Looking for a good mechanic? Odds are your garage is, too. It’s Seattle’s other labor shortage.

When Mike Zebley took a job supplying tools to auto repair shops in the Seattle area earlier this year, he quickly found that most of his customers needed less tools than people who knew how to use them.

Almost every store on Zebley’s route was so heavy on seasoned mechanics that many Zebley promised up to $ 1,000 for each it could recruit. However, despite the incentive, Zebley was unable to supply a single mechanic. “Everyone I go to needs technicians,” he says. “You’re pretty desperate.”

Pop into a garage, car dealership, or body shop in the Seattle area and you’re likely to hear a similar take on one of the area’s less visible and insightful labor shortages.

The demand for repairs and maintenance is recovering from the pandemic. But many workshops have so few staff that they have had to postpone their work or send customers elsewhere – although in some cases they offer high signature rewards and six-figure salaries for experienced candidates.

“I’d be hiring two people today,” said Charles Jung, manager at Fix Auto Collision in Seattle, where staff shortages mean about $ 40,000 in lost business every month.

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In Jakob Lorz’s recently opened garage on Rainier Avenue South, he now has enough stores to add a mechanic but can’t find one. “Everyone who has a job in this industry that I know is paid like Top, Top, Top Dollar,” he says.

The shortage is so great that some stores are trying to poach the talent of their rivals. “You will find someone who just pulls in from the street and wants to speak to one of your technicians,” warns Tim Eaton, former president of the regional subsidiary of the Automotive Service Association and owner of Hi-Line Auto Electric in Burien, which is cutting three jobs. although salaries of up to $ 100,000 are offered.

Seattle isn’t the only place that lacks mechanics, collision specialists, and other automotive technicians – the problem is national – but this is where it’s particularly acute. In July, according to a monthly estimate by the State Department of Occupational Safety and Health, job postings in the Seattle area for the broader category of automotive and mobile equipment mechanics, which includes truck and aircraft mechanics, were nearly double the jobless mechanics supply. That’s the biggest shortage in the state – and an ironic twist given the Seattle area’s reputation for a highly skilled workforce.

What is driving the shortage? Some garage owners, reflecting complaints in other industries, blame the $ 300-a-week pandemic state unemployment benefit, which was added to regular state unemployment benefits in response to the sluggish labor market rebound from COVID-19-related layoffs .

But while these extended benefits, which expired on September 4, may have contributed to the shortage, especially among young professionals, automotive specialists were rare long before COVID-19, industry experts say.

More specifically, the larger factors driving this shortage – including the infamous Seattle housing market – are not addressed simply by taking away a benefit.

“This is just a high point … of what has been going on in our industry for many years,” says Eaton.

Empty pipeline

A long-standing problem: In Seattle and across the country, fewer people want to work on cars.

Even before COVID-19, enrollment in vehicle technician programs at many adult education centers and vocational schools slipped. Many high schools no longer offer auto repair courses and fewer students seem interested in repairing cars.

One reason, experts say, is that auto repair often clashes with our evolving attitudes about what counts as a “good” job, especially in labor markets like Seattle, which are so dominated by well-paid “knowledge workers”.

Repairing cars is physically “tough on the body,” says Jerry Barkley, owner of Crown Hill Automotive in Seattle.

Increasingly, however, it is also a job that requires a high level of technical know-how and problem-solving skills, especially since cars are increasingly computerized. Nowadays, a mechanic is “someone who is able to analyze data and process that information,” says Amber Avery, a former mechanic who now teaches in the automotive program at Shoreline Community College. These demands, which explain why the industry prefers “car technicians” to “mechanics”, will only increase when electric drives replace internal combustion engines.

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The problem, say industry representatives, is that students with a talent for today’s automotive technology choose engineering or programming jobs that are high status and well paid versus auto repair, which is still widely viewed as a lower status job.

“There’s still a stigma that they were changing oil at a gas station in the 1950s when they actually are some of the smartest people I know,” says Paul Svenkerud, Service Director at Carter Volkswagen & Subaru. At least 20 technicians are missing at four locations in the Seattle area.

Despite the increasingly technical inclination of the profession – and the corresponding potential for high salaries – Svenkerud says: “I think many parents do not encourage their children to attend a motor vehicle trade school.”

It’s not just an urban problem. Between 2016 and 2019, enrollment in the automotive program at Big Bend Community College in Moses Lake decreased from 52 to 39, according to school officials.

A person’s professional status is not the only obstacle. A skilled auto mechanic or collision specialist can actually make more than $ 100,000 a year. But many young professionals will earn near the minimum wage, which even in Seattle is barely $ 40,000 a year.

As a challenge, many stores still expect entry-level technicians to have invested perhaps $ 5,000 to $ 10,000 in their own tools – and are willing to invest many thousands more as they progress.

When an automotive technician gets to the top level, “these guys essentially roll around with a hundred grand plus or minus their own tools and equipment,” says Hi-Line’s Eaton.

This is one of the reasons many aspiring techs are switching to trades with lower entry costs and faster payouts. “Under construction if you spend $ 5,000 [on tools] You can make $ 35 an hour, ”says Erick Hernandez, a mechanic at T-Auto Repair in Burien. As much as he loves working on cars, Hernandez admits: “This job is expensive.”

The Seattle Squeeze

Employers and educators are working to break down these cost barriers, including tool discounts for vocational students and tool grants in some shops.

Industry representatives and educators are also stepping up their recruiting efforts by focusing on a career with high job security and long-term financial incentives, among other things. “You pay your dues at the beginning and get the rewards at the end,” said Gary Fantozzi, an automotive veteran who leads the automotive program at Shoreline Community College.

But that logic is harder to sell in an ultra-expensive place like Seattle. With house prices skyrocketing, even a middle-tier technician “has to live in Marysville and then drive two hours to work,” said Mike Peters, owner of Fleury’s Body Shop in Seattle, who recently lost a mechanic to high housing costs .

So that’s the story of Zebley, the tool supplier who worked his way up as a mechanic but switched jobs so he and his young family could afford to stay in the area. “I needed money now instead of 10 years,” says Zebley.

Such concerns could help explain why, even before the 2019 pandemic, King County actually had 152 fewer automotive technicians, or nearly 7% fewer than in 2001, despite the fact that the population grew by 28% over that period.

Struggle for talent

Some industry representatives and educators believe that new recruiting initiatives could ultimately make the profession more attractive and attract more students. The minuscule number of female technicians – in 2020 Shoreline Community College had only three female students out of 100+ students, Avery says – is an obvious starting point.

But these initiatives will take years and in the near future the shortage of mechanics is expected to worsen as the profession, which now has a disproportionately large proportion of older workers, is more retiring.

This means further delays for customers. Svenkerud believes the shortage reduced his Subaru repair volume by 20% and resulted in customers having to wait two to three weeks.

It is also certain that the competition for talent will intensify. That likely means offers of even higher wages and other enticements (and higher prices for customers). It also means more vigorous attempts to poach employees from other businesses.

Andrew Beals, a technician at JE Wheels Tires & Automotive on 15th Avenue Northwest in Ballard, says he has been repeatedly approached by other garages with tempting offers. Last week, the 22-year-old took on a new job for $ 3 more an hour, health benefits, and the option of a performance bonus, as well as an easier commute to work. “It was too good to go without it,” says Beals, who assumes he’s already invested more than $ 40,000 in tools alone.

The tight labor market was a blessing for technicians who now have even more room to negotiate. As Svenkerud ironically puts it, when a qualified candidate actually replies to your job posting, “they are usually already employed … get a big raise to stay.”

But for many smaller garage owners who cannot offer the same wages as their larger counterparts, competing for talent is not always an option and they could limit their jobs.

But others don’t think they can turn customers down. “To be honest, it’s like throwing money away,” says Lorz, whose solution to the labor shortage is known to most small business owners.

“If I can’t find anyone, I could basically do it myself,” he says with a shrug. “It’s just longer hours, you know.”

This coverage is provided in part by Microsoft Philanthropies. The Seattle Times retains editorial control over this and all of its reporting.