Where is your body shop’s next employee coming from?
By John Yoswick
Nearly every state is predicting an increase in autobody technician employment through 2023, with 44 states expecting at least some growth in the number of body techs employed. Sixteen states are projecting growth of 5 percent or more, with the largest increase expected in Mississippi where the state’s labor department forecasts a 14.9 percent increase in the number of technicians employed, from 1,410 in 2021 to 1,620 in 2023. Tennessee and Virginia are also among the top three, with projected growth of 10.6 percent and 7.9 percent, respectively.
The two states with the most employed body techs, California and Texas, both estimate growth to exceed 5 percent, while Florida, with the third highest number of body technicians, expects more modest growth (2.4 percent).
Among the six states (Alaska, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, New Mexico, and West Virginia) projecting no growth (or even a decline) in the number of body techs employed through 2023, all but Maryland have fewer than 900 techs.
The data is compiled by each state’s labor department based on information about all employers subject to unemployment insurance in the state. By combining these projections from all 50 states, the total number of employed body technicians is projected to grow by nearly 6,000 nationwide between now and the end of 2023, an increase of 3.9 percent.
The one thing these projections do not indicate: Where all of these technicians are going to come from.
The need is real
A mid-year CRASH Network survey of about 400 U.S. body shops confirmed that even before the projected increases, shops are struggling to …
