How long does it take to hire a skilled trades worker?
Skilled-trades roles take roughly 56 days to fill. Here's why it's slower than other industries — and what the delay actually costs you.
By Westie · Chief Culture Officer, HireAligned ·
The short answer.
A skilled-trades role takes about 56 days to fill on average — and that clock usually doesn't even start until a tech has already quit. For most plumbing and HVAC owners, "we need someone" to "someone's on the truck" is the better part of two months. Here's why, and what those weeks actually cost.
Why it's slower than other industries
The pool is small and shrinking. With 2.1 million trades jobs projected unfilled by 2030 and one in five workers over 55, there simply aren't many qualified candidates at any given moment.
Good techs aren't looking. The best people are already employed. You're not picking from the unemployed — you're trying to pull someone away from a job they already have, which takes time and a real offer.
The requirements narrow the field. Licensing, a clean driving record, a passed drug test, and actual on-the-job competence eliminate most applicants before an interview.
The clock starts cold. Most owners begin recruiting the day a seat opens. The first two weeks are just writing the ad and waiting for applicants — pure cold-start time.
What the delay costs
Fifty-six days of an empty seat is 56 days of:
- Unbooked jobs — a truck with no driver is revenue you'll never recover.
- Overworked staff — your remaining techs absorb the load, which raises their burnout and turnover risk.
- Pressure to settle — the longer the seat stays open, the more tempting it is to hire the wrong person just to stop the bleeding (see: the cost of a bad hire).
The fix: start before the seat opens
Time-to-hire is only long because the work happens after you need someone. Move the sourcing and screening before the opening — keep a warm pipeline of pre-screened, culture-fit candidates — and "filling a role" becomes a phone call instead of a two-month project.
That's the whole point of treating recruiting as an always-on function rather than an emergency. It's what we run for plumbing and HVAC businesses: when your seat opens, the candidates are already vetted and waiting, so 56 days becomes a few.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to fill a skilled trades role?+
Skilled-trades positions take roughly 56 days to fill on average — slower than most industries because licensed, reliable candidates are scarce and rarely stay on the job market for long.
Why does hiring take longer in the trades?+
The candidate pool is small and shrinking, good techs are rarely unemployed, licensing and background requirements narrow the field, and most owners only start recruiting after a seat is already empty — adding weeks of cold-start time.
How can a trades business shorten time-to-hire?+
Recruit before the seat opens. An always-on pipeline of pre-screened candidates collapses time-to-hire from ~56 days to days, because the sourcing and screening already happened. Reactive hiring is what makes it slow.