The demand for electricians over the next 10 years is going to ask a lot of the IBEW and our members, but when we rise to the occasion, this next decade will experience job growth unlike anything this union has ever seen.

I've been optimistic about our future for years, and I'm happy to say that the moment we have been promising is here. As you'll read in this month's cover story, the electrician boom is real, and we have an opportunity before us to meet the moment head-on.

Just on the construction side, there are IBEW members at work on more than 3,600 projects worth more than $800 billion. There are at least 6,000 new projects on the horizon in just the next 12 months.

When I was a business manager, there were nights I couldn't sleep knowing the pain my members were facing if I couldn't find them work.

Now it's missing the opportunity to transform these jobs into hundreds of thousands of permanent IBEW members that keeps me up at night.

Trust me, this is a much better problem to have.

Between growing demand and the upcoming retirements of longtime members of our trade, experts at the Bureau of Labor Statistics project an average of 80,000 new positions for electricians in the United States every year through 2032. That's 11% growth annually, double any other trade.

We know that for a prospective worker, the IBEW is the right choice. Nonunion offers nothing that can compare to our apprenticeship. No debt. All the training you need to perform any job, anywhere, safely and productively. No temp agency or nonunion contractor offers the freedom of a yellow journeyman ticket, the efficiency, transparency and fairness of the book system, the unbreakable promise of reciprocity.

Customers also know that our signatory partners at NECA, working with skilled IBEW labor, are the easy choice to complete a job on time and on budget with superior safety and craftsmanship.

As we begin 2025, it is enough to know that the most important economic forces of growth — decarbonization, AI, rebuilding infrastructure, and the electrification of transportation and buildings — all rely on our labor.

All the money in the world can't do anything until it goes through labor's hands. Money doesn't pull a single wire, stand up a single pole, finish a single panel or build one transformer.

We do.

We have at least 10 years to turn this advantage into permanent power. Power to improve our paychecks, our benefits and our retirement. Power to build our union and the labor movement. Power to improve our communities and our nations. Together, we'll embrace this opportunity and organize to meet this moment.

Happy New Year, brothers and sisters. Today, it is good to be us.

Also: Noble: Solidarity in the New Year