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Los Angeles is suffering from a severe shortage of skilled construction workers as the region tries to recover from the Eaton and Palisades fires. A vocational training center is trying to help train more people to join the union, but they are having trouble.
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Hudson Idov wasn’t excited about any of his college options until his Los Angeles home burned down in the Palisades fire during his senior year of high school.
Less than a week after graduation, he and one of his classmates enrolled in the carpentry program at Los Angeles Trade and Technical College, a community college south of downtown Los Angeles. His goal is to one day start a construction company and help rebuild the Palisades. “We have big ten-year plans,” he said during a break in his morning class.
His personal tragedy is what prompted him to make this decision, but he also thinks it’s wise to look for a job that’s in high demand, especially now. Before the Palisades and Eaton fires last year, Los Angeles already had a shortage of about 70,000 skilled construction workers. The destruction of thousands of homes and businesses during the fires further exacerbated the problem. The city now needs more than 100,000 new workers in construction and related occupations, according to condition analysis which puts the average salary at just under $30 an hour, though it varies by position and experience level.
Last year, the state awarded five Los Angeles community colleges a total of $5 million to train more workers who can help rebuild after the Palisades and Eaton fires. The money recently arrived at Los Angeles Trade and Technical College, where it will go toward funding materials and new curriculum for students entering the construction industry. Pasadena City College, located a few miles northeast of Los Angeles Trade-Tech, used some of the construction fundsconstruction training center with an area of 55,000 square meters.
Historically, recovery from devastating fires it takes years and some California cities hit hard by the wildfires of 2017 and 2018 have still only partially rebuilt their homes.
“We can’t handle the number of students,” said Jaime Alvarez, one of Idov’s carpentry instructors, as the students hacked, sawed and drilled around them. Alvarez has about 30 students this semester. The technical school’s four-semester carpentry program is perhaps the largest in the state, with more than 1,800 enrolled annually.
Restoring the foundations of the Palisades
Idov is still living in an AirBnB with the few belongings he saved the night he evacuated his home. He keeps some clothes and a few personal items he managed to fit in his car, such as a bowling pin from a birthday party he attended as a child. The rest are lost according to accounts.
Most days classes start at 7am and end around noon. He usually spends his afternoons working part-time for a general contractor. The carpentry program is designed to be completed in about two years, with approximately 25 hours per week. This semester, he is learning how to build concrete foundations, drill rebar into them and construct the frame of a building, work especially needed in areas of Los Angeles affected by the fires.
The extreme heat from the fires not only burns the wood, but also makes the concrete foundations brittle and unstable, Alvarez explained. However, in their class they use concrete sparingly as it is expensive.
Although the university’s construction, maintenance and utilities programs have a combined annual budget of more than $10 million, most of that goes to staff salaries, leaving just over $575,000 for many of the materials students use, said Abigail Patton, vice president for academic affairs. He added that the state fire recovery grant will help cover the cost of materials, including the concrete used in Alvarez’s classroom.
While government funding has been helpful, other funding has recently fallen through. In 2024, Los Angeles Trade-Tech was one of the beneficiaries of a $20 million federal grant from the Environmental Protection Agency. The institution was to receive $2 million of that grant, a portion of which went to the Coalition for Responsible Community Development, an economic development organization based in South Los Angeles.
The money was earmarked to fund the university’s building programs, where students will learn about home insulation, lead reduction and residential energy audits. The federal agency disbursed just over $88,000 of the grant to the Coalition for Responsible Community Development before abruptly canceling it last May, after President Trump’s inauguration. Environmental groups sued to appeal the Trump administration’s decision.
The Coalition for Responsible Community Development declined to comment on the grant, but the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was blunt in its statements. “Perhaps the Biden-Harris administration should not have imposed its radical agenda of wasteful DEI programs and ‘environmental justice’ priorities on EPA’s core mission,” Brigitte Hirsch, the department’s press secretary, said in an email to CalMatters. “Thankfully, those times are behind us.
“It’s not all fun and games”
Some short-term community college certificates in construction can lead in well-paid jobs some of which pay more than $40 an hour. Many of the Los Angeles Trade-Tech programs, such as carpentry, electrical maintenance and welding, are popular and often full.
But students who enroll rarely graduate. after all about 33% of students who started in Los Angeles Trade-Tech’s construction, maintenance and utilities programs earned a certificate, degree or transferred to a university within four years, according to school data for students who started in 2021. Low graduation rates are common at most community colleges. Many students, especially low-income students, struggleto combine academic requirements with caring for children or elderly parents and working full or part time.
“We have a lot of students who want to do this, and I tell them it’s not all fun and games when it comes to using a hammer,” said Nicole Jordan, who teaches the first semester of the carpentry program. “We do a lot of mathematical work and a lot of theoretical research.” Before Jordanian students begin building anything, they must research Los Angeles plans and building codes to know what is possible and what is required by law.
Still, there is a strong sense of community among students who vary in age and ethnicity. To overcome adversity, Jordan’s first-semester students have a motto. “We are the best!” shouts a student as they sit in the classroom. “Carpentry!” all respond in unison.
After the shouts of encouragement, Jordan approaches the whiteboard and the class quiets down. Draw the plan of a house. If they stay, the students will build this house in just four semesters.