Ep.18 - The Leaking Pipeline

A new University of Toronto study of Ontario electricians found that apprentices are six times more likely to intend to leave the trade than licensed journeypersons — and that burnout, despite affecting one in three workers, didn’t predict who was planning to go. Job satisfaction did. In this solo episode, Angelo breaks down four findings that upend the industry’s standard retention playbook, explains why trades culture suppresses the psychological warning signs until people simply exit, and lays out different interventions for apprentices versus experienced professionals. He closes with a two-question challenge every construction leader can run this week.

Key Topics Covered

• The 6x finding: apprentice vs. journeyperson intent to leave

• Why burnout (39% personal, 33% work-related) didn’t predict turnover — and job satisfaction did (40–53% decrease in intent to leave per unit of satisfaction)

• Canada’s apprenticeship completion crisis: 100,000+ registrations in 2024 vs. ~34,000 completions

• US workforce gap: 349,000 net new workers needed in 2026, 456,000 in 2027; 41% of the workforce retiring by 2031

• The “tough-it-out tax”: how trades culture normalizes suffering and suppresses the psychological signal

• Why journeypersons and apprentices leave for different reasons — and need different interventions

• The federal government’s $6B skilled trades investment: the financial lever vs. the human lever

• This week’s challenge: two questions to ask an apprentice on your project