Dive Brief:
- Carrier Global Corp. plans to hire 1,000 new HVAC service technicians and provide additional training to more than 100,000 Carrier and Carrier partner technicians within five years, it said on Jan. 13.
- The Carrier TechVantage Initiative will help meet growing demand for commercial HVAC expertise driven by “rapid growth in data centers, industrial facilities and large-scale infrastructure projects,” the company said.
- Carrier will hire new technicians across the country, with larger concentrations in “key cities such as Houston, Dallas, Charlotte, Indianapolis and Boston,” and possible expansions to new geographies driven by growth in the data center sector, a Carrier spokesperson said in an email.
Dive Insight:
The U.S. skilled labor market faces a significant workforce shortage in the coming years, according to an April 2024 report by McKinsey.
That report projects that “critical skilled roles,” — including but not limited to carpenters, electricians, HVAC mechanics and installers, plumbers and pipe fitters, solar photovoltaic installers and braziers — could reach annual hiring rates about 20 times higher than annual net new jobs from 2022 to 2032. The firm estimates 584,200 total annual hires in these roles during that period, compared with just 26,600 annual net new jobs, and it estimates that the “extraordinary rate of churn” could raise companies’ talent acquisition and training costs by more than $5.3 billion.
Annual job creation was partially calculated using the rate of frequent migration to other jobs or significant portions of the workforce entering retirement, McKinsey noted.
Meanwhile, the ratio of post-working-age individuals to working-age individuals is expected to rise by 75% from 1984 to 2027, leaving fewer replacements for the aging workforce, McKinsey said.
"The demand for skilled service technicians in the U.S. has never been greater, and Carrier is uniquely positioned to lead this transformation," David Gitlin, chairman and CEO of Carrier, said in a statement.
“On the supply side, we have a lot of workers at the end of their career. We call this the gray to green workforce transition, where you see a lot of people transitioning out of the workforce and a lot of green or newer talent coming,” McKinsey partner and report coauthor Brooke Weddle told Facilities Dive in May.
A July 2024 survey by home services platform Thumbtack found that 55% of Generation Z respondents are considering a career in the skilled trades, up 12% from the previous year. Most respondents credited positive social media influences, while 93% of Gen Z college graduates said they believed that skilled trades can be a better route to economic security than college. But negative perceptions of the skilled trades persist, with 74% of respondents to a 2023 survey by home and commercial services platform Jobber saying “there’s a stigma associated with going to a vocational school over a traditional four-year university.”
As equipment manufacturers like Carrier compete for scarce labor amid rapidly rising demand for HVAC and refrigeration technicians, the company aims to “[shape] the future of technician development and [create] an initiative designed to attract, develop and empower the very best talent,” Gitlin said.
The Carrier TechVantage Initiative’s training component covers HVAC electrical and mechanical troubleshooting, heat pump installation and service, chiller fundamentals and operation, product-specific troubleshooting, and product familiarization, startup and maintenance, the spokesperson said. Training will be offered online and in-person through its newly opened Carrier University in Charlotte, North Carolina, and three other regional sites, they said.
The Carrier TechVantage Initiative tailors training to different stages of technicians’ careers, from “foundational knowledge for new apprentices to advanced training for senior technicians and people leaders,” and will include “training on soft skills and business acumen … to enhance customer interactions and improve efficiency in the field,” the spokesperson said.
The company also said that the initiative will feature structured pathways for talent to gain mentorship and practical experience, as well as “strategic alliances and technical institutions to prepare technicians for cutting-edge HVAC solutions.”
Since opening last year, Carrier’s Charlotte facility has provided nearly 22,000 hours of in-person education and training for commercial HVAC technicians, while an Indianapolis facility that opened in 2023 has provided more than 15,000 training hours for residential HVAC technicians, the company said.
Altogether in 2024, Carrier provided nearly 132,000 training hours across its commercial and residential HVAC businesses through in-person, virtual and online platforms to train approximately 20,000 service technicians, it said.
