Somewhere in Phoenix, a two-truck HVAC shop posts an apprentice opening on Craigslist. The owner doesn't need "top talent." He needs someone who shows up Monday, learns fast, and doesn't vanish after the first paycheck. He waits. And waits.
On the other hand, A YouTuber "The HVAC Hero" (1M subs) mentioned he gets 500 DMs a day asking how to get started.
The construction industry needs 439,000 net new workers in 2025 just to meet demand. Electricians alone will see 81,000 openings annually through 2034—a 9% growth rate the BLS calls "much faster than average." Add 40,100 HVAC openings per year and 44,000 plumbing positions, and you're looking at 165,000+ skilled trade openings annually in just three verticals.
Meanwhile, Gen Z is all in: 55% now considering skilled trades careers, up 12 points year-over-year. Social media is now the second-biggest influence on their career decisions—outranking teachers, siblings, and extended family. The matching layer connecting this demand to this supply? Craigslist.
The opportunity isn't "LinkedIn for blue collar workers." Silicon Valley has seen this headline over and over, but it's not a business. The real play is more specific: Build the measurement standard for apprentice-ready trade talent, then own the pipe that turns aspiration into payroll.
Start with 3 metro markets, sign 25 contractor locations per market at an average $599/month subscription. That's $45K MRR before you've placed a single apprentice. Add placement fees at $1,500 per hire (conservative) for the shops that prefer pay-per-use, and you're looking at $75K-$100K MRR within 12-18 months on a tight geographic footprint.
Multi-location HVAC franchises already pay these rates to Workstream and Instawork for horizontal hourly hiring—you're offering vertical specificity plus the measurement infrastructure they're missing.
What employers (and employees) actually need
Trade shop owners don't wake up wanting "better resumes." They wake up asking: Will this person show up? Can they learn without breaking everything? Do they have the basics—license, transport, reliability—to survive 90 days?
Candidates don't need "another job board." They're thinking: What trade should I pick? How do I prove I'm not useless? Who can I trust to not waste my time?
The natural conclusion seems like "video profiles + swipe." If you build that, you might get downloads, but you won't get trust. Trust is the product. Everything else is marketing. What you need to build is a robust and proof-of-work pipeline.
Before we build, double check the math:
Demand side:
- Construction alone needs 439,000 workers in 2025, with some estimates projecting 723,000 annually
- Electricians: 81,000 openings/year through 2034 (9% growth rate, "much faster than average")
- HVAC: 40,100 openings/year through 2034 (8% growth, driven by energy efficiency retrofits)
- Plumbing: 44,000 openings/year through 2034
Supply side awakening:
- 55% of Gen Z considering skilled trades (up from 43% prior year)
- Vocational enrollment rising: community colleges with vocational focus up 16%, construction-trades enrollment up 23% per National Student Clearinghouse data
- 67% of Gen Z say social media increased their interest in trades (78% among those with college degrees)
- 92% of Gen Z use TikTok for career advice; 46% have found jobs through the platform
Trade content on TikTok/Instagram up 52% year-over-year
The culture just flipped. Three years ago, trade school meant "you failed college." Today, it means "you dodged $100K in debt and bought a house at 25." NBC and trade media have documented the shift: trades went from fallback option to aspirational path, and it happened almost entirely through social media.
Social media is now the second-biggest influence on Gen Z career paths—bigger than teachers, siblings, or extended family. Day-in-the-life trade content does what guidance counselors never could: it shows the money, the autonomy, and the skill progression in real time. Seventy-seven percent of Gen Z report seeing increased attention to trades on social platforms.
Trade creators are accidentally building the largest apprentice pipeline in U.S. history, one "day in the life" video at a time.
Now that we know our wedge, the plan is to convert that attention into payroll.
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