Lowe’s, GM, and Nvidia Launch Coalition To Train Skilled Workers Amid Labor Shortage in Trades

More than 75 organizations have come together to address a major issue: a national shortage of skilled tradespeople.The Lowe’s Foundation, a nonprofit funded by the home improvement retail giant, last week launched the Building Futures Skilled Trades Coalition to invest in and improve the country’s workforce of skilled laborers.Homebuilders say the rising cost of materials used to build homes remains a challenge. Now, another major issue could send ripples through the housing market: a lack of laborers.For every five skilled tradespeople who retire from the workforce, only two replacements enter, according to the U.S. Department of Education. If this trend continues until 2030, an estimated 2.1 million skilled trades jobs could go unfilled, leading to a potential $1 trillion in economic losses each year.“For years, we treated a four-year degree as the default path to a successful career and vocational education or the trades as an alternative path,” Rebecca Henninger, career coach and founder of The Job Girl, tells Realtor.com. “That’s helped to create a perception problem at exactly the same time a large segment of the skilled trades workforce was approaching retirement.”To addres...