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Is there really an electrician shortage? What the figures say

By The Busy Busy Index team · Published 11 Nov 2026 · Every figure links to its source

Trade bodies keep warning about an electrician shortage. Yet if you need a house rewired, the wait is one of the shortest of any trade. Both things are true, and the gap between them says a lot about where the trade is heading.

Waits for everyday electrical work are short

On TradeMatch's platform, the median wait from accepting a quote to an electrician starting a rewire was 4 weeks. The slowest 10% of jobs waited 7 weeks (TradeMatch Wait-Time Index, 21 Apr 2026). TradeMatch rates electrics as "easy" to book, and says the wait did not get longer year on year. Compare that with 14 weeks for a heat pump or 10 weeks for an extension builder on the same platform.

These figures come from one platform's jobs between mid-2025 and early 2026, so treat them as a guide. Still, they don't suggest homeowners are struggling to find an electrician for ordinary work right now.

So where's the shortage?

It's in the pipeline of new, qualified electricians, and in the new kinds of work that need them.

The Electrical Contractors' Association's 2026 Electrical Skills Index found (ECA Electrical Skills Index, 9 Feb 2026):

  • Electrical apprenticeship starts in England fell 5.5% over the past year, while apprenticeship starts overall rose 4.1%.
  • More than 26,000 people enrolled on government-funded, classroom-based electrical courses in 2024/25. But fewer than 1 in 5 went on to an electrical apprenticeship or skilled job within 12 months.
  • Greater London, the North West and the West Midlands are among the regions worst hit by electrical skills shortages.
  • Skills England estimates the UK will need an extra 12,000 electricians by 2030.

In other words, plenty of people want to become electricians. The bottleneck is getting from a classroom course to on-site experience and full qualification. The ECA is a trade body with its own lobbying position, so its framing is worth bearing in mind, but the apprenticeship numbers are hard to argue with.

CITB's longer-term forecast points the same way. It counts 140,360 people in electrical installation trades in 2025, rising to 143,200 by 2030. Allowing for growth and for people leaving, it says the industry needs about 1,690 extra electrical workers a year, around 1.2% of the workforce (CITB Workforce Outlook, 17 Jun 2026). Among the trades we track, only carpenters and joiners (1,900) and labourers (1,810) have a bigger yearly need (CITB Workforce Outlook, 17 Jun 2026).

Where the demand is growing

Most of the building market is cooling. The UK Construction PMI was 43.6 in October 2026 (S&P Global UK Construction PMI, 5 Nov 2026). But much of the growth that is left needs electrical skills:

  • The Construction Products Association says solar PV and heat pump activity continue to grow, even as home improvement spending is forecast to fall 8% in 2026. It also lists energy distribution and data centres among the areas of growth (CPA Autumn forecasts, 26 Oct 2026).
  • Chartered surveyors put infrastructure workloads at +18 in the third quarter of 2026, the strongest in eight quarters, with energy at +37 (RICS Construction Monitor, 5 Nov 2026).
  • On TradeMatch, solar PV installs had a median wait of 8 weeks and EV chargers 6 weeks. Both were rated "tight", against "easy" for a rewire (TradeMatch Wait-Time Index, 21 Apr 2026).

So the squeeze is less about the electrician down the road being booked for months. It's about whether there will be enough qualified people for electrification: solar, batteries, EV charging, heat pumps and grid work.

What electricians earn

The National Careers Service gives average pay of £26,000 a year for a starter electrician, rising to £45,000 with experience (National Careers Service, not stated (live pages)). Self-employed earnings vary a lot and aren't covered by those figures.

Thinking of retraining as an electrician?

The ECA's numbers carry a warning for career-changers: a classroom course on its own often doesn't lead to a job. The National Careers Service lists apprenticeships, such as the Level 3 Installation and Maintenance Electrician or Domestic Electrician, alongside college courses, work accreditation schemes and applying directly to employers (National Careers Service, not stated (live pages)).

If you're paying for private training, published prices vary widely. Able Skills lists a City & Guilds Level 2 electrical course at £3,495 and a combined Level 2 and 3 course at £6,290 (Able Skills, live pages). Trade Skills 4U lists a new-entrant bundle (Level 2 and Level 3 diplomas plus the 18th Edition) at £7,698.25 (Trade Skills 4U, live page). Before you pay, ask how the course gets you the on-site experience and NVQ you need to become fully qualified. That step is exactly where the ECA says most learners get stuck.

Our guide to becoming an electrician lists the routes and every course price we've checked.

The verdict

For everyday jobs, electricians aren't hard to book right now. For the trade as a whole, the shortage is real but slow-burning: fewer apprentices are coming through just as electrification work grows. If you're an electrician, tell us how far ahead you're booked. It's anonymous and takes two questions.

Sources

More on electricians

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