HVAC and refrigeration technician skills - an asset in the construction slowdown

Worry not, if they're certified HVAC or refrigeration technicians!

The HVAC and refrigeration fields are incredibly versatile, and impervious to homebuilding market layoffs. It is true that many HVAC and refrigeration professionals are responsible for installing heating and cooling systems in brand new construction projects. However, there are so many other jobs in this field - and so many heating and cooling systems that need maintenance and repair - that HVAC and refrigeration technicians with the proper certification and training are unlikely to be out of work.

HVAC and refrigeration technicians are less likely to find home system installation jobs right now. That's because the homebuilding industry is facing widespread work losses and layoffs. There is no demand for new homes to be built, when so many sit vacant and unsold for months. That's the bad news. The good news is that this work slowdown in this particular sector won't last forever - the housing market is resilient, and will return to a growth market over the next few years. The BEST news is that there are so many other opportunities for HVAC and refrigeration technicians that they can find other fields of work besides new home systems installation, while the nation rides out the housing crisis.

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Job-search sites such as Career Builder continue to feature openings for HVAC and refrigeration jobs in industries ranging from boiler and factory systems maintenance to school and healthcare systems maintenance to ice machine maintenance to ballpark and arena HVAC repair. None of these positions are related to homes, home building, or home buying!

Consider: Plant and factory boilers will need to constantly be repaired, maintained, and upgraded to meet OSHA and other federal safety regulations. Kids and adults alike will continue to go to school (in fact, some articles, such as a Jan. 2008 Lawrence Journal World and News report, suggest that career professionals are more likely to stay in school during economic downturns). People will always need health care (in light of rising national obesity, adult-onset diabetes, and heart disease epidemics, people will need more health care as time passes). We'll still slug soda, whether it's good for us, or not. And, we'll still love to go to the game, and most still will - whether we can sell our houses or not (many of us will drink a lot of soda at the game, too).

The United States government predicts faster-than-average job growth for HVAC technicians through the year 2014. One major reason so many vacancies are popping up is because the first wave of Baby Boomers, defined as Americans born between 1946 and 1964, will be reaching retirement age shortly. This mass exodus of workers from the market will create a number of HVAC and refrigeration maintenance and repair opportunities for Generations X and Y.

Some of the industries in which HVAC and refrigeration are used are booming. For example, the amount of hospital care and services available in the United States is climbing upward. The reason for this is two-fold. First, a large Baby Boomer population is requiring medical care as it ages. Secondly, medical breakthroughs in specialties as diverse as cancer care and neonatal rehabilitation require that more medical facilities be built. The construction of these facilities will require skilled HVAC and refrigeration technicians - however, the most pressing needs will come when new hospitals are up and running.

One example of such a hospital system is the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. After UPMC purchased the St. Francis Hospital site in the Lawrenceville/Garfield section of this Mid-Atlantic Pennsylvania city, builders converted the site into a new branch of the Children's Hospital of UPMC. The hospital features over 200 beds and new pediatric research facilities. Further down the street in Pittsburgh's East Liberty neighborhood, workers were busy building a "green," eco-friendly children's medical office.

Both of these construction projects required skilled HVAC and refrigeration technicians to install and troubleshoot new equipment. Though the press placed environmental emphasis on the "green" pediatric office, it is likely that technicians skilled in the latest, Earth-friendly HVAC-R building technologies were needed to help get both sites up and running. But these medical facilities, like other hospitals all over the country, will still need skilled technicians to upgrade, maintain, and repair refrigeration and HVAC equipment. In hospitals, equipment malfunctions can literally mean the different between life and death. That's one reason HVAC and refrigeration careers won't see a downturn.

The same general need can be extended to many other industries - sports, food service, retail, and so on. These aren't industries where functional heating, cooling, and refrigeration equipment is responsible for life or death, but these are industries where work or fun can shut down quickly if equipment isn't kept in top shape at all times.

HVAC and refrigeration are careers with great longevity. Housing market bust or no, there will always be a need for HVAC and refrigeration technicians.

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