BENTONVILLE, Ark. (AP) — As the number of skilled tradespeople dwindles in the United States, Walmart is trying to build up its own workforce to keep conveyor belts moving, refrigerated grocery cases cold, and drains and parking lots flowing.
The nation’s largest retailer and private employer revamped its training program last year to increase the pipeline of maintenance technicians who do everything from repair equipment to electrical work at Walmart’s distribution centers and stores — jobs that have become increasingly difficult to fill because of a shrinking labor pool.
The shortage has opened opportunities for people like Liz Cardenas, 24, who started at Walmart in May 2023 as an automation equipment operator at a distribution center in Lancaster, Texas, making sure boxes were securely taped and went through a conveyer belt upright. Today, she is responsible for fixing conveyor belts and other equipment when they break at distribution centers.
Cardenas, who nearly doubled her hourly pay to $43.50 per hour, said she plans to pursue more training, which will mean an even higher salary and more responsibility. It also means financial freedom.
“I was able to move out of my parents’ house,” she said. “I have my own apartment. I was able to get a car, and and I’m able to give more to my 401(k).”
A surge of retirements, along with a slowdown in immigration that began during the pandemic but now is accelerating with President Donald Trump’s aggressive deportations, are among the main factors behind labor shortages that bedevil some employers, analysts say.
But in skilled trades, the problem is even more acute. Consulting firm McKinsey analyzed 12 types of trade job categories, including maintenance technicians, welders, and carpenters, and predicted an estimated imbalance of 20 job openings for every one net new employee from 2022 to 2032.
McKinsey noted “the extraordinary rate of churn” could cost companies more than $5.3 billion every year in talent acquisition and training costs alone.
The shortages are happening as some companies are also laying off workers amid rising operational costs from new tariffs, shifting consumer spending and increased spending on artificial intelligence.
Business Roundtable, a lobbying group of CEOs from roughly 150 companies representing millions of employees nationwide, launched in June a new initiative to address worker shortages in skilled trades, including maintenance technicians. The initiative, co-championed by home improvement retailer Lowe’s, entails working with elementary, middle and high schools to raise awareness.
“While technology continues to evolve, it cannot replace plumbers, electricians, construction workers, maintenance and repair pros, or other tradespeople,” said Marvin Ellison, chairman and CEO of Lowe’s.
For its part, Lowe’s in 2022 started a 90-day online training program for employees who want to pursue jobs like carpentry and utility maintenance. Separately, its charitable arm has invested $43 million since 2023 to 60 organizations including technical colleges and non-profit groups to help recruit and train skilled tradespeople like maintenance technicians and plumbers.
Mervin Jebaraj of the University of Arkansas’s Walton College of Business in Fayetteville, Arkansas, noted these programs will help ease the shortages, but they won’t eliminate the gap, particularly given Trump’s clampdown on immigration.
“For as long as somebody physically needs to fix this, the shortage will persist, even though on the margins it’ll mitigate some of the shortage,” he said. “We don’t have enough people.”
Walmart CEO Doug McMillon recently told The Associated Press he believes part of the reason for the shortages is “lack of awareness.”
“I think most Americans probably don’t know what a tech makes that helps take care of our stores and clubs and that we can help them learn how to be a tech,” he said. “So we have a need to get the word out so that people know there are some great jobs.”
Walmart revamped its training program in the spring of 2024, focusing on its own workers with a tuition-free training initiative in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. This year, it added new training sites in Vincennes, Indiana, and Jacksonville, Florida. The initiative combines hands-on instruction and classroom learning in fields like heating, ventilation, air conditioning, electrical work, and general maintenance.
As of mid-November, almost 400 employees had graduated from the program, Walmart said. With its first class of 108 associates who completed the Dallas/Fort Worth pilot program, every graduate secured a technician role, putting them on a path to earn an average of $32 per hour. Walmart said its goal is to put 4,000 workers through the training program by 2030.
R.J. Zanes, vice president of facility services for the U.S. divisions of Walmart and Sam’s Club, said Walmart was able to attract workers from all over the country with different backgrounds, including employees running cash registers.
Maintenance technician roles are crucial to keeping Walmart’s operations running smoothly, but especially so during the holiday season. For example, if a refrigeration system goes down within a Walmart store, it could cost up to $300,000 to $400,000 worth of lost product, according to Zanes.
“We’ve got to stay out in front of that,” he said. “We have to ensure that we’ve got the right skills there to do preventative maintenance, and when we do have a breakdown, to make sure that we get it back up as fast as possible to minimize that cost of downtime.”
