The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ February jobs report revealed 92,000 losses in nonfarm sectors.
For job seekers, this paints an abysmal picture — a continuation of the “no-hire, no-fire” job market, especially in white-collar fields. Add to this image the layoffs that are indiscriminately plaguing industries, and workers and job seekers may be wondering: Is my job next?
In recent years, as AI’s rapid development has sown concern in a beleaguered labor force, the trades have emerged as a beacon of hope. In fact, technology and the trades can often be pitted against one another when, in reality, they rely on each other for operations and
innovation.
In New Jersey, both fields are changing the state’s economic portrait, albeit not evenly. Across the state, a new economic reality is revealing insights about where and why New Jerseyans are choosing to work — and who is central to these growing narratives.
How is AI affecting jobs?
While it is difficult to tell exactly how many job losses or gains can be attributed to AI, what is clear is how much AI technologies have permeated day-to-day tasks, especially in clerical roles.
“Very few roles will remain untouched by AI, but that does not mean entire professions will disappear,” Felicia Newhouse, the founder of AI-Powered Women and a longtime tech executive, told ROI-NJ.
AI exposure can be defined by the nature of certain job-related tasks. Duties like content generation, research and analysis are more suitable for AI, whereas verification, ethical decision-making, and strategy are currently considered more human-oriented. Workers are seeing their roles involve increased responsibilities as the time to complete tasks shrinks, Newhouse said.
Due to this dynamic, however, early-career hiring is especially impacted by AI development. The types of tasks that typically fall to newly minted employees are the same assignments that are prime for optimization through AI use.
But AI is also enabling growth, especially in smaller companies, where implementing new systems — including adopting AI tools — is a less cumbersome process, Newhouse said. Hiring demand for mid-career professionals has also gone up, thanks to a growing need for AI workflow managers.
In some industries, like plumbing and HVAC, AI is creating jobs in another way: data center maintenance. In fact, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told the U.K.’s Channel 4 News last year that carpenters, electricians, and plumbers would be needed in the “hundreds of thousands.”
@c4news CEO of US chip giant Nvidia, Jensen Huang, tells Channel 4 News, that ‘electricians and plumbers’ will be the big winners in the AI race as the skilled craft segment of every economy is going to see a ‘boom’. Tech AI Nvidia Economy C4News
“Because AI processing generates immense heat, the demand for sophisticated cooling and piping systems has become a primary driver of new business for HVAC and plumbing companies,” John Lozano, the president of Homestead Plumbing & Heating in Vineland, told ROI-NJ.
Buy-in in this growing sector is heavily affected by location. High energy costs in the New York City Metropolitan Area raise questions around the viability of data centers in New Jersey, Lozano said — although the state recently became a top-five data center market at the end of 2025.
How is the workforce reacting?
With the average student loan borrower in New Jersey owing about $37,000 and post-college unemployment rates hitting new highs, workers are beginning to feel wary about the bachelor’s-to-corporate pipeline that became normalized in American households for decades.
Six in ten Gen Z adults are now interested in the trades, according to a 2025 study by ResumeTemplates.com. Half of those surveyed who held a bachelor’s degree or higher indicated an interest in the trades as well, despite only one in four having considered a career in the trades in high school.
So, what happened? AI, for one, but also: a call for applicants in a stone-cold job market and an awakening to trades salaries. New Jersey in particular touts the fifth-highest salaries for electricians and plumbers, according to Stacker.
“The hands-on advantage has triggered a significant inflow of new talent, as companies report high interest in open positions from individuals with no prior experience who are seeking the stability that physical, AI-proof work provides,” Andrew Malaszuk, owner of Tri-County Mechanical in Passaic, said.
These applicants are chasing stability in a rocky job market — and they might be on the right track. The skilled trades boasted a 90% satisfaction rate in a 2024 Angi report. For reference, 50% of the general workforce reported high job satisfaction, and 38% reported feeling somewhat satisfied, according to the Pew Research Center’s 2024 data.
Mike Dolan, the president of Dolan Inc. in Somerset, further affirmed that tradespeople are not stressing about AI — worlds apart from office workers who have spent the last few years bracing for impact. In this apparent dichotomy, jobs and companies are desirable when they appeal to people’s need for self-preservation.
Is there such a thing as an AI-proof job?
With AI transforming clerical work the world over, physical-labor-intensive work is often proposed as a safe haven for those worried about their clerical jobs being ruled obsolete.
Evan Forosisky, group president of Astra Service Partners in Marlton, told ROI-NJ that AI is speeding up paperwork in the trades and, by extension, increasing overall operational efficiency. It can also support technicians through repairs, but formal hands-on training and experience cannot be replaced with AI, he said.
“The physical nature of our work still requires trained professionals on-site to diagnose issues, handle equipment, and make real-time judgment calls,” Forosisky said. “You cannot automate being in a mechanical room, troubleshooting a live system, or fixing a leak, at least for now.”
Recent developments in the energy sector have placed trades careers in especially high demand. In 2024, the Bureau of Labor Statistics labeled two trades occupations as the highest projected growth roles over the next decade: wind turbine service technicians and solar photovoltaic installers — the latter of which is another name for solar panel installation specialists.
“The better question is not whether a job is ‘AI-proof,’ but whether professionals are becoming AI-resilient,” Newhouse said.
How can women maximize their opportunities?
The trades and AI do have one thing in common — a historical barrier of entry for women. As of 2023, women make up 4.3% of tradespeople and approximately 30% of AI-related workers, according to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research and the Global Gender Gap Report, respectively.
AI has been exposed for gender equity issues, both as a tool and as a line of work. Newhouse cited a report by the UN’s International Labor Organization that found that 9.6% of female-dominated occupations in high-income nations are at risk of significant AI-related change — three times the rate for male-dominated occupations. More broadly, women working in technology-related jobs are more susceptible to layoffs than men, making up 45% of tech layoffs in 2022 and 2023 despite only representing 26–28% of the technology workforce, according to WomenTech Network.
Additionally, data from 25 countries show that women may be less inclined to use generative AI compared to men, according to AI adoption strategist Mara Bolis’s analysis in Stanford Social Innovation Review. Two major exceptions were U.S.-focused studies by OpenAI and Deloitte. Further research on ChatGPT found that the software encourages biased outcomes against women in decision-making scenarios, making similar tools an area of potential discomfort for women.
And yet, AI is becoming increasingly mandatory — and using it might even make employees more likely to get promoted at work, according to Business Insider. Women, therefore, who do not use AI or use it sparingly risk putting their professional lives in jeopardy.
In light of these issues, could the trades pave a new route for women who feel pushed out by the corporate world’s AI overhaul? Some tradeswomen think so.
Despite historic underrepresentation in trade work, Maria Lozano, the office manager of Homestead Plumbing & Heating in Vineland, said resources for women to enter the field are growing. She added that options like digital mentorship and apprenticeships at reputable, locally-owned shops are frequent points of entry.
Nicole Urizzo, the executive director of the Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors Association’s New Jersey chapter, which offers an online apprenticeship, told ROI-NJ that the earn-while-you-learn format of apprenticeships make them accessible for those who cannot afford to focus solely on academic degree programs.
Amid the aforementioned labor shortage in the trades, recruiting women is not only socially beneficial to a business but also crucial for its survival, according to an analysis by Construction Coverage. For women, careers in fields like construction may even be more profitable than a career elsewhere, as women in construction enjoy a roughly $2,000 edge in yearly salaries.
“Opportunity has never been greater,” Urizzo said.
