Job Placement · Skilled Trades & Mfg · Skilled Tradesperson
A "skilled tradesperson" posting that does not name the craft, the hours and the card is not a job description, it is a guess. Electricians, plumbers, HVAC technicians, welders and carpenters earn between $53,750 and $63,800 at the May 2025 median and license under different rules in every state. BEG recruits journeyman-level tradespeople on Tier II milestone billing, $9,381 to $11,257, with the license verified before a candidate is approached.
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TL;DR
Five crafts share this search tier, electrician, plumber, HVAC technician, welder and carpenter, and they are not interchangeable. May 2025 medians range from $53,750 for welders to $63,800 for plumbers, and each state sets its own hours and exam for journeyman and master status. A generic "skilled tradesperson" requisition that does not name the craft, the license and the hours behind it filters out exactly the licensed candidates worth interviewing. BEG recruits against the specific license, at Tier II milestone billing, $9,381 to $11,257.
One Tier, Five Different Licenses
Because licensed, unsupervised work in one craft is not a commodity. Each trade licenses on its own hours and exam, and a posting that does not name the craft filters for nobody in particular.
What The Search Verifies
Four checks, run against the specific craft and the specific state, not against the word tradesperson.
| Check | What it requires | Where it stalls |
|---|---|---|
| The craft, named specifically | Electrician, plumber, HVAC, welder or carpenter, each with its own license, exam and wage band shown above. | A posting for "a skilled tradesperson" draws applicants from all five crafts and qualified candidates from none of them. |
| The state license and hours behind it | Texas licenses a journeyman electrician at 8,000 hours and a journeyman plumber at 8,000 hours plus a course; California certifies electricians separately at 8,000 hours plus its own exam. | A candidate licensed in one state is treated as fully qualified in another, then fails the local exam or certification requirement. |
| Journeyman versus master status | Texas requires two years as a journeyman plus 12,000 hours for a master electrician, and a similar two year step for a master plumber. | A role that actually needs permit-pulling master authority is staffed with a journeyman who cannot legally sign for the work. |
| A portable credential beyond the card | NCCER journey-level performance verifications exist for commercial electrician, plumbing, HVACR and carpentry, checkable by an employer through its registry. | No portable record exists, so every employer re-verifies the same skills from zero on every hire. |
Electrician licensing detail by state lives on the electrician page, and EPA and HVAC-specific certification detail lives on the HVAC technician page. For the entry point into this ladder, see general laborer and helper, or the skilled trades placement service page.
Where The Five Crafts Diverge On Growth
HVAC leads the group at 11 percent projected growth through 2035 with about 40,600 openings a year, electricians follow at 9 percent and 72,700 openings, and plumbers at 7 percent and 42,000 openings, per the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook pages for each craft. Welders and carpenters are not tracked in this file at the same growth rate, which is one more reason a single generic requisition cannot represent all five.
Milestone Billing Against A Craft-Specific Median
At the $63,190 electrician median, a 20 percent contingency fee runs $12,638 and a 25 percent fee runs $15,798. BEG's Tier II range of $9,381 to $11,257 is 74 to 89 percent of the 20 percent figure. At the $61,010 HVAC median the same range is 77 to 92 percent of a 20 percent fee, and at the $53,750 welder median it is 87 to 105 percent, close to par. The savings are real for electricians, plumbers and HVAC, and modest to none for welders, which is why this page states the number by craft instead of a blanket figure.
Covering A Licensed Seat
Three ways to get a journeyman on site, and they answer different questions about who is on the hook for that license.
| Model | Who employs the tradesperson | How you pay | Right when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trade staffing agency | The staffing agency | Hourly bill rate including markup, for the length of the assignment | A single project needs licensed hands for a fixed window with no headcount after it closes. |
| Direct hire through your own posting | You, from day one | No placement fee, but your team screens licenses and hours by hand | You already have a pipeline of licensed applicants and staff who can verify a card correctly. |
| BEG permanent placement | You | Tier II milestone fee of $9,381 to $11,257, fixed before sourcing | You need the license verified before the interview, not after the offer, and want the hire to stay. |
Large trade staffing firms can have a licensed body on site inside a week, faster than any permanent search, which matters when the need is immediate. BEG is not a staffing agency and does not describe itself as one. What we offer is a permanent hire your company employs, a fee fixed before sourcing, a 45 day replacement guarantee and 50% off a repeat search for the same seat. For the crew authority this role reports to, see foreman and team lead.
FAQ
A journeyman-level worker licensed or certified to perform unsupervised work in one craft: electrician, plumber, HVAC technician, welder or carpenter are the five BEG places most often at this tier. It is the person who signs off work a helper cannot and who a foreman relies on to staff a permit.
May 2025 medians: electricians $63,190, plumbers $63,800, HVAC technicians $61,010, carpenters $60,580, welders $53,750, according to BLS OEWS. The spread between the top and bottom of that list is over $10,000, which is why a single generic "tradesperson" posting rarely prices any one of them correctly.
Most electricians and plumbers learn in a 4 or 5 year registered apprenticeship at roughly 2,000 hours of paid on-the-job training a year, per the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook. Federal rule requires at least 2,000 hours of on-the-job learning and recommends 144 hours of related instruction per year of the program.
Not automatically. Texas licenses a journeyman electrician at 8,000 supervised hours, with the exam available at 7,000. California instead requires a state electrician certification under Labor Code 108 at 8,000 hours of experience plus its own exam, and a Texas card does not substitute for that exam.
A journeyman works unsupervised within a licensed scope. A master has held a journeyman license for additional years, in Texas two years plus 12,000 documented hours for an electrician, and typically carries the authority to pull permits, supervise journeymen and, for plumbing, register as a Responsible Master Plumber.
NCCER journey-level assessments exist for commercial electrician, plumbing, pipefitting, HVACR, carpentry and more. A craft professional who passes both the written knowledge test and a craft-specific performance verification gets a credential held in an online registry an employer can check by QR code.
On average, yes, though BLS cautions the comparison does not control for occupation mix, tenure or region. Construction and extraction occupations paid union members a median of $1,561 a week in 2025 against $1,004 for nonunion workers, with 16.4 percent of the group unionized.
It varies by craft. Electricians earn the most in government work, a median of $79,820, and the least at electrical contractors, $61,570, who employ two thirds of the trade. HVAC technicians earn the most in wholesale trade, $71,190, against $60,030 at the plumbing and HVAC contractors who employ most of them.
HVAC, at a projected 11 percent through 2035 with about 40,600 openings a year, ahead of electricians at 9 percent and 72,700 openings, and plumbers at 7 percent and 42,000 openings. BLS names data centers, AI-driven electricity demand and commercial construction as the shared drivers behind all three.
Because the posting says "journeyman" without stating the hours, the state card or the NCCER record actually required, so out-of-state candidates or open shop backgrounds get interviewed and then rejected once the license is checked, weeks into the process.
A Tier II search at $9,381 to $11,257, billed against fixed milestones agreed before sourcing starts. Against a 20 percent contingency fee the range lands well under contingency pricing for electricians, plumbers and HVAC, and close to it for welders, detailed in the math section above.
No. A trade staffing agency employs the tradesperson and bills you an hourly rate for the length of the job. BEG places a permanent hire your company employs directly, on a fixed milestone fee with a 45 day replacement guarantee and 50% off a repeat search for the same seat.
Staffing the rest of the crew? See electrician, HVAC technician and general laborer and helper, or all skilled trades placement.
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