America is losing its skilled workforce faster than anyone is building the replacement.

A new JLL report published in April 2026 found that by 2030, an estimated 2.1 million skilled trades positions — electricians, HVAC technicians, plumbers, pipefitters, and construction equipment operators — could go unfilled across the United States. Georgetown University projects a 4.6-million-person gap between workers retiring and new skilled workers entering the labor market between 2024 and 2032. For every five workers who retire from construction, manufacturing, and skilled trades, only two replacements enter the workforce.

The crisis is not abstract. During 2025 alone, 600,000 jobs were posted for major skilled trades positions in the United States. Only 150,000 workers entered the labor pool through apprenticeship programs. Electrician positions are projected to grow 9.5% through 2034 — more than triple the 3.1% average across all occupations. HVAC technician roles are expected to grow 8.1% over the same period. The people who know how to do these jobs are retiring. The people who need to replace them are not arriving fast enough.

Forum Ventures, the early-stage B2B fund and AI Venture Studio that has backed 550+ companies since 2014, believes AI can close that gap — and is actively co-building the companies that will do it.

"The conventional response to the skilled labor crisis is 'train more workers.' That misses the point. The real opportunity is using AI to fundamentally redefine what it means to do these jobs — decoupling decades of institutional knowledge from the physical act of doing the work, expanding the eligible labor pool, and building new pathways for people entering the trades from non-traditional backgrounds." — Naomi Goez, Partner, Forum Ventures

The Scale of the Problem

The data tells a consistent story across every skilled trade:

2.1M skilled trades jobs projected unfilled by 2030 (JLL, April 2026)

4.6M person gap between retiring workers and new entrants, 2024–2032 (Georgetown University)

5:2 ratio of trades workers retiring vs. replacements entering the workforce (U.S. Dept. of Education)

600K skilled trades jobs posted in 2025 — with only 150K new apprentices (FABTECH / JLL)

9.5% projected growth in electrician positions through 2034 — 3x the national average (Bureau of Labor Statistics)

$1T+ in projected economic losses from the skilled trades shortage (JLL, April 2026)

Why AI, and Why Now

The skilled trades shortage is not a new problem. What is new is the technology available to address it.

Voice interfaces, multimodal AI, and augmented reality overlays can now deliver expert-level guidance in a noisy industrial environment in real time — turning a two-year apprentice into someone who can execute complex jobs with AI assistance. Platforms can now record and structure expert technician knowledge through observation, video, and sensor data, turning what the best workers know into reusable procedural AI that every technician on every shift can access. AI-accelerated training can compress the path from entry-level to job-ready from years to months.

There is also a generational shift underway on the supply side. Fortune reported in April 2026 that nearly one in four Gen Zers has seriously considered or is actively pursuing a career in the trades, with 75% associating desk jobs with burnout and instability. Community college enrollment has risen 12% over five years, with construction trades and engineering technologies among the fastest-growing majors. The interest is there. The training infrastructure to convert that interest into productive tradespeople at scale is not.

"AI is making execution faster. But it isn't making the physical world disappear. The fastest-growing job categories through 2030 — caregiving, construction, delivery — all require people who show up in the physical world. The companies that use AI to train, augment, and scale those workers will build some of the most durable businesses of the next decade." — Jonah Midanik, Managing Partner, Forum Ventures

How Forum Is Co-Building the Solutions

Forum's approach is direct: find founders who have lived this problem firsthand, invest $250K at company formation, and provide a full 12-person co-build team — product, engineering, GTM, design, and more — from day one. The firm's AI Venture Studio has launched 20 companies to date, with 63% raising follow-on capital within 12 months of formation.

The types of companies Forum is actively looking to co-build in the skilled trades space include:

• AI augmentation platforms: Tools that overlay expert guidance onto physical work environments in real time — turning less experienced technicians into workers who can execute complex jobs that previously required a 20-year veteran.
• Institutional knowledge capture: Platforms that record and structure skilled trade workflows from video, sensor data, and tool usage patterns into reusable procedural knowledge — building the skills graph that otherwise retires with the last generation of master tradespeople.
• AI-accelerated credentialing: Training and assessment platforms that compress the path from entry-level to job-ready, with credentialing and placement built in — purpose-built for career changers, not just 18-year-olds entering the workforce for the first time.
• AI-native trades services firms: Full-stack service businesses that use AI to run fewer senior technicians across more projects, competing on consistency and guaranteed outcomes rather than headcount.

The MEP Infrastructure Example

Forum's most recent public Studio Build opportunity illustrates the approach in practice. The firm's AI Venture Studio team has mapped the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) infrastructure market — one of the most acute expressions of the skilled trades crisis — and published a detailed thesis and co-founder search at studiobuild-mep.forumvc.com.

The shortage has caught the attention of some of the country's most prominent executives, who argue the US cannot build the infrastructure for AI it's betting its economic future on without the people to wire, cool, and maintain it. Electrical work alone accounts for 45% to 70% of total data center construction costs, at a time when global data center construction spend is projected to exceed $500B through 2030.

The MEP space is a microcosm of the broader problem: the US needs 300,000 new electricians over the next decade, HVAC engineer vacancies have grown 78% since 2022, and the average time to make a new technician productive on complex data center commissioning jobs is 18 months. The commercial MEP subcontractors building hyperscale infrastructure for the world's largest technology companies cannot find enough qualified people to staff their projects.

Forum is looking for a founder who has run MEP projects, built workforce platforms, or sold software into contractors — someone who knows exactly where the industry is broken and is relentless about fixing it. The Studio team is offering $250K at formation and a full co-build team from day one.

MEP Studio Build: studiobuild-mep.forumvc.com

About Forum Ventures

Forum Ventures is an early-stage B2B fund, accelerator, and AI Venture Studio that has backed 550+ portfolio companies and 1,000+ founders since 2014, with $1B+ in follow-on funding raised across the portfolio. Forum's three investment strategies — the AI Venture Studio ($250K at formation), the Accelerator ($100K, 16 weeks), and the Pre-Seed Fund ($250K–$1M) — make it the only early-stage firm investing from pre-idea through early growth. Forum has offices in New York, San Francisco, and Toronto.

Skilled trades investment thesis: callforfounders.forumvc.com

Forum AI Venture Studio: forumvc.com/ai-studio

Contact Information:

Forum Ventures

55 Post Rd W, 2nd Floor
Westport, CT 06880
United States

Alexis Clarfield-Henry
1
https://www.forumvc.com