It isn’t hard to understand that our labor force is aging. The leading edge of the baby boomers hit 62 years old in 2008 and they will continue to leave the workforce in large numbers. Additionally, our population growth has slowed due to declining fertility rates and lower immigration numbers. This means that we will have less workers to fill our jobs in the future.

As the declining number of available workers began to impact trades companies, many of them turned toward luring good workers away from other companies by offering them bonuses and better work conditions. Unfortunately, this tactic is not sustainable.

Unless the trades makes a considerable conscientious effort to attract new workers to the industry, the number of skilled trades workers is going to decline. We have moved from a market with plentiful potential workers, to a fiercely competitive market and it isn’t just other trade companies we are competing with. Competition is high for high skilled workers in just about every industry, including health care, manufacturing and new construction.

This is why we started Desk Free Nation. Our goals is to help the residential service industry compete in this tough market. It isn’t simply enough to put a position description out in your favorite job board anymore, to find the qualified workers you need to maximize your profits, you need an aggressive and unique recruiting pipeline of talent. Desk Free Nation is working to create the tools that will help you implement one in your business.