The Trade
Demand Index
A monthly read on where skilled-trade labor is scarce and where the pay follows. Built from public wage, openings, and projection data — no listings, no advertising.
Shortage signal, by state
Each tile is a state, shaded by how tight the market is for Electrical — postings and structural pressure measured against the local workforce. Select a state to rank its trades below.
Most in-demand
trades in Texas
Ranked by state TDI. Wage is adjusted to local cost of living, so a lower headline number can still mean more take-home.
Trade vs. college,
net of debt
Cumulative earnings minus outstanding debt, from age 18, starting from Electrical’s real median wage. The trade path earns from day one; the degree path pays tuition first, then catches up — sometimes. Move the sliders.
Monthly movers · shareable
Auto-rendered from the biggest Shortage Signal swings this month. Two export sizes for the trade press and social.
docs/trades-demand-index-plan.md §Phase F).The Trade Demand Index blends job-posting intensity (Adzuna) against the local employed workforce (BLS OES), projected 10-year growth (Projections Central), workforce age and apprenticeship throughput, and wages adjusted for cost of living (BEA RPP). Scores are percentile-ranked 0–100 across the full panel and updated monthly. Full writeup: the methodology page.
BLS OES · wages, employment
Projections Central · growth
BEA RPP · cost of living
O*NET · automation durability
July 2026. Figures are computed from real government and Adzuna data under methodology v0.1 (anchored against BLS/JOLTS — see the methodology page). Marked provisional while two structural inputs (workforce age, apprenticeship throughput) remain unavailable at state granularity.
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