The TechForce Foundation released its annual report on the demand for new entrant technicians in automotive, collision, diesel and aviation fields.
While the group reports an increase in graduates across all four industry sectors, it still sees a critical shortage of diesel technicians. The growth of employed technicians is just 1.04% year-over-year.
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Replacement positions are outpacing positions created by growth at a rate of four to one, TechForce says. In 2023, it says projections were for 55,000 new techs, but only 8,600 were added.
In better news, diesel graduates jumped 5% in 2023 versus just a 1% increase in 2022. Private, for-profit two-year schools churned out the most graduates, lead by WyoTech with 476 completions.
