Updated May 2026 · BLS OEWS 2024
Skilled Trade Wage Trend Reports
Across 47 skilled trades and 30 U.S. metros tracked here, 5 trades have posted 5-year wage growth above 10%, 33 are running flat-to-moderate, and 9 are stagnant or shrinking. These reports surface the biggest movers — which trades are climbing fastest, where pay is concentrating, and which corners of the labor market are losing ground — using 2024 BLS OEWS data.
What's Driving Skilled-Trade Wage Trends
The dominant pattern in the most recent BLS OEWS release is widening pay dispersion. Median wages across the 47 skilled trades tracked here range from $50,860 at the low end to $116,702 at the top — a $65,842 spread that has grown over the past five years as electrification, aging-workforce retirements, and federal infrastructure spending pull mechanical and electrical trades higher while general labor categories track inflation more loosely.
The fastest-growing categories cluster around three structural shifts: the energy transition (solar installers, lineworkers, EV technicians), residential mechanical trades caught between long apprenticeship pipelines and a retirement bulge (pipefitters, elevator mechanics, HVAC technicians), and specialty industrial roles tied to reshoring (machinists, sheet-metal workers, ironworkers). Each of these patterns shows up in the per-trade pages with year-by-year median, 10th-, and 90th-percentile detail.
For workers and career changers, the key signal is not the headline national median but the local Trade Pay Score — the cost-of-living-adjusted grade that tells you whether a given trade actually delivers strong purchasing power in your metro. The full scoring methodology is published in detail; it weights raw median pay (30%), 5-year wage growth (25%), employment depth (25%), and COL-adjusted real pay (20%).
Top 5 Fastest-Growing Trades (5-yr)
Top 5 Slowest-Growing Trades (5-yr)
Browse All Trend Reports
Highest Paying Trades
Skilled trades with the best median wages nationwide
Fastest Growing Trade Salaries
Trades with the biggest gap between median and top-earner pay
How These Trends Are Calculated
For each trade, we pull the latest BLS OEWS percentile wage data (10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, 90th) at both the national level and by metropolitan statistical area. We then compute 5-year wage growth by comparing the current median to the OEWS reading from five releases prior, expressed as a percent change. Trades are bucketed into Fastest-Growing (greater than 10%), Stable (0-10%), and Declining (negative). Wage growth feeds the Trade Pay Score at 25% weight; the remaining 75% combines raw pay, employment, and cost-of-living-adjusted purchasing power. Read the full methodology.
Authoritative sources used in every report: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics at bls.gov/oes, the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook at bls.gov/ooh for projected employment growth, and the U.S. Department of Labor's apprenticeship registry at apprenticeship.gov for training-pipeline detail. All three are public-domain federal data sources.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a skilled-trade wage trend?
A skilled-trade wage trend is the percent change in median pay over a multi-year window for a specific occupation, derived from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS). TradeWages tracks 5-year wage growth across 47 trades and 30 U.S. metros. A positive growth rate signals demand outpacing supply; flat or negative growth signals labor-market saturation or structural decline. Read the full BLS OEWS dataset on the official BLS site at https://www.bls.gov/oes/.
Which skilled trades are growing the fastest?
Of the 47 trades tracked, 5 have posted 5-year wage growth above 10%, 33 are in the 0-10% stable band, and 9 are flat or declining. The current top 5 by growth are Wind Turbine Technician (+45%), Solar PV Installer (+22%), Industrial Machinery Mechanic (+14%), Electrician (+11%), Industrial Electrician (+11%). These trades cluster around energy transition (solar, EV, grid), residential construction, and infrastructure repair, where federal funding and labor shortages are pushing up wages.
Why are some trade wages rising faster than others?
Wage growth in a trade reflects three forces: federal investment (Infrastructure Act, Inflation Reduction Act, CHIPS Act), apprenticeship-pipeline lag (long training windows mean new workers can't arrive fast enough during demand spikes), and aging-workforce retirements. Trades tied to electrification — linemen, solar installers, electricians — and to skilled mechanical work — pipefitters, elevator mechanics — are seeing the steepest gains. Read more about apprenticeship demand on the U.S. Department of Labor site at https://www.apprenticeship.gov/.
How is BLS OEWS data used to compute these reports?
BLS publishes OEWS estimates annually each May for the prior year, covering wages by occupation (SOC code) and metropolitan statistical area. TradeWages pulls the 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, and 90th percentile wages plus employment counts, then computes 5-year growth by comparing the latest median to the same series 5 years prior. All percentile and growth figures here come from the official BLS release at https://www.bls.gov/oes/, with no estimates or proxies. Per-trade detail with city breakdowns is available on each /trade/ profile page.
How often are these trend reports updated?
Trend reports are recomputed each time BLS publishes a new OEWS release — typically once per year, in late spring, covering the prior calendar year. The current dataset reflects 2024 OEWS data; it was last refreshed May 2026. Each underlying trade and city profile lists the data vintage, so you can verify which reading any number is built from.
Where does TradeWages get its salary projections?
TradeWages does not publish salary projections — every wage figure on the site is a real, observed BLS OEWS percentile from a federally administered employer survey. Career outlook data (job openings, projected employment growth through 2032) comes from the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook at https://www.bls.gov/ooh/, which is also U.S. government public domain.
Across 47 skilled trades and 30 U.S. metros, 5 trades have posted 5-year wage growth above 10%; the fastest-growing trade is Wind Turbine Technician at +45%. Wage spread between top and bottom trades: $65,842. Source: BLS OEWS 2024.