You're home late from a service call you ran yourself, your tech job has been posted for months, and you're wondering why it's so hard to find good techs. The few people who did apply aren't who you need, and next week's schedule is already fuller than the crew you've got.
It's hard to find good employees in the trades right now because there are more openings than experienced people to fill them, because most shops are fishing in the same small pond of techs who already have jobs, and because the good ones can afford to be choosy about where they work. You can't change the labor market from your shop, but a small company does control where it looks, whether it grows its own people and whether a good hire wants to stay past the first few months, and that's what the rest of this post walks through.
An electrical contractor in a Jobber Community thread about hiring put the whole problem in one line, writing, "I have an insane amount of work but lack the talent." The numbers explain why so many shops are stuck in the same spot.
Is there really a shortage of techs, or is it just me?
The shortage is real, and it's showing up almost everywhere. In the 2025 AGC and NCCER workforce survey of nearly 1,400 construction firms, 92% reported difficulty hiring for open positions, which means the shop down the road is almost certainly fighting the same battle you are.
The demand behind those numbers isn't letting up either. The Bureau of Labor Statistics' outlook for HVAC mechanics and installers projects 11% growth from 2025 to 2035, which it calls "much faster than the average for all occupations," with about 40,600 openings a year, and it puts the median HVAC tech's pay at $61,010 as of May 2025. With that many jobs opening up every year, a good tech has options and usually knows it.
What does it look like here in Oregon?
It looks about the same here, and it's a little tougher if you're set on hiring someone with experience. The Oregon Employment Department's report on 2025 job vacancies counted 5,137 construction vacancies across the state, found that 74.8% of them were difficult to fill, and reported that 87.6% called for previous experience, with an average offered wage of $29.01 an hour.
That 87.6% is the number worth sitting with. When almost every shop in Oregon is asking for experience, they're all chasing the same small group of experienced techs, and most of them are already working. If you're in Salem or anywhere else in the Willamette Valley, that's a good reason to start looking in the places the other shops skip.
Where do good techs actually come from?
The most promising candidates usually come from people you and your crew already know, from schools and apprenticeship programs, and from techs who are working somewhere else but are quietly open to a better place. Job boards work best as one source among several, so here's where I'd put the effort, roughly in order.
Start with your own crew, because techs know other techs. Ask every person on your team who they'd want to work beside, and pay a referral bonus once the new hire makes it past a set number of months. Then tell your wider network, because the counter staff at the supply house, your equipment reps and other owners all hear who's unhappy and who's looking.
Schools and training programs come next. The BLS notes that HVAC techs typically learn through a postsecondary program that "generally last[s] from 6 months to 2 years," or through a multi-year apprenticeship, so getting to know the instructors near you puts you first in line for their best students. In Oregon, registered apprenticeships run through local committees, and the employers approved to train apprentices are called training agents (more on that below).
When you do post a job, write it for a tech who already has one, and lead with the schedule, the pay range, the truck and tools, the training and what a normal week looks like, because those are the things a working tech is comparing. One person in that same Jobber thread suggested you "network your way to finding these electricians," and to "get involved with the local high schools in your area and technical colleges." A former electrician there warned that "One thing that would keep me away regardless of the pay is the schedule," which is a good reason to look hard at your on-call rotation and out-of-town work before you blame the labor market.
Should I grow my own techs instead of hiring experienced ones?
For a lot of small shops, growing your own is the most dependable way to build a crew, because it takes you out of the fight over the same few experienced people. It takes longer up front and asks more of your senior techs, but you end up with people who learned to do the work your way.
In Oregon, one structured way to do it is to become a training agent in a registered apprenticeship. BOLI's training agent information sheet explains that "Employers who are approved by the committee to provide training are called Training Agents," and that you apply through the local apprenticeship committee for your trade. It's a real commitment, because training agents "must make a commitment to provide on-the-job training according to approved industry standards," must "pay the apprentice according to the standards," and need to supervise at the ratio the standards set and work around the apprentice's class schedule. BOLI's Apprenticeship and Training Division can point you to the right committee for your trade.
If a registered program isn't the right fit yet, you can still grow your own informally. Hire for attitude and reliability, pair each new person with one patient senior tech, write down what they should be able to do at 30, 60 and 90 days, and raise their pay as they hit each step so they can see a path forward.
What makes a new tech stay past the first few months?
New hires stay when the first few weeks are organized, when they know who to ask and what's expected of them, and when they can see where they're headed. They leave when they spend their first week waiting around, get thrown on a truck with no training, or can't get a straight answer from anyone but the owner.
That last one is hard on a new tech and even harder on the person whose phone every answer runs through. A simple first-week plan goes a long way toward fixing all three, and it can be as plain as this:
Before day one, have the truck, tools, uniform, phone and software logins ready, and get the paperwork done or scheduled.
On day one, give them a real welcome, a walk through the shop and the trucks, and an introduction to the person they'll ride with.
During the first week, have them ride along with one senior tech, learn how a job flows from the call to the invoice, and know who to call with questions, which shouldn't always be you.
Over the first 90 days, give them a written list of skills to check off, a short check-in every two weeks, and a clear raise or next step when they get there.
The by-hand way is a printed onboarding checklist and a binder of how you do things. The tool way is the same checklist and your written processes kept in a shared folder or in your field service software, so a new tech can look things up from the truck instead of calling the office. If you'd like help putting this in place, here's how I approach HR and onboarding systems for contractors, and you can read more about the support I offer contractors here in Salem.
Questions owners ask
How can a small shop compete with bigger companies on pay?
Pay still matters, so find out what the market is paying and stay close to it. Beyond that, a small shop can win on things a bigger company often can't match, like a predictable schedule, a direct line to the owner, real training and a clear path to a raise, and each of those is worth putting in writing when you recruit.
Is it worth starting an apprenticeship program?
If you plan to keep growing, it usually is, because it gives you a steady supply of people trained your way. In Oregon, you'd typically join an existing local apprenticeship committee as a training agent rather than build a program from scratch, and BOLI's Apprenticeship and Training Division can tell you what that involves for your trade.
What should a new tech's first week look like?
Have everything ready before they arrive, pair them with one senior tech for the whole week, and show them how a job moves from the call to the invoice. Then end the week with a short talk about how it went and what's next.
Where should I post a job for HVAC or plumbing techs?
Post on the big job boards and your own website, but don't stop there. Your crew's referrals, your supply house contacts, local trade school instructors and apprenticeship committees all reach people who aren't scrolling job boards, so give them at least as much effort.
Now picture that same late night a few months from now. The tech you found through a referral or a school instructor has been riding with your best senior tech and has a checklist on the truck and someone to call who isn't you, so tonight's service call went on somebody else's schedule. You're still busy, but you're home, and the next opening feels like something you know how to fill.
If you'd like to see how hiring, training and the rest of the work in your company are actually divided up, the free Foundation Inspection follows a job from the first call to the money in the bank and asks who owns each step along the way, including hiring, training and covering for someone who's out. It takes about an hour, and it shows you where a new hire would take the most weight off you first.
I'm Tim Volner, and I run Sentric Group in Salem, Oregon, where I work with contractors who've built a solid company but have reached the point where it can't seem to run for a single day without them.