Business Roundtable forum spotlights skilled trades pipelines, Home Depot stakes

A forum in Matthews, North Carolina, put a hard number on a problem Home Depot associates feel every day on the sales floor: the skilled-trades pipeline is not keeping pace with demand, and that strains everything from contractor sales to installation work. Business Roundtable’s Skilled Trades for America Forum brought CEOs, policymakers, training providers and workforce partners to Central Piedmont Community College’s Levine Campus III in Charlotte on May 26 to focus on how employers and community institutions can strengthen that pipeline.

Business Roundtable launched its Skilled Trades for America Initiative in 2025 in response to labor shortages that it says are affecting the strength and competitiveness of the American industrial base. For Home Depot, that issue reaches well beyond the orange apron. The company says knowledgeable associates and on-shelf availability are critical to the store experience, and its annual report describes a business that serves do-it-yourself, do-it-for-me and professional customers. In practical terms, that means a customer walking in with a plumbing repair, an electrical job, an HVAC replacement or a flooring project needs an associate who can translate the work into the right materials, quantities, delivery options and timing.

That is why Home Depot’s own workforce and community investments matter as much as product assortment. The Home Depot Foundation said in August 2025 that it was putting $10 million into skilled trades training and education, including a new $1 million partnership with Boys & Girls Clubs of America. The company said there were about 400,000 job openings in skilled construction trades and that only a small fraction of young workers entering the labor market are interested in those careers. Home Depot’s Path to Pro effort, launched in 2021, was built to address that gap by educating more people about the trades and connecting them with jobs. The program grew out of a $50 million trades-training commitment announced in 2018.

The stakes are especially visible for store leaders heading into seasonal project rushes, when pro customers and homeowners alike lean on store teams for speed and accuracy. Home Depot’s 2025 annual report says it is enhancing training and product knowledge, simplifying tasks, optimizing processes and using technology to improve the customer experience. The broader message from the Matthews forum was that those goals depend on a healthier labor market for the trades themselves. Business Roundtable says its initiatives involve more than 150 companies, and Home Depot’s March 2026 foundation announcement warned of a massive retirement cliff in the skilled trades over the next decade. For Home Depot, that makes workforce development part of the core business, not a side project.