ever change is this simple fact: We need skilled trades workers to build our country.”SMART members are building hospitals, managing air quality in schools and ensuring that apartment and office buildings operate efficiently. But the union — and the industry — cannot sustain that work without a new generation of workers ready to carry it forward. THE TEENS ARE ALREADY LISTENINGThe headline finding from this year’s Wakefield Research study, commissioned by SMACNA, is striking in its directness: 75% of teens aged 13 to 18 say they would consider a trade job over going to college. Not “might consider,” but “would consider” as a viable and appealing alternative, if they knew the pay was higher than average.The survey asked what would tip a teenager toward the trades, and the results reveal a generation that is thinking practically and economically. Thirty percent cited higher pay, good benefits and paid apprenticeships as the most compelling factors. Twenty-four percent said the opportunity for promotion would sway them. Twenty-one percent said knowing that their work was vital to the economy would matter. And 19% pointed to the sheer growth in available positions.These are the calculations of a generation that has watched student loan debt cripple its predecessors and has drawn conclusions. College enrollment rates have been declining since 2010, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics with enrollment rebounding slightly since 2022.The Wall Street Journal captured this shift in a widely circulated piece that dubbed Gen Z the “toolbelt generation,” a label that has since stuck across the national conversation about workforce development. The numbers behind it are concrete: enrollment in vocational-focused community colleges rose 16% to its highest level since the National Student Clearinghouse began tracking such data in 2018. Enrollment in construction trade programs rose 23%. HVAC and vehicle maintenance programs rose 7%.An earlier Thumbtack survey of Gen Z graduates found that about nine in 10 said learning a skilled trade offered a more reliable path to economic security than college. And a Jobber survey found that 75% of high school and college-age respondents said they would be interested in vocational schools offering paid, on-the-job training — the very model that apprenticeship programs in the sheet metal industry have perfected over decades.The gender data is also notable. Interest among Gen Z women and men in the trades is now nearly equal — 52% versus 57%, respectively. That near-parity represents a structural shift from previous generations and an opportunity that the industry should be actively cultivating.“Skilled professions offer rewarding career opportunities for all people, including young adults, women, veterans and anyone who is looking for a career change,” says Frank Wall, CEO of SMACNA. “The wages and job security that trade careers offer provide a faster means to home ownership, upward mobility and saving for retirement that other pathways don’t always ensure.”PARENTS ARE ON BOARD, AND THAT CHANGES EVERYTHINGOne of the most underappreciated findings in the SMACNA research is about the parents of these teenagers. In the 2025 Wakefield Research survey of 500 parents with children currently enrolled in high school or college, 89% said it was smart for young adults to consider pursuing a trade career, given the job market, the economy and the weight of college debt. And 86% said they would be open to or would actively encourage their child to pursue that path.Forty-seven percent said their child had already mentioned wanting to go into a trade. That parental shift matters enormously. For decades, the cultural current ran in the opposite direction — the four-year degree was the expected destination, and anything else carried an implicit stigma. That stigma is eroding, and it is eroding at the family dinner table. When a parent hears that a sheet metal apprentice can earn up to $87,500 in their first year and can reach $120,000 to $200,000 in wages and benefits within four to five years of completing an apprenticeship, depending on your local collective bargaining agreement — with no college debt — the math becomes difficult to argue with.The industry’s task is not to persuade a resistant public. It is to amplify a conversation that is already happening and give it the language, the data and the pathways it needs to turn interest into enrollment. A COALITION THAT HAS GROWNThe 2025 inaugural National Careers in Trades Week was anchored by SMACNA, SMART and the ITI — the organizations with the most direct stake in recruiting the next generation of sheet metal and HVAC workers. The 2026 edition has expanded that coalition significantly, and the additions signal something important: this is no longer a single-industry recruitment campaign. It is a cross-trades movement.In 2026, new partners included the Mechanical Contractors Association of America (MCAA), the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA), the National Energy Management Institute (NEMI), the Sheet Metal Occupational Health Institute Trust (SMOHIT) and the Heavy Metal Summer Experience. Each brings its own member base, its own regional networks and its own workforce development infrastructure to a shared platform.NECA CEO David Long framed his organization’s participation in terms that resonate far beyond the electrical industry. “A career in the electrical industry offers more than a paycheck; it offers purpose, stability and opportunity,” he says. “Electrical construction professionals are building the systems that power our economy, keep our communities safe and bring us light at the flick of a switch. This industry provides high-quality training, competitive wages, strong benefits and clear pathways for advancement, allowing individuals to successfully transform their lives and families while contributing to a more connected and sustainable future.”The expansion of the coalition also positions National Careers in Trades Week alongside a parallel federal push. The U.S. Department of Labor announced that National Apprenticeship Week 2026 — set for April 26 through May 2, under the theme “America at Work: Making America Skilled Again Through Registered Apprenticeship” — will run just weeks after National Careers in Trades Week. The event is tied directly to the Trump administration’s goal of reaching one million active apprentices and to presidential executive orders on skilled trades, AI education and national industrial reinvestment.Since the start of the current administration, more than 363,000 new individuals have started apprenticeships — a figure that the Department of Labor is actively building on. The timing of both weeks created a month-long national drumbeat around workforce development in the trades, with National Careers in Trades Week generating the public awareness and National Apprenticeship Week translating that attention into specific pathways.THE ECONOMIC CASE, BY THE NUMBERSFor contractors, workforce developers and educators looking to make the case for a career in sheet metal and HVAC, the 2026 data package is the strongest it has ever been. Here is the picture as it stands, depending on your local collective bargaining agreement:$58,000 — Median annual wage in skilled trades (2025), up from $55,000 the prior year, exceeding the median for all U.S. occupations.$23,556-plus — Annual wage premium for full-time union construction workers over their nonunion counterparts, based on BLS median weekly earnings data.600,000-plus — Construction job openings projected annually through 2034, with faster-than-average growth across the trades.$87,500 — What a SMART sheet metal apprentice can earn in their first year, including wages and benefits, depending on your local collective bargaining agreement.$120,000–$200,000 — Wages and benefits achievable within four to five years of completing a union sheet metal apprenticeship, depending on your local collective bargaining agreement.$0 — Student debt incurred through an earn-while-you-learn apprenticeship, compared to an average of $34,000 for a four-year bachelor’s degree.5 to 2 — The ratio of trade workers retiring to new workers entering the field. WHAT THE TRADES ACTUALLY OFFEROne of the recurring themes in the National Careers in Trades Week campaign — and in the broader public conversation that the Wall Street Journal, CNN and Fox News helped amplify — is that the trades have shed the image of being low-tech, low-status work. That image was never accurate for sheet metal and HVAC, and it is now actively counterproductive.HVAC systems account for 30% to 40% of building energy use. The workers who design, install and maintain them are on the front lines of the green building revolution, reducing carbon emissions, increasing energy efficiency and enabling the kind of high-performance infrastructure that chip plants, data centers and healthcare facilities require. Modern laser welding, drone-assisted inspection, BIM coordination and AI-enabled project management are reshaping what it means to work in the trade. The workers entering the field today will spend their careers at that intersection of physical mastery and digital fluency.The entrepreneurial pathway is also underappreciated. Many of the most successful contractors in the SMACNA network started as apprentices. With experience, those workers can open fabrication shops, manage service operations, move into project management and estimating, or eventually own their own businesses. It is one of the fastest routes to business ownership available in the American economy without requiring a degree.And unlike industries that have seen jobs migrate offshore or dissolve into automation, sheet metal and mechanical work must be done on site by skilled hands in the buildings where Americans live and work. These jobs cannot be outsourced. In a labor market that has grown increasingly uncertain, that is not a small thing.“Union apprenticeships aren’t just a career path,” Coleman says, “they’re a gateway to a stable, rewarding future. By investing in the next generation of trade workers, we’re building a skilled workforce that will power our industries and communities for decades to come.”APRIL 6 – 10: YEAR TWO RESULTSNational Careers in Trades Week 2026 ran April 6 through April 10 with cross-industry visibility efforts designed to reach job seekers, students, parents and the broader public. Throughout the week, participating organizations, including SMACNA, SMART, ITI, MCAA, NECA, NEMI, SMOHIT and HMSE, coordinated outreach across digital platforms, media and local markets.For SMACNA members, National Careers in Trades Week represented both an opportunity and a responsibility. The research is there. The public appetite is there. The partnership infrastructure is there. What translates all of it into actual workers walking through the door of a local JATC is local engagement — contractors and industry partners showing up in their communities, talking to high school students, hosting tours, partnering with career and technical education programs, and making the invisible visible.SMACNA members participated by visiting nationalcareersintradesweek.com for resources, toolkits and event information. The Heavy Metal Summer Experience, which gives young people a hands-on introduction to sheet metal work, continues to serve as one of the most effective on-ramps the industry has developed, and its reach is growing.While the first National Careers in Trades Week landed on the front pages of the Wall Street Journal, CNN and Fox News, the second had the wind at its back with a stagnant broader job market, a generation actively looking for alternatives to college debt, parents who are ready to have the conversation and a coalition of trade organizations larger and better-resourced than the one that launched this effort just one year ago.Photos: Sheet Metal Werks, Heavy Metal Summer Experience, Ernest D. Menold Inc. EDITOR’S NOTE: For more information on National Careers in Trades Week, visit nationalcareersintradesweek.com. For resources on the SMART apprenticeship program and the International Training Institute, visit iti-sti.org.
