The cost and waiting time for auto repair work are about to increase. That’s because there’s a shortage of skilled auto technicians in this country. Talent shortages drive up labor costs, which in turn drive up the cost of maintenance.
About 967,000 auto technicians work for 270,300 independent repair shops in the U.S., according to the 2026 Auto Care Factbook by the Auto Care Association. That accounts for about 80% of our overall automotive repair capacity.
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At the same time, there are nearly 291 million privately owned light vehicles in this country. Those vehicles are getting older, as economic uncertainty causes consumers to delay buying new cars. This has pushed the average age of a vehicle up to 12.8 years.
Simply stated, older vehicles need more repair work. The labor shortage will have a significant impact on consumer spending. Consumers will spend $435 billion to repair and maintain their vehicles this year.
How severe is the shortage?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasts a shortage of 68,000 auto technicians every year for the next 10 years. A separate analysis from the nonprofit TechForce Foundation is more worrisome, predicting a shortfall of hundreds of thousands of auto techs through 2026.
The principal cause is an aging workforce; the average age is 40 years. In other words, technicians are retiring at a faster rate than we can replace them, even as demand grows.
The shortage of talent is pushing up labor costs, according to Joelle Pollak, co-founder of Promotive, an automotive staffing firm. Her firm has a database of 30,000 such technicians and has worked with more than 400 repair shops in 30 states around the country. She says a qualified auto technician, with a few years of experience, can easily earn $80,000 a year.
What’s being done to address the shortage?
The collective automotive aftermarket is pressing to get ahead of this issue, including lobbying for changes to financial aid. For example, the One Big Beautiful Bill expanded the use of the 529 savings plans for qualified technical training and expenses. Vocational students must purchase tools, a barrier to entry that traditional college students do not have.
Revitalizing trade apprenticeships is another key opportunity for rebuilding the ranks of auto technicians. The government is working to align federal workforce development programs to emphasize trade craft. What’s still needed is for educators at the high school and vocational levels to lean forward and help translate policy goals — and the federal funding — into tangible apprenticeship programs that deliver the skilled labor vacancies currently going unfilled.
Similarly, the private sector is taking long strides to do its part. For example, the Automotive Aftermarket Products Expo is making the issue central to its conference this year by adding a live student competition alongside its longstanding student program. The competition is being funded by businesses ranging from AutoZone to Euro Clinic, an independent repair shop based in Santa Clara, California.
Several organizations are breathing new life into their technician scholarship programs, too. Ford Motor Company, for example, has announced some $4 million in scholarships for auto technicians. Likewise, the University of the Aftermarket Foundation is on pace to fulfill 470 scholarships through the website automotivescholarships.com, worth $940,000, according to Mike Buzzard, the chair of UAF’s scholarship committee and a managing partner at Schwartz Advisors.
“We see a lot of hard-working kids who don’t want to incur the debt needed to get a four-year degree,” said Buzzard. “While trade schools aren’t cheap, you can get through in two years and come out with modest student loans and a good-paying job to repay them.”
The auto tech job is infinitely more technical
Buzzard thinks conversations about the opportunity are what will change the perception of auto techs. I couldn’t agree more: Perception is the biggest obstacle to this talent shortage. The way to address it is to explain the job, the earnings, and the career possibilities.
“People still perceive a technician’s job as a low-skilled, dirty job,” says Dave Johnson, president and CEO of the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence. That’s the crux of “the misperception around what the job is and what it’s going to be in the future for these automotive technicians.”
Sure, a technician can still get a little dirty; however, auto techs are just as likely to be holding a digital diagnostic device in their hands as they are a wrench. Johnson says vehicles today are effectively “rolling robots” with sophisticated electronics, safety controls, and hundreds of lines of software code.
“As the vehicle becomes more complex, it’s going to take a higher degree of aptitude to be able to repair it,” he noted. “With that, you have the ability to grow your salary and the opportunity to do multiple things inside our industry.”
Auto tech earnings potential is greater than reported
Compensation for auto techs has grown. While BLS reports that the median salary for auto techs is about $50,000 a year, many in the space say it’s significantly higher. For example, automotive career site WrenchWay puts the median at $84,028, based on nearly 3,000 responses and W-2 data.
“If you are driven, communicate, and educate yourself, you can make a heck of a lot of money being a technician,” said Pollak, the recruiter and co-founder from Promotive. “An experienced auto tech should be making $80,000 a year, no matter where you are in the country, and closer to six figures or more if you are a rockstar.”
The earning potential is higher for those auto technicians who continue to develop specialized knowledge. For example, the qualifications to work on brakes, collision, transmissions, electric vehicles, and hybrids require additional training.
Such skills command higher compensation: A 2024 ASE survey of 30,000 technicians found that certified techs earned about 20% more than uncertified peers. That finding was true across all career stages — from entry level to master technician.
Auto tech career possibilities are wide open
The automotive aftermarket is an economic powerhouse. It’s worth $2.3 trillion globally and employs nearly five million people in the U.S. To that end, repair shops are just one segment of the market, which also includes parts manufacturers, warehouses, and distributors among many other sectors.
This means successful auto technicians have a chance to advance their careers in many directions. While some technicians choose to stay and develop deep repair expertise, others move into leadership roles or even entirely different segments of the industry.
Pollak herself is a good example. Both her grandfather and father owned repair shops, yet she went to work for NAPA for about 10 years before starting Promotive with her business partner.
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Buzzard pointed out that auto techs could move from the “bays to a management position” in their organization or even open up a shop of their own. He noted that every business has a need for managers and district managers. The wide-ranging skills necessary for an auto technician are a good foundation for such a career.
The future could well hold unforeseen opportunities, too, said Johnson. He points out that the sensors and driver assistance technology on Tesla cars are what fuel the company’s ambition to build humanized robots. As it turns out, repairing those robots of the future requires the skillset of a modern auto technician.
Bill Hanvey is the president and CEO of the Auto Care Association. The Auto Care Association co-produces AAPEX, one of the fastest-growing conferences in the world, with its partner MEMA Aftermarket Suppliers.
, 2025-10-09 14:19:00, 
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