The completion rate
nobody shows you.
Half of all electrician apprentices who start don't finish. One in six roofer apprentices does. Elevator Constructors beat them all at 67% — and retire earning $48/hr. This is the data programs don't publish.
Computed from 639,041 individual apprentice records · 2013-2018 start-year cohorts · Source: DOL RAPIDS FY26 Q1 Public Use File
Completion Rate by Trade
Of resolved outcomes (completed + cancelled) for 2013-2018 cohorts. Apprentices still active are excluded from the denominator.
What Completers Actually Earn
Average starting wage vs. exit wage for apprentices who completed their program. These are real wages from DOL records — not industry estimates.
| Trade | Year 1 avg | At completion | Annual gain | Completions sampled |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elevator Constructor | $24.14/hr | $48.37/hr | +$50K/yr | 5,175 |
| Line Worker | $29.75/hr | $46.01/hr | +$34K/yr | 193 |
| Carpenter | $19.26/hr | $39.25/hr | +$42K/yr | 23,068 |
| Sheet Metal Worker | $17.14/hr | $39.07/hr | +$46K/yr | 9,394 |
| Sprinkler Fitter | $18.70/hr | $38.56/hr | +$41K/yr | 202 |
| Pipefitter/Steamfitter | $17.91/hr | $38.27/hr | +$42K/yr | 16,862 |
| Boilermaker | $23.32/hr | $35.86/hr | +$26K/yr | 2,310 |
| Roofer | $17.72/hr | $35.30/hr | +$37K/yr | 2,837 |
| Ironworker | $19.12/hr | $34.86/hr | +$33K/yr | 8,944 |
| Bricklayer/Mason | $19.68/hr | $34.79/hr | +$31K/yr | 3,560 |
| Plumber | $16.84/hr | $34.57/hr | +$37K/yr | 17,501 |
| Electrician | $16.88/hr | $33.99/hr | +$36K/yr | 65,447 |
Annual gain = (exit wage − start wage) × 2,080 hours. Based on DOL-recorded wages for apprentices who received a certificate of completion. Data source: DOL RAPIDS FY26 Q1.
Career changers actually do better.
The conventional wisdom says start young. The data says something different. Electrician apprentices who start in their 30s outperform the youngest cohort.
The finding: Electrician apprentices who start at 30–34 complete at 51.5% — versus 46.2% for those who start at 16–24. Career changers beat the youngest cohort by 5.3 percentage points.
Hypothesis: older starters have more deliberate career intent and better workplace habits. The 16–24 group includes many who are trying the trade for the first time without strong commitment.
Data: electrician apprentices with 2013-2018 start years. Completion rate = completed ÷ (completed + cancelled).
Where you do it matters as much as if you do it.
Electrician apprenticeship completion rates by state · 2013-2018 cohorts
An Illinois electrician apprentice is 2.7× more likely to finish than one in AR. The gap is driven primarily by union density — states with strong IBEW JATCs have dramatically higher completion rates.
Highest completion — Top 10
Why the gap is so large: High-completion states (IL, PA, MN, NJ) have strong union JATC programs with structured support, mentorship, and employer relationships. Low-completion states have more small non-union employer programs where apprentices are more likely to leave for higher-paying non-apprenticeship work mid-program. Non-union apprentices nationally have a statistically higher cancellation rate than union apprentices.
States with fewer than 150 resolved outcomes excluded. NY and WA use state-level registration systems and underreport in federal RAPIDS — their data is not fully representative.
How to be on the right side of the data
Non-union apprentices cancel at a statistically higher rate. Union JATCs offer structured programs, mentorship, employer placement, and contractual wage schedules that reduce the temptation to quit mid-program for a short-term pay bump.
If you have geographic flexibility, it matters. Illinois and Pennsylvania electricians complete at 70%+. Florida and Colorado complete at 35% or below. If you're mobile, starting in a high-completion state is one of the highest-leverage decisions you can make.
The data shows 30-somethings finish at higher rates than 20-somethings. If you're 28 and considering this, your age is not the liability you think it is. Career intent — knowing why you're doing this — predicts completion better than youth.
Methodology & Source
Completion rate = completed / (completed + cancelled). Only cohorts with start years 2013-2018 are included to ensure programs have had sufficient time to reach completion. Active/suspended apprentices are excluded from the denominator.
Trade classificationis based on the OCCUPATION_TITLE field in the apprentice records, using keyword matching to group variants (e.g., "Electrician," "Interior Electrician," "Industrial Electrician") under a single trade.
Wages: Starting wage from STARTING_WAGE field. Exit wage from EXIT_WAGE field. Records with wages below $8/hr or above $200/hr are excluded as likely data errors.
Data source: DOL RAPIDS FY26 Q1 Public Use File. The RAPIDS system is the federal registration database for apprenticeship programs. Some states (NY, WA) use parallel state-level systems and underreport to RAPIDS — their data is present but not fully representative of actual program outcomes in those states.
DOL does not publish trade-by-trade or age-cohort completion rates in this form. PlumbSquare computed these figures from the raw public use files. The DOL publishes aggregate and state-level completion rates at apprenticeship.gov.
These are state and trade aggregates. We also computed per-program completion rates for 3,521 individual JATCs and employer-sponsored programs from the same dataset. See which specific programs graduate the most apprentices.
Browse 3,521 programs by completion rate →