How long does it take to hire a skilled trades worker?

The short answer.

Average time-to-hire for a skilled trades worker is 56 days — and that clock usually doesn't even start until a tech has already quit. That figure comes from Randstad's 2026 analysis of more than 150 million U.S. job postings, which found trades roles now take longer to fill than desk-based professional jobs (54 days). For most plumbing and HVAC owners, "we need someone" to "someone's on the truck" is the better part of two months. Here's why, and what those weeks actually cost.

Why it's slower than other industries

The pool is small and shrinking. The BLS projects about 40,100 HVAC and 44,000 plumbing openings every year through 2034, the majority of them replacing people leaving the occupation rather than new growth. There simply aren't many qualified candidates on the market at any given moment.

Good techs aren't looking. The best people are already employed. You're not picking from the unemployed — you're trying to pull someone away from a job they already have, which takes time and a real offer.

The requirements narrow the field. Licensing, a clean driving record, a passed drug test, and actual on-the-job competence eliminate most applicants before an interview.

The clock starts cold. Most owners begin recruiting the day a seat opens. The first two weeks are just writing the ad and waiting for applicants — pure cold-start time.

What the delay costs

Fifty-six days of an empty seat is 56 days of:

• Unbooked jobs — a truck with no driver is revenue you'll never recover.
• Overworked staff — your remaining techs absorb the load, which raises their burnout and turnover risk.
• Pressure to settle — the longer the seat stays open, the more tempting it is to hire the wrong person just to stop the bleeding (see: the cost of a bad hire).

The fix: start before the seat opens

Time-to-hire is only long because the work happens after you need someone. Move the sourcing and screening before the opening — keep a warm pipeline of pre-screened, culture-fit candidates — and "filling a role" becomes a phone call instead of a two-month project.

The delay isn't really a process problem, either — it's a supply problem. The HVAC shortage and the plumber shortage both mean qualified techs are rarely on the market long, and turnover keeps reopening the same seats.

That's the whole point of treating recruiting as an always-on function rather than an emergency. It's what we run for plumbing and HVAC businesses: when your seat opens, the candidates are already vetted and waiting, so 56 days becomes a few. If you're deciding who should own that work, see recruiting service vs. staffing agency vs. in-house.