Tired. That’s what I heard in the voices of the local tradesmen I recently spoke to: They sounded tired.
Todd Spradlin, the face on our cover from four years ago when we at the Silverado launched a series of articles to raise awareness of Vanishing Trades – he no longer had that fight in his voice. I became deeply saddened.
We met in a coffee shop to talk about what trends he was seeing with the trades since our last effort and, frankly, it didn’t seem like he was seeing any improvement on his end. Talent was still hard to find, and the businesses in this area – plumbing, electrical, HVAC, and more – continue to be in dire need of workers.
While getting young people – or anyone – to work in the trades may not have improved, there is quite a lot of movement to make things better. Read More