INDUSTRY REPORTS · June 30, 2026

Roofing Apprenticeship and Training Report: The Pipeline Behind 12,700 Annual Roofer Openings (2026)

BLS and U.S. DOL data on roofer apprenticeships, completers, and 12,700 projected annual openings (2024-2034). Why most roofers train on the job. 2026.

By The Roofing Brief Team

The formal training pipeline for roofers is small relative to the work the trade needs done. Federal data show roofers held about 166,700 jobs in the United States in 2024, with roughly 12,700 openings projected each year through 2034, yet the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics states plainly that most roofers learn on the job rather than through a registered apprenticeship. This report assembles verified figures from the U.S. Department of Labor, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and roofing trade bodies to size the apprenticeship pipeline against projected demand, and to show why the replacement-demand math points to a structural labor gap.

Executive Summary

Roofers held about 166,700 jobs in the United States in 2024 (Source: U.S. BLS, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Roofers, 2024).
BLS projects about 12,700 roofer openings per year, on average, from 2024 to 2034, with most resulting from workers transferring out or exiting the labor force (Source: U.S. BLS, OOH, Roofers, 2024-2034).
Employment of roofers is projected to grow 6 percent from 2024 to 2034, faster than the average for all occupations (Source: U.S. BLS, OOH, Roofers, 2024-2034).
The median annual wage for roofers was $50,970 in May 2024 (Source: U.S. BLS, OEWS, May 2024).
The United States had about 680,000 active registered apprentices across all occupations in fiscal year 2024, with the construction industry accounting for nearly half of all participation (Source: U.S. DOL data reported by Community College Daily, 2025).
Registered apprenticeship programs produced nearly 112,000 completers in fiscal year 2024 across all occupations, up 143 percent from about 46,000 a decade earlier (Source: U.S. DOL reported by Community College Daily, 2025).
BLS projects about 649,300 openings per year, on average, across all construction and extraction occupations from 2024 to 2034 (Source: U.S. BLS, OOH, Construction and Extraction Occupations, 2024-2034).
Registered apprenticeship covers only a minority of roofers; the U.S. BLS states that most roofers learn on the job, so apprenticeship counts understate total trade entry (Source: U.S. BLS, OOH, Roofers, 2024).

Key Findings

Roofers held about 166,700 jobs in 2024 under SOC code 47-2181 (Source: U.S. BLS, OOH, Roofers, 2024).
About 12,700 roofer openings are projected each year on average over the 2024 to 2034 decade (Source: U.S. BLS, OOH, Roofers, 2024-2034).
Roofer employment is projected to grow 6 percent from 2024 to 2034 (Source: U.S. BLS, OOH, Roofers, 2024-2034).
The median annual wage for roofers was $50,970 in May 2024, roughly $24.50 per hour at 2,080 hours (Source: U.S. BLS, OEWS, May 2024).
The BLS reports there are typically no formal education requirements to become a roofer, and most roofers learn on the job (Source: U.S. BLS, OOH, Roofers, How to Become One, 2024).
Where roofers do enter through apprenticeship, union programs typically span three to four years with structured wage progression tied to hours worked and classroom completion (Source: U.S. BLS, OOH, Roofers, 2024).
The United States had about 680,000 active registered apprentices across all occupations in fiscal year 2024, a 114 percent increase from nearly 318,000 in fiscal year 2014 (Source: U.S. DOL reported by Community College Daily, 2025).
Registered apprenticeship completers across all occupations reached nearly 112,000 in fiscal year 2024 (Source: U.S. DOL reported by Community College Daily, 2025).
Construction makes up nearly half of all registered apprenticeship participation, and the trades with the most apprentices are electricians, plumbers and pipefitters, carpenters, laborers, and sheet metal workers (Source: U.S. DOL reported by Community College Daily, 2025).
Roofing does not appear among the largest-volume construction apprenticeship occupations, indicating roofer apprentices are a small share of the construction apprenticeship total (Source: U.S. DOL reported by Community College Daily, 2025).
About 649,300 openings per year are projected across all construction and extraction occupations from 2024 to 2034 (Source: U.S. BLS, OOH, Construction and Extraction, 2024-2034).
The United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers reports about 22,000 members organized into nine district councils that operate Joint Apprenticeship Training Committees (Source: United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers, 2025).
The National Roofing Contractors Association partnered with the National Center for Construction Education and Research to create a national roofing apprenticeship program later adopted by Associated Builders and Contractors (Source: NCCER, NRCA national roofing apprenticeship program).
Associated Builders and Contractors estimates the construction industry must attract about 349,000 net new workers in 2026 to meet demand (Source: ABC estimate reported by Construction Owners, 2026).

The Roofer Workforce Base

The base for any pipeline analysis is the size of the occupation and how fast it is expected to change. The figures below come from the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook and Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program, both of which use SOC code 47-2181 for roofers.

Metric	Value	Period	Source
Roofer employment	about 166,700	2024	BLS OOH / OEWS
Median annual wage	$50,970	May 2024	BLS OEWS
Projected employment growth	6 percent	2024-2034	BLS OOH
Average annual openings	about 12,700	2024-2034	BLS OOH

The 6 percent projected growth is faster than the average for all occupations, but the more important number for workforce planning is the 12,700 average annual openings. BLS attributes most of those openings not to growth but to the need to replace roofers who transfer to different occupations or exit the labor force, for example to retire. In other words, the demand for newly trained roofers is dominated by replacement, not expansion.

The Registered Apprenticeship Pipeline

Registered Apprenticeship is the federally recognized earn-and-learn pathway administered by the Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration and tracked in the Registered Apprenticeship Partners Information Database System, known as RAPIDS. National totals are large and growing, but roofing is a small slice of them.

Metric (all occupations)	FY 2014	FY 2024	10-year change
Active apprentices	nearly 318,000	about 680,000	+114 percent
Annual completers	about 46,000	nearly 112,000	+143 percent

Source for the table: U.S. Department of Labor data reported by Community College Daily, January 2025. Construction accounts for nearly half of all registered apprenticeship participation, but the highest-volume construction occupations are electricians, plumbers and pipefitters, carpenters, laborers, and sheet metal workers. Roofing is not among them. A roofing-specific active-apprentice count is not separately published in a directly fetchable national table; the Department of Labor’s Apprentices by State dashboard exposes occupation-level detail interactively rather than as a static published figure. This report therefore treats roofing as a small share of the construction apprenticeship total and does not assign it a precise national apprentice count.

The structure of roofing apprenticeship is consistent across sponsors. Union and many non-union programs run three to five years, combining paid on-the-job learning with related classroom instruction (Source: United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers, 2025; U.S. BLS, OOH, Roofers, 2024). The United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers reports about 22,000 members across nine district councils, and the National Roofing Contractors Association built a national roofing apprenticeship curriculum with the National Center for Construction Education and Research that was later adopted by Associated Builders and Contractors.

Why Apprenticeship Undercounts Roofer Training

The single most important caveat in this report is that registered apprenticeship captures only a minority of how roofers actually enter the trade. The BLS states that there are typically no formal education requirements for roofers and that most roofers learn on the job. A worker can spend years gaining roofing skills under an employer without ever being registered in RAPIDS, which means apprenticeship counts are a floor on training activity, not a measure of total trade entry.

This has two consequences for the pipeline math. First, any ratio of apprentices to openings overstates the formal shortage because informal entrants fill many openings outside the registered system. Second, the informal majority is harder to measure, slower to credential, and less portable across state lines, since a registered apprenticeship produces a federally recognized credential while unregistered employer training does not. The trade is training people; most of that training is simply invisible to the federal apprenticeship counters.

The Replacement-Demand Math

Replacement demand, not growth, drives roofer hiring. Of the roughly 12,700 average annual openings BLS projects for roofers through 2034, the agency attributes the majority to workers leaving the occupation permanently rather than to net new jobs. With 166,700 roofers employed in 2024 and 6 percent projected growth over ten years, the implied net employment gain is on the order of 10,000 jobs over the full decade, or about 1,000 per year. That leaves the large remainder of the 12,700 annual openings to replacement of exits and transfers.

The same pattern holds for the broader trade. Across all construction and extraction occupations, BLS projects about 649,300 openings per year from 2024 to 2034, again driven by a combination of growth and permanent separations. Industry estimates layer demand on top of these federal projections: Associated Builders and Contractors estimates construction must attract about 349,000 net new workers in 2026 alone to meet demand. Roofing is a labor-intensive, physically demanding, high-turnover slice of that total.

Forecasts and Context

The forecast direction is consistent across sources: steady, replacement-heavy demand for roofers against a formal training pipeline that is small and only partly measured. The 6 percent BLS growth projection is modest, but combined with high replacement need it sustains roughly 12,700 openings a year. Trade and industry bodies frame the broader construction workforce as structurally short of entrants, with ABC’s 2026 figure of about 349,000 net new construction workers signaling continued tightness. None of these sources publishes a precise roofer-apprentice-to-opening ratio, so the synthesis below derives illustrative ratios from the verified inputs and labels their limits.

Original Synthesis

The following insights are derived only from the verified public figures cited above. Each states its logic, inputs, and limitations. They are estimates, not established facts.

1. Roofer openings as a share of construction openings

Logic: divide projected average annual roofer openings by projected average annual construction and extraction openings. Inputs: 12,700 roofer openings per year and 649,300 construction and extraction openings per year, both from BLS OOH 2024-2034. Result: roofers represent about 2.0 percent of all annual construction and extraction openings (12,700 / 649,300). Limitation: the construction and extraction category includes extraction and many non-building trades, so this is a share of a broad denominator, not of building construction alone.

2. Replacement-dominance ratio for roofers

Logic: compare implied net annual growth to total annual openings to show how much of roofer hiring is replacement. Inputs: 166,700 roofers in 2024, 6 percent growth to 2034, and 12,700 annual openings, all BLS OOH. Result: 6 percent of 166,700 is about 10,000 net jobs over the decade, or roughly 1,000 per year, which is about 8 percent of the 12,700 annual openings; the remaining roughly 92 percent reflects replacement of transfers and labor-force exits. Limitation: BLS does not publish the exact roofer replacement split, so the 8 percent figure is an approximation derived from the published growth rate and opening total.

3. Why a roofer apprentice count cannot be cleanly matched to openings

Logic: test whether national apprenticeship volume can be allocated to roofing precisely enough to compute a gap. Inputs: 680,000 active apprentices and 112,000 completers across all occupations in FY2024 (DOL), with construction at nearly half of participation but roofing absent from the top construction trades (DOL), and the BLS statement that most roofers learn on the job. Result: the verified data support only a directional conclusion: registered roofer apprentices and completers are far too few to fill 12,700 annual openings on their own, so informal on-the-job entry must supply the majority of new roofers. Limitation: without a published roofing-specific apprentice cell, any precise apprentice-per-opening ratio would be invented; this report deliberately stops at the directional finding.

Charts We Recommend

Roofer openings vs net growth, 2024-2034. Data needed: 12,700 annual openings and the implied ~1,000 net annual growth. Source: BLS OOH. Insight: replacement, not growth, drives roofer demand. Citation-worthy because it quantifies the replacement-dominance most coverage only asserts.
National registered apprenticeship growth, FY2014 vs FY2024. Data needed: 318,000 to 680,000 active apprentices and 46,000 to 112,000 completers. Source: DOL via Community College Daily. Insight: the system doubled in a decade. Citation-worthy as a clean before-and-after.
Roofer share of construction and extraction openings. Data needed: 12,700 vs 649,300. Source: BLS OOH. Insight: roofing is about 2 percent of trade openings. Citation-worthy for scaling the trade within construction.
Top construction apprenticeship trades vs roofing. Data needed: list of largest trades (electricians, plumbers and pipefitters, carpenters, laborers, sheet metal workers) with roofing flagged as not in the top tier. Source: DOL via Community College Daily. Insight: roofing trails its peer trades in formal apprenticeship volume.

Methodology

Sources were selected by tier, with primary federal data preferred over secondary. The roofer occupation is defined throughout by SOC code 47-2181. Employment, wage, growth, and openings figures come from the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook and Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program for the most recent published reference years (2024 employment and projections to 2034; May 2024 wages). National registered apprenticeship totals come from U.S. Department of Labor figures for fiscal year 2024 as reported by Community College Daily, which restated the DOL report. Several BLS HTML pages and the BLS API were not directly retrievable during research; the specific figures used (166,700 jobs, 12,700 openings, 6 percent growth, $50,970 median wage, 649,300 construction openings) were confirmed through search results that surface the BLS source text and through cross-referencing the named BLS OOH and OEWS pages, which are linked. Where a roofing-specific apprentice count could not be retrieved from a published static table, no precise figure was asserted; the report states that roofing is a small share of construction apprenticeship and computes only directional ratios. Conflicting or uncertain numbers were excluded rather than estimated. Derived ratios in the Original Synthesis section are clearly labeled as estimates with their formulas and limitations. Last updated: June 29, 2026.

Source Quality and Tiering

Tier 1, primary government and official data: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Roofers; U.S. BLS, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2024; U.S. BLS, OOH, Construction and Extraction Occupations; U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, Registered Apprenticeship data (RAPIDS), fiscal year 2024.

Tier 2, credible trade bodies and industry sources: United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers; National Roofing Contractors Association and National Center for Construction Education and Research roofing apprenticeship program; Associated Builders and Contractors workforce estimate.

Tier 3, reputable journalism restating primary data: Community College Daily restating the U.S. Department of Labor apprenticeship report; Construction Owners restating the ABC estimate.

Most Quotable Statistics

Roofers held about 166,700 jobs in the United States in 2024 (U.S. BLS, OOH).
About 12,700 roofer openings are projected each year, on average, from 2024 to 2034 (U.S. BLS, OOH).
Roofer employment is projected to grow 6 percent from 2024 to 2034 (U.S. BLS, OOH).
The median annual wage for roofers was $50,970 in May 2024 (U.S. BLS, OEWS).
The United States had about 680,000 active registered apprentices across all occupations in fiscal year 2024 (U.S. DOL, 2024).
Registered apprenticeship produced nearly 112,000 completers in fiscal year 2024 (U.S. DOL, 2024).
Construction accounts for nearly half of all registered apprenticeship participation (U.S. DOL, 2024).
About 649,300 openings per year are projected across all construction and extraction occupations from 2024 to 2034 (U.S. BLS, OOH).

Data Limitations

This report carries several limits. First, no roofing-specific national active-apprentice count was retrievable from a static published table, so the apprenticeship analysis for roofing is directional and relies on the verified finding that roofing is a small share of construction apprenticeship. Second, the BLS states most roofers learn on the job, so registered apprenticeship data systematically undercount roofer training, and any apprentice-to-opening ratio understates informal entry. Third, several BLS HTML pages and the BLS public API were not directly retrievable during research; the figures used were confirmed via search-surfaced BLS source text and named source pages rather than a live API pull, so a publishing editor should re-confirm each headline number against the linked BLS page. Fourth, the FY2024 apprenticeship totals are reported by a secondary outlet restating a DOL report; the underlying DOL figures should be verified against the official Department of Labor release. Fifth, industry workforce estimates such as the ABC 349,000 figure are projections and model outputs, not measured counts, and are presented as estimates.

Recommended Downloadable Dataset Fields

occupation_soc_code (e.g., 47-2181)
occupation_title
employment_count
employment_year
median_annual_wage
wage_reference_period
projected_pct_change
projection_period
avg_annual_openings
active_registered_apprentices_all_occupations
registered_apprentice_completers_all_occupations
apprenticeship_fiscal_year
construction_share_of_apprenticeship
source_name
source_url
source_tier

Press Summary

The formal training pipeline for roofers is small and only partly measured. Federal data show about 166,700 roofers employed in the United States in 2024, with roughly 12,700 openings projected each year through 2034 and 6 percent employment growth over the decade (U.S. BLS, Occupational Outlook Handbook). The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics states that most roofers learn on the job, so registered apprenticeship captures only a minority of entrants. National registered apprenticeship has grown sharply, reaching about 680,000 active apprentices and nearly 112,000 completers across all occupations in fiscal year 2024, with construction at nearly half of all participation (U.S. Department of Labor). Roofing is not among the largest construction apprenticeship trades, which means roofer apprentices are too few to fill projected openings on their own and informal on-the-job training must supply the majority of new roofers. Replacement of workers who exit or transfer, not job growth, drives roofer hiring. Industry groups estimate construction needs about 349,000 net new workers in 2026 (Associated Builders and Contractors).

Five Headlines Journalists Can Use

Roofers face about 12,700 openings a year through 2034, and most are replacements, not new jobs (U.S. BLS).
Most roofers still learn on the job, leaving the formal apprenticeship pipeline a minority pathway (U.S. BLS).
Registered apprenticeship hit 680,000 active apprentices in 2024, but roofing trails its peer trades (U.S. DOL).
Roofing is about 2 percent of all projected construction and extraction openings (U.S. BLS).
Construction needs about 349,000 net new workers in 2026, and roofing is among the hardest to staff (ABC).

Frequently Asked Questions

How many roofers are employed in the United States?

Roofers held about 166,700 jobs in 2024 (Source: U.S. BLS, OOH, Roofers, 2024).

How many roofer job openings are expected each year?

About 12,700 openings are projected each year, on average, from 2024 to 2034 (Source: U.S. BLS, OOH, Roofers, 2024-2034).

How fast is roofer employment expected to grow?

Roofer employment is projected to grow 6 percent from 2024 to 2034, faster than the average for all occupations (Source: U.S. BLS, OOH, Roofers, 2024-2034).

What does a roofer earn?

The median annual wage for roofers was $50,970 in May 2024 (Source: U.S. BLS, OEWS, May 2024).

Do most roofers go through an apprenticeship?

No. The BLS states there are typically no formal education requirements and that most roofers learn on the job; some enter through an apprenticeship (Source: U.S. BLS, OOH, Roofers, 2024).

How long is a roofing apprenticeship?

Roofing apprenticeship programs generally run three to five years, combining paid on-the-job training with classroom instruction (Source: United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers, 2025; U.S. BLS, OOH, Roofers, 2024).

How many registered apprentices are there nationally?

The United States had about 680,000 active registered apprentices across all occupations in fiscal year 2024 (Source: U.S. DOL reported by Community College Daily, 2025).

How many people complete registered apprenticeships each year?

Registered apprenticeship produced nearly 112,000 completers in fiscal year 2024 across all occupations (Source: U.S. DOL reported by Community College Daily, 2025).

How big is roofing within construction apprenticeship?

Roofing is a small share; construction accounts for nearly half of all apprenticeship, but the largest trades are electricians, plumbers and pipefitters, carpenters, laborers, and sheet metal workers, not roofers (Source: U.S. DOL reported by Community College Daily, 2025).

How many additional construction workers does the industry need?

Associated Builders and Contractors estimates construction must attract about 349,000 net new workers in 2026 to meet demand (Source: ABC estimate reported by Construction Owners, 2026).

Cite This Research

The Roofing Brief, “Roofing Apprenticeship and Training Report: The Pipeline Behind 12,700 Annual Roofer Openings”, 2026, https://theroofingbrief.com/roofing-apprenticeship-training-report/

Embed or use this with credit: “According to The Roofing Brief’s Roofing Apprenticeship and Training Report (2026), drawing on U.S. BLS and U.S. Department of Labor data, roofers face about 12,700 annual openings through 2034 while most still train on the job rather than through registered apprenticeship.”