Heating techs needed for future growth

Just over one-third (34.4%) of the current HVACR workforce is expected to retire by 2020.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics says that, by the year 2020:

all occupations in the United States will grow by 14.3%;

the HVACR industry will grow by 33.7%; and

34.4% of the current HVACR workforce is expected to retire.

In eight years, 65.6% of service persons in the HVACR industry will be people that are not in the industry today.

Heating service jobs cannot be outsourced or automated. HVAC Excellence says this is great information to share with high schools as the HVACR industry will be one of the fastest growing in the United States for the foreseeable future.

At the

2012 National HVACR Educators and Trainers Conferencethat took place in March,Richard Holdenof the Bureau of Labor Statistics andPatti EllingsonofWomen in HVACRdiscussed the recruitment needs of the HVACR industry. Click on the link above to find out more about these statistics and the conference itself.

And don't forget aboutCareers in Construction Week, Oct. 29-Nov. 2: You can get involved in your community to spread the word about mechanical contracting careers.

Kelly Faloon was a former editor of Plumbing & Mechanical as well as the BNP Media Plumbing Group’s Integrated Content Development Specialist. She also was a former editor of the Radiant Comfort Guide the Radiant & Hydronics Report — both official publications of the Radiant Professionals Alliance — and twice-monthly Radiant & Hydronics eNews, an enewsletter for anyone interested in the world of heating with hot water.

Her editorial specialties included women in plumbing, recruiting for the trades, green construction techniques, water conservation, water treatment, hydronic heating, radiant heating and cooling, snow melt, solar thermal and geothermal.

After a 3½-year stint at sister publication Supply House Times, Faloon joined the PM staff in December 2001 as senior editor. She was named PM’s managing editor in 2006 and editor in 2013.

Previously, she spent nearly 10 years at CCH, a publishing firm specializing in business and tax law, where she wore many hats — proofreader, writer/editor for a daily tax publication, and Internal Revenue Code editor.

A native of Michigan’s northern Lower Peninsula, Faloon is a 1986 journalism graduate of Michigan State University.