Workforce demands will expand substantially over the next decade, according to the U.S. Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics. Pipe trades occupations will reach a 15.7 percent growth rate between 2004 and 2014, BLS predicts, outstripping the rate of growth in the economy overall (13 percent) and construction trades as a whole (11.8 percent). The pipe trades will add 193,000 new and replacement positions by 2014.