PHOENIX — No state has added skilled trades workers faster than Arizona. A new national report ranks Arizona first in the country for skilled trades employment growth, with jobs up 22.6% from 2019 to 2025.
That growth has not been enough to cool demand. The same report rates Arizona second in the nation for demand pressure, a measure of how hard employers are pushing for workers, behind only Florida.
The report comes from the Alliance for America's Skilled Trades, a coalition formed this year by BlackRock, Carhartt, Ford Motor Company and Google, which more than a dozen other companies have since joined. Its growth figures are based on federal Bureau of Labor Statistics occupational employment data.
How Arizona compares
The five fastest-growing states are all in the West, and Arizona's neighbors Utah and Nevada joined it in the top five.
Rank | State | Growth, 2019–2025 |
|---|---|---|
1 | Arizona | 22.6% |
2 | Utah | 19.9% |
3 | Alaska | 16.8% |
4 | Idaho | 16.3% |
5 | Nevada | 12.0% |
6 | Alabama | 11.3% |
7 | Florida | 11.1% |
8 | Delaware | 10.9% |
9 | South Dakota | 10.7% |
10 | Tennessee | 10.4% |
Not every state is growing. Sixteen states lost skilled trades workers over the same period.
Arizona by the numbers
The report counts 385,970 skilled trades workers in Arizona. Its demand pressure score, based on projected and actual demand, the mix of occupations and wage trends, gives Arizona a score of 93. Only Florida scored higher, at 95. The next-closest states, Georgia and Idaho, were well behind at 80 and 78.
The combination is unusual. Arizona leads the country in growth and still ranks near the top for demand, which means employer demand remains strong even after years of rapid hiring.
The report defines skilled trades broadly. It covers 124 occupations, including core building trades such as electricians, plumbers and pipefitters, carpenters, roofers and sheet metal workers, along with maintenance technicians, machinists, welders, transportation workers and engineering technicians.
What's driving demand
Arizona's demand has been fueled by large industrial projects on top of steady housing growth. The biggest is Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.'s $40 billion chip manufacturing project in Phoenix, described as the largest single foreign direct investment in Arizona history.
The project has been a test of the local labor market. TSMC had pointed to a shortage of skilled workers as one reason for delaying production at its first Phoenix fab, Construction Dive reported in January 2024. In December 2023, the company reached an agreement with the Arizona Building and Construction Trades Council. Under the deal, the council agreed to recruit enough skilled workers to meet contractors' needs, and TSMC agreed to partner on union training programs and prioritize hiring local U.S. workers.
Contractors were feeling the squeeze too. In early 2024, Mike Greenawalt, CEO of Rosendin Electric, told ABC15 that Arizona was in a growth phase it had never seen before and was suffering a labor shortage. He spoke at a graduation where Phoenix's electrical apprenticeship program turned out a record of more than 100 new electricians.
BuildItAZ and the apprenticeship pipeline
Arizona's main answer has been apprenticeships. In 2023, the state launched BuildItAZ, a push led by the Arizona Office of Economic Opportunity to expand registered construction and trades apprenticeships. Its goal is 8,700 construction and trades apprentices by the end of 2026, part of a broader aim of doubling the number.
The program funds apprenticeship programs directly. It has awarded grants in several rounds, starting with $650,000 to five programs in 2024, followed by additional $1 million rounds, and in August 2025 opened a third round of $2 million in federal grants. The money can go toward instructors, equipment and facilities, recruiting and keeping apprentices, and support such as child care, transportation and tools.
In August 2025, Office of Economic Opportunity Director Carlos Contreras said BuildItAZ had added more than 5,000 new apprentices to Arizona's registered apprenticeship system since 2023. He said apprenticeships let people earn a wage from day one and train for careers that can support a family without taking on college debt.
The state has not yet published a count showing whether it reached its 2026 target.
The national shortage
Arizona's push comes against a national shortfall. The Alliance's report finds that training programs nationwide produce about 55 workers for every 100 that employers need. More than 18 million Americans work in the skilled trades, and the report projects about 1.7 million trades job openings every year through 2035.
The report calls for better training programs, stronger links between schools, training providers and employers, better guidance into trade careers, and workforce spending planned around when and where demand will actually hit.
What to watch
Arizona has shown it can grow a trades workforce quickly. The questions now are whether BuildItAZ hits its 8,700-apprentice goal by year's end, and whether Arizona can keep adding electricians, pipefitters and other tradespeople as fast as its chip plants and housing demand require.