Last Updated on Mar 18, 2022
The US Bureau of labor statistics recently conducted research projected that employment for welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers to grow at 3%, which is in line with other occupations.
This means healthy growth – and good prospects, particularly for welders who are trained user the newest technologies. They expect competition to be higher for those why may be outdated in their education and training (this is similar to any industry that has advancements over time).
source: bls.gov
Along with the 3% growth, the American Welding Society believes that there’s an estimates shortage of 375,000 welders in the USA by 2023. They believe this shortage to be driven by a variety of factors including retirements, people leaving the industry, and people advancing.
They’ve also noted that there is a negative perception of welding – people think it can be a dirty and dangerous job and don’t realize you can be selective in your work environment. They don’t realize that welding can be doing things such as working on automotive factory lines or working with robots. As more people shift towards university education, they are missing the opportunity that you can get a cheaper education and starting earning a healthy wage faster with trades such as welding.