I have a feeling that the median age of electricians here in california is trending upwards.   Recently a law was passed that requires that you be certified to do electrical work.  Gaining entrance into the electrical union is next to impossible unless you have a connection.

I rarely ever see a job posting for apprentice electricians, the job postings are for journeymen level experience.  It appears that the electrical union here is the nearest thing we have to a european style guild.

I am guessing that there is some sort of long-term plan to increase quality and standards in the electricians field.

What is troubling to me is the there is now a artificial bottleneck, throttling the supply of future qualified electricians.  Electricians can look forward to being the best paid workers and having the highest job security in the trades.

Everyone knows what happens when the supply of a service or product that is in great demand is severly restricted.  The price of that service/product goes up.  Something else happens as well, people look for a less expensive alternative.

That less expensive alternative is to have the work done w/o permits.   I get a feeling as the supply of qualified electricians goes down, the amount of non-permitted electrical work, done by non-certified personnel goes up.

The solution to the problem would be to greatly increase the opportunities for entrance into this field.  That will not happen because of the financial rewards of restricting supply.