Amanda Marrazzo at The Daily Herald, Suburban Chicago’s News Source, focuses a spotlight on Taylor Diaz, who she found up in a ceiling running piping to encase electric wiring in a newly constructed commercial building in Huntley, Illinois.  The 28-year-old married Mother of two young children, who works for Lauderdale Electric in East Dundee, is a Journeyman Wireman with International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 117 - and, despite traditional terms like Brotherhood and Journeyman, she’s among a growing number of Women entering the Building Trades.  Josh Sajtar, who serves as Local 117’s Training Director in charge of Apprenticeships, said: “Women are seeing the Trades, especially Union Trades, as a good, viable option.  They have the opportunity to get paid the same as their male counterparts when performing the same work.”  According to Institute for Women’s Policy Research, in 2023 the number of Women working in the Trades reached the highest level ever - 363,651 working in construction and extraction occupations.  Since 2018, the number of Tradeswomen increased by more than 80,000, a growth of 28.3%.

To Continue Reading This Apprenticeship And Training Labor News Report, Go To: ‘A good, viable option’: More women are choosing to work in the trades for better pay and benefits