{"id":365346,"date":"2026-07-08T13:24:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T13:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/365346\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T13:24:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T13:24:09","slug":"north-texas-ai-boom-fuels-electrician-shortage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/365346\/","title":{"rendered":"North Texas AI boom fuels electrician shortage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Inside\u00a0CEC Facilities\u2019\u00a0apprenticeship school<\/a> in Irving, the 31-year-old electrical apprentice walks through a control panel he built for a statewide skills competition, tracing\u00a0wires\u00a0and relays as if explaining his own career pivot from odd jobs into one of the region\u2019s fastest-growing trades.\u00a0<\/p>\n

CEC Facilities, an\u00a0electrical contractor that builds infrastructure for data centers and other large industrial projects, created CEC University to train the\u00a0electricians.\u00a0<\/p>\n

North Texas\u2019 race to build AI infrastructure is colliding with a shortage of skilled\u00a0workers.\u00a0Economists and business leaders warn labor shortages in skilled trades could hinder North Texas\u2019 ability to expand data centers and advanced manufacturing capacity fast enough to meet demand.<\/p>\n

The Texas Workforce Commission\u00a0projects\u00a0the Dallas, Tarrant and North Central workforce regions will need\u00a0nearly\u00a03,000\u00a0additional\u00a0electricians by 2032,\u00a0a\u00a0roughly 15%\u00a0increase from\u00a02026\u00a0staffing\u00a0levels.\u00a0In the Dallas region alone, the state projects\u00a0roughly 1,035\u00a0electrician openings annually, driven less by explosive growth than by retirements\u00a0and\u00a0worker turnover.<\/p>\n

\nNorth Texas AI boom increases demand in\u00a0skilled trades\n<\/p>\n

The shortage extends beyond electricians. Welders, HVAC technicians,\u00a0plumbers\u00a0and other skilled trades are also needed to build and\u00a0maintain\u00a0North Texas’ fast-growing infrastructure economy, contractors and workforce leaders say. Data centers, semiconductor\u00a0plants\u00a0and advanced manufacturing campuses all require large numbers of specialized workers. Yet older workers are retiring faster than younger\u00a0people are\u00a0entering the field.<\/p>\n

“This boom is definitely increasing the demand for craft workers within the industry,” said\u00a0Matt Terry<\/a>, president of construction at Dallas-based\u00a0TDIndustries<\/a>. “The core of that business is heavy mechanical, heavy electrical, and heavy controls.”<\/p>\n

Terry said data centers and other high-tech industrial projects require large numbers of pipe fitters, welders,\u00a0plumbers\u00a0and HVAC specialists, intensifying what has long been a shortage of experienced craft workers. Companies are responding by expanding apprenticeships,\u00a0internships\u00a0and partnerships with schools to recruit and train the next generation of tradespeople.<\/p>\n

That means companies have to work diligently to find enough skilled workers to keep up with demand to build and maintain data centers and other critical infrastructure across North Texas.<\/p>\n

Few employers see that crunch as clearly as CEC Facilities,\u00a0whose work spans data centers, semiconductor plants and other power-hungry projects across Texas and the broader Sun Belt.\u00a0CEC President Daniel Williams<\/a>\u00a0told a recent Dallas Regional Chamber Leadership Dallas cohort that\u00a0AI and digital infrastructure are reshaping the company\u2019s trajectory.<\/p>\n

\nA backlog of work from data centers in Texas\n<\/p>\n

Each large data center campus can require hundreds of electricians, Williams said. On one West Texas campus alone, CEC expects to log\u00a0nearly 1.9\u00a0million electrical labor hours over 14 to 16 months.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe demand and the backlog of work that we have today, especially from data centers, requires that we double our workforce in the next\u00a018 months, so that we go from 2,200 to nearly 4,000 to handle the work that we have in front of us,\u201d Williams said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

CEC University\u00a0opened\u00a0in 2021\u00a0as\u00a0a dedicated\u00a0apprenticeship\u00a0and training center in Irving that combines classrooms, a lab designed to mimic real job sites, and a connection to the company\u2019s nearby prefabrication plant and headquarters.<\/p>\n

CEC founder Ray Waddell pushed the company to open the university because\u00a0he knew\u00a0a U.S. Department of Labor-accredited four-year apprenticeship\u00a0could create\u00a0future superintendents and project managers,\u00a0said\u00a0CEC University Dean Fred McHugh.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an early, extremely risky investment by our company,\u201d McHugh said. The idea was that in 10 years, \u201cwe’re\u00a0going to\u00a0have 300 people that we produced through this program in our company that will be leaders.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

CEC recruits 30 to 40 apprentices a year,\u00a0largely from\u00a0Career and Technical Education\u00a0programs in the Grand Prairie, Fort Worth and Lewisville school districts. The company donates $5,000 to $7,000 in tools and materials to each partner program annually and cultivates students as early as eighth and ninth grade at career fairs, because McHugh says, “kids can’t be what they don’t see.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

That relationship continues through their junior year, where students solidify their internships through CEC\u2019s signing day. Upon completion of their internship and senior year, select graduates\u00a0come\u00a0on as full-time first-year apprentices.<\/p>\n

Apprentices spend one day a week at CEC University and the rest of their time on job sites. Pay starts\u00a0at\u00a0around $20 an hour, with raises built into the federally registered program. McHugh said licensed journeymen can earn\u00a0roughly $35\u00a0to $40\u00a0an hour, while experienced superintendents on major projects can make six figures.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want the Navy SEALs of electricians,\u201d he said. \u201cGraduates\u00a0aren’t\u00a0just going\u00a0to be journeymen from CEC University. We want\u00a0future\u00a0leaders of our company.”<\/p>\n

\nApprentices in high demand\n<\/p>\n

The approach is an answer to what Williams calls a \u201cworkforce war.\u201d Third-year apprentices in high demand are already being targeted by competitors who promise immediate\u00a0raises\u00a0and quick promotions. CEC responded by pairing fourth-year apprentices with mentors in project management or field leadership so they can map a path beyond the tools.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Andrews, a CEC apprentice, describes past jobs at Walmart,\u00a0hotels\u00a0and towing companies before finally committing to electrical work. The steady\u00a0raises\u00a0and combination of theory in the classroom and hands-on training in the field, he said, gives him a sense of momentum he wants his children to see.\u00a0<\/p>\n

His classmates see the same opportunity.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are tons of entry-level positions. Everybody needs an electrician, everybody needs a plumber,\u201d said apprentice Niko Serafy, a 43-year-old who moved to Dallas from South Texas and came into the trade after landscaping CEC properties. \u201cPeople are going out faster than they’re coming in.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mario Lopez, 23, left college after two years and followed an uncle into electrical work.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people come into the\u00a0trade\u00a0and they’re there for the check,\u201d Lopez said. “Of course\u00a0money is important to me, it\u2019s going to keep me up. But I\u00a0actually just\u00a0wanted the experience, I wanted to be able to learn.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Instructor Ronnie Cope, who spent decades teaching high school electrical students before joining CEC, says the university can elevate how people view trades. He said the curriculum is packed with math, physics, and code work that many outsiders do not associate with construction.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTo know them when they’re in a second and third year that they’re learning these calculations, and then they pass that journeyman test,\u201d Cope said, is proof to him apprentices are reaching a level he believes is \u201cequal to a college program.\u201d<\/p>\n

This reporting is part of the\u00a0Future of North Texas<\/a>, a community-funded journalism initiative supported by the Commit Partnership, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, the Dallas Mavericks, the Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Lisa and Charles Siegel, the McCune-Losinger Family Fund, The Meadows Foundation, the Perot Foundation, the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas and the University of Texas at Dallas. The News\u00a0retains\u00a0full editorial control of this coverage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Inside\u00a0CEC Facilities\u2019\u00a0apprenticeship school in Irving, the 31-year-old electrical apprentice walks through a control panel he built for a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365347,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[910,5332,96674,96673,223,95012,27,29,28,93339,89397,98782,89146,89147],"class_list":["post-365346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-business","tag-business-economy","tag-business-jobs","tag-business-local-companies","tag-news","tag-news-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-tp-future-of-north-texas","tag-tp-ai-artificial-intellgience","tag-tp-future-of-north-texas-energy-environment","tag-tp-future-of-north-texas-workforce","tag-tp-workforce"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}