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Electrician shortage in New Jersey: the licensed-supply numbers

What the New Jersey register actually shows, by tier and per capita, updated nightly.

As of 2026-08-09, New Jersey carries 16,696 licensed electricians on its state register, or 179.7 per 100,000 residents.

16,696
licensed electricians
179.7
per 100k residents
#27
density rank of 41
0.05
apprentice : journeyman

The apprentice-to-journeyman pipeline behind them runs at 0.05 in New Jersey, against 0.492 nationally, a read on whether the electricians supply is being replenished.

By credential tier

Every electrician license on the New Jersey register, normalized to one ladder.

TierLicensedShare
Apprentice1721%
Journeyman3,13119%
Contractor / business13,39380%

Against comparable states

States nearest New Jersey on licensed electricians per capita.

StateLicensed electriciansPer 100k
New Jersey16,696179.7
Arkansas8,710283.9
California83,027213.1
Virginia17,835204.6
Maryland8,290134.1
Alabama6,052118.5
Iowa3,328103.8
Counts, not a capacity opinion. We publish the licensed supply and the pipeline ratio; whether a market can absorb a given project is a judgement for the reader, not a claim we make.

Frequently asked

Is there an electricians shortage in New Jersey?
Reporting on the shortage rarely states how many are actually licensed. New Jersey carries 16,696 licensed electricians on its register as of 2026-08-09, or 179.7 per 100,000 residents. Readers can weigh that supply against demand directly.
How many licensed electricians does New Jersey have?
16,696 on the state register as of 2026-08-09.
Where does the shortage narrative come from?
Industry analyses project national shortfalls of hundreds of thousands of skilled-trades workers against data-center and electrification demand. Those are demand-side estimates; the figure here is the licensed supply on the register today.

Related

Count
How many electricians in New Jersey
Market
New Jersey licensed trades supply
Corridor
Electricians and the data-center buildout
Track New Jersey licensed supply as it moves.

New licenses, ladder upgrades, classification changes and lapses, by market and credential tier. Read the quarterly free, or license the underlying data.

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