Mississippi is encouraging more people to go into construction. Will it work?
By Katherine Lin | Originally published by Mississippi Today
Daniel Osborne did not start working as an electrician until his late 30s. Before that he was a registered nurse and working on the side for a friend’s construction company.
But what started as a side project became a passion.
“I found it fascinating because I like math and I like showing my craftsmanship. Bending conduit and running conduit is a work of art to me,” Osborne said.
He began taking electrician classes at Hinds Community College and began working in the field. Osborne now works as a project manager and teaches second-year apprentices at Build Mississippi, a nonprofit that partners with employers, community colleges and schools across the state to provide training in trades such as HVAC, electrical and plumbing. His job is now primarily in the office, which gives him more time with his family but he misses the camaraderie of being in the field.
Osborne says that there are plenty of companies willing to hire green apprentices, but he cautions that such jobs are physically demanding and new apprentices are not always prepared for it.
“We are digging in the dirt, running really big conduit and pouring concrete,” Osborne said, “They aren’t expecting the weather, the heat and the amount of work that is going in just for underground work.”
Construction employment in Mississippi has grown by about 20% since the pandemic, adding about 9,500 jobs over the past five years according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. State officials and industry leaders say there continues to be a demand for qualified workers as the state sees more development.
State and private organizations, such as Build Mississippi, are trying to attract more workers by educating them about the field and providing hands-on training and apprenticeships.
While job prospects and higher-than-average salaries are attractive, construction industry leaders say that the physical demands of the job and preconceived ideas about the trades dissuade some from the field.
“You don’t necessarily have to go to college in order to be successful. You can go into the trades, make money doing that and then if you decide to do something later on, that’s fine,” said Matthew Evans, Build Mississippi’s north area director and an electrician.
In Evans’ and Osborne’s experience, apprentices in the commercial sector start out at around $15 an hour, around $30,000 a year, and experienced electricians can make $35 to $40 per hour, about $70,000 to $80,000 a year. Mississippi’s median household income in 2025 was $56,000.
Construction employment is expected to grow each year by about 1% through 2030, according to Corey Miller, the state economist. While this is slower than previous years, it reflects employment forecasts across the country that predict relatively flat employment numbers over the next few years.
Miller said recent growth in the state is likely due to a variety of factors including federal investment in infrastructure, increased demand for housing coming out of the pandemic and data center construction.
“The need for skilled workers is in great demand,” said Darren Clay, an HVAC instructor at Simpson County Technical Center. He was watching one of his students, the first from Simpson to do so, compete in the state skills competition hosted by Build Mississippi in March.
His student was one of hundreds from high schools and community colleges across the state. Students ran electric wiring, welded pipes and built free-standing structures as part of the competition and career fair held at the Jackson Trade Mart. The winners will compete in a national contest in June.
Mississippi students are able to attend classes as part of career and technical education programs at their schools.
Career and technical education, or CTE, is a broad term for classes that help prepare students to work in the real world. It can include everything from finance and horticulture to welding and carpentry.
Evans knows not every student is going to end up in the trades but for those who enjoy the work, it can be an interesting and rewarding career.
“I can’t tell how many times I’ve had a kid come work for me and he thinks that’s what he wants to do. And then two weeks later, he’s gone because he’s like, ‘I don’t want to do this. I want to go to college,’” Evans said.
“There’s so many trades out there and there’s so many opportunities. And there’s so many different layers in each one,” Evans said.
CTE courses are not new but lawmakers have become more interested in such programs as a way to address the state’s labor needs. During its latest session, the Legislature funded and expanded the state’s workforce development programs. The state’s public education agency is also pushing career and technical training, putting more of a focus on CTE in its accountability standards.
In his 2027 Executive Budget Recommendation, Gov. Tate Reeves said there is a “critical shortage of skilled workers” in the state.
Mississippi will need 19,000 additional skilled workers by 2035, according to state officials, in areas such as construction, nursing, cybersecurity and shipbuilding.
Accelerate Mississippi, the state’s office of workforce development, has identified construction as a key area it says offers high paying jobs that are in demand.
According to Accelerate’s director, Courtney Taylor, before an Amazon data center project was announced, the company told her office that its biggest concern was having enough people to build the facilities. She said that around 20% of tradesmen and women in Mississippi will retire by 2034 and companies will continue to need skilled workers.
“I’m not trying to wax poetic about the reality of these jobs because they are hard,” Taylor said. “They do work long hours, they do. But they also sustain their families. And that is good. That is good for Mississippi.”
The governor signed legislation to create a Mississippi office of apprenticeship that would replace the federal government’s role in registering apprenticeship programs in the state. A little over half of states have their own apprenticeship agencies and the rest rely on the Department of Labor. This move is intended to reduce bureaucracy and create programs that are customized to a state’s unique needs.
Another bill the governor signed was the Upgrading Priority Skills for Key Industry Learning and Labor grant program. Community college students enrolled in needed fields could receive money to help cover tuition, fees and materials costs. Funding details were not specified in the bill. However, Sen. Nicole Boyd, a Republican from Oxford, said that a pilot program would be funded by opioid settlement money and only available to those in recovery.
Taylor said that while students might be wary of going into construction or the trades, just because they start there doesn’t mean they need to stay there but it is a field that is looking for people.
“It’s a starting point,” she said. “And I have the philosophy of let’s let’s get people moving into a good job right now.”
This article was originally published by Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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