Dive Brief:
- The Lowe’s Foundation, alongside businesses including Bank of America, AT&T and Nvidia have formed a coalition aiming to train 1 million people for “skilled trade careers” by 2035, Lowe’s announced in a Tuesday press release.
- Nearly 80 companies, vendors, workforce organizations and educational institutions have joined the Lowe’s Foundation — a nonprofit funded by the home improvement retailer — as founding members of the Building Futures Skilled Trades Coalition.
- Lowe’s Foundation called the initiative the “largest cross-sector skilled trades coalition in U.S. history,” in its press release. The announcement comes after Google, Ford, BlackRock and Carhartt launched a separate, similar group called the Alliance for America’s Skilled Trades in late July.
Dive Insight:
Separate reports from commercial real estate company JLL and the Department of Education each estimate that a shortfall of skilled trade workers could leave up to 2.1 million jobs for skilled trades unfilled. JLL said that number would include openings for electricians, HVAC technicians, plumbers, pipefitters, construction equipment operators and general maintenance workers. The Department of Education report said that shortfall could lead to up to $1 trillion in annual economic losses.
Lowe’s CEO and Chair Marvin Ellison said in the release that the coalition is responding to calls from existing partners for a unified effort “that will redefine what’s possible when leaders from different sectors rally behind a common purpose.”
“The next industrial revolution won’t be built by algorithms alone,” Ellison said. “It will be built by the millions of skilled trade professionals who power, connect and move this country forward.”
The group said its members will look to boost the skilled trades pipeline through actions including: Changing the public perception of skilled trades careers; investing and scaling “proven” training and credentialing solutions; and establishing shared measures to “collectively measure progress from training to employment,” according to the release.
The new coalition will build off learnings gleaned from Lowe’s Gable Grants program, which launched in 2023, the foundation said in the release. That program has built partnerships with 73 community colleges and nonprofits in 30 states, and its mission was recently expanded to train and develop 250,000 skilled trades workers by 2035. The foundation will invest $250 million over that timeline to meet that goal, according to an April press release.
Other founding members include General Motors, utility company Duke Energy, industrial tool company DeWalt, HVAC manufacturer Carrier, and Carhartt — also a member of the Google, Ford and BlackRock initiative.
The Lowe’s coalition also has the support of a number of community and technical colleges, along with trade groups including the National Association of Home Builders and the National Center for Construction Education and Research.
“A skilled, capable workforce is critical to meeting our nation's housing needs,” NAHB CEO and President Jim Tobin said in the press release. “Our collective commitment to invest in the next generation of skilled trade professionals will help strengthen the workforce pipeline, transform lives and build communities.”
While there were 600,000 jobs posted for skilled trades in 2025, only 150,000 people entered the labor market for those jobs through apprenticeships, according to JLL’s report. BlackRock found that employment in infrastructure-related jobs is expected to grow 5% over the decade beginning 2024 to 2034, faster than the 3% projected national average employment growth. That finding was based on outlooks for welders, carpenters, HVAC, electricians, plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
