What Does the Future Look Like for Professional Painters?
Being a painter in the construction and maintenance industry is a great way to earn a living. Here are the current predictions on the painting industry’s future job openings, wage rates and market potential.
Being a painter within the construction and maintenance industry is a great way for someone who enjoys physical work to earn a living. Each new structure built in America needs to be painted in some capacity, so as long as new structures are being constructed and renovations are happening, the potential to line up work is always high.
Since painters primarily learn on the job, young adults who don’t want the burden of student loan debt can easily break into this profession. There are also opportunities for both union and non-union professionals. So, whether you’re entrepreneurial and want to start your own painting business, or if you’re looking for a unionized career with the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, you can pick a path within painting completely customized to your wants and needs.
Because of the diverse opportunities available to painters, we decided it would be worth doing a deep dive into the current state of the profession, what its future looks like, and which markets around the U.S. could provide high opportunity to painters.
CURRENT STATS
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median annual wage for a construction and maintenance painter in America is $48,660. Although that’s the median, the actual pay range for painters is broad. The lower 10% of earners in this industry bring in less than $36,680, and the highest 10% of earners bring in more than $76,550. When reduced to an hourly wage (assuming a 40-hour work week for 52 week per year), those numbers equate to $17.63 and $36.80 per hour. The median wage hourly is $23.39 per hour.
Clearly, if you’re a young person wanting to get into the trades, painting is one you can break into easily while earning a respectable living.
PROJECTED OUTLOOK
Between 2023 and 2033, it is projected that the construction and maintenance painting industry will add a total of 13,600 jobs. That’s a total of 4% growth over the next eight years. Although 4% doesn’t seem like a very high growth rate, that matches the average growth rate for all occupations in America of 4%. It’s important to note, however, that just because only 13,600 jobs are projected to be added to the industry by 2033, that does not mean there will only be 13,600 available jobs. Allow us to explain.
Jobs added simply means new jobs that did not exist before. That does not account for positions that open up because workers leave the painting industry, switch employers or leave the job market all together. In reality, between now and 2033, there will be an average of 28,000 painting positions open each year because of the above reasons. As for many trades, workers retiring or aging out of their industry affects painters, too. And this creates an abundance of opportunity for those seeking employment.
BIG MARKETS
Now that we’ve covered national averages, let’s look deeper into the painting industry and find which big markets in the U.S. could provide opportunity for those seeking painting employment.
America’s 10 most highly populated cities are all within seven different states. They are New York (New York City); California (Los Angeles & San Diego); Illinois (Chicago); Texas (Houston, San Antonio, Dallas); Arizona (Phoenix); Pennsylvania (Philadelphia); and Florida (Jacksonville). We also looked at the District of Columbia. Although these aren’t necessarily America’s hottest job market cities or states, we feel it’s relevant to study them, because they’re the country’s most populated areas. Here is a link to the data we used.
For painters, the state on our list with the highest percentage of new jobs added by 2032 is Florida, which is projected to see a 13.2% increase in new jobs added to the industry. Looking at annual job openings, Florida expects to see about 3,120 annual job openings for painters.
After Florida comes California (12.5% increase in new jobs added) and Arizona (11.5% increase in new jobs added). Texas follows with an expected 8.9% increase, and D.C. rounds out our top five with a 4.7% increase in painting jobs added, mirroring the national average.
In our study of states containing major population hubs, Pennsylvania, Illinois and New York are all expected to see growth below the national average or no growth at all. Pennsylvania is only expected to see a growth in new painting jobs of 2.9%, and New York expects a slightly higher increase of 3.4%. By 2032, Illinois expects now growth at all for new painting positions added to the market.
CONCLUSION
Like most of the trades, construction and maintenance painters are expecting average growth nationally, with certain population hubs presenting more opportunity than others.
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