David Paul Morris/Bloomberg News
Nearly 40 years ago, William Sasser walked out of Westside High School and directly into a career as an auto mechanic. But that sort of thing doesn’t happen much anymore.
Despite the occupation’s favorable job security and high earning potential, fewer young people are choosing it as a career. The result is that the typical service technician looks a lot like Sasser – a man in his mid-50s less than a decade away from retirement.
“We’ve been looking for good mechanics for years,” said Sasser, the owner of Sasser Automotive, a Mr. Transmission franchise at 1902 Gordon Highway. “You can’t pull into any garage or dealership in Augusta that isn’t facing the same problem.”
The Automotive Service Association’s recently released “How’s your Business?” survey showed that the largest percentage of respondents – 45% – cited the industry’s labor shortage as their No. 1 concern. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that 237,000 jobs in the automotive repair field are expected to open up from 2014 to 2024.
“Roughly half the people fixing cars and trucks are baby boomers, and they’re going to be retiring in the next seven to 10 years,” said Tony Molla, the vice president of the Texas-based ASA, the auto repair industry’s trade association.
As is the case with many skilled trades in the U.S., the pipeline of automotive technicians has shrunk as parents have steered their children toward white-collar occupations.
“There is a societal bias against the trades,” Molla said. “Part of the problem is we haven’t done a good-enough job of explaining how the opportunities have changed. The parents are the ones we need to convince, not the students.”
Entry-level technicians with basic training typically start out at $25,000 or below, but those with advanced experience earn much more. Those specializing in heavy machinery or luxury-car brands can earn six-figure salaries, Molla said.
According to federal labor statistics, automotive technicians in the metro Augusta area have a median annual salary of $43,070, which is on par with the median for all occupations: $43,450.
| By Damon Cline The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. |
© 2017, Transport Topics, American Trucking Associations Inc.
Reproduction, redistribution, display or rebroadcast by any means without written permission is prohibited.