The equity data.
Nobody published it.
We did.
Women complete electrician apprenticeships at 7.8 points lower than men. Veterans — despite the discipline — complete at lower rates than non-veterans. Justice-involved carpenters outperform the general carpenter population. This is the data apprenticeship programs don't compute. We ran it from 5.3 million raw federal records.
Source: DOL RAPIDS FY26 Q1 Public Use File · DOL RAPIDS FY26 Q1 Public Use File (5,380,451 records) · Rates exclude currently active apprentices. Min. 50 resolved per cell.
Sex: the gap is real across every trade
Completion rate = completed ÷ (completed + cancelled). Active apprentices excluded.
Across every major construction trade, women complete at lower rates than men. The gap isn't an artifact of small samples — the female electrician cohort is 24,411 people. This reflects program culture, mentorship access, and retention — not aptitude.
| Trade | Male rate | Male n | Female rate | Female n | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electrician | 44.1% | 631,447 | 36.3% | 24,411 | −7.8% |
| Carpenter | 36.5% | 330,992 | 25.0% | 14,083 | −11.5% |
| Plumber | 43.9% | 173,955 | 31.6% | 3,714 | −12.3% |
| Pipefitter/Steamfitter | 50.8% | 129,348 | 41.8% | 4,118 | −9.0% |
| Sheet Metal Worker | 50.0% | 90,253 | 37.7% | 2,706 | −12.3% |
What this means for programs:The gap isn't random. Women who complete electrician apprenticeships do so in an industry built by and for men. The 7.8-point gap points to where programs fail at retention — not admission. Mentorship pairing, job-site culture, and journeyperson attitude toward female apprentices are the levers. The data exists. The will to act on it is another question.
Veterans: the counterintuitive finding
Veteran vs. non-veteran completion rates · DOL RAPIDS FY26 Q1
Every hiring manager says "hire veterans — they have discipline." The data says veterans complete at lowerrates than non-veterans across most trades. This isn't an attack on veterans. It's a signal that transition stress, VA navigation, and recently separated status are real barriers that programs aren't built to address.
The recently separated cohort is where the stress of transition shows most clearly. A 29.6% completion rate is 14.9 points below non-veterans in the same trade.
| Trade | Non-veteran | Veteran | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Electrician | 44.5%n=538,583 | 39.7%n=61,004 | -4.8% |
| Carpenter | 35.8%n=308,265 | 32.0%n=24,764 | -3.8% |
| Plumber | 43.0%n=155,270 | 41.4%n=13,410 | -1.6% |
| Pipefitter/Steamfitter | 51.1%n=116,195 | 44.7%n=12,873 | -6.4% |
| Ironworker | 39.9%n=93,601 | 36.7%n=8,714 | -3.2% |
This is not an indictment of veterans.Military service builds real skills. But apprenticeship programs aren't built for the transition period: VA benefit navigation, housing instability after separation, PTSD and mental health challenges that don't pause for a 5-year apprenticeship. The disabled veteran electrician number — 22.7% — is the most telling. These are people trying to rebuild civilian careers against real headwinds. Programs that add veteran-specific wraparound support aren't charity. They're data-driven.
Education: the 18-point GED gap
Completion rate by education level · Electrician · DOL RAPIDS FY26 Q1
HS diploma holders complete electrician apprenticeships at 47.0%. GED holders complete at 29.0%. That's an 18-point gap. This doesn't mean GED holders shouldn't apply — it means year 1 is where they need extra support, and programs that provide it will close the gap. Associate degree holders hit 50.4%.
What JATCs should do with this: If you accept GED holders — and you should — build a year-1 bridge. The first 12 months are where most cancellations happen. A GED holder who clears year 1 with strong academic support likely completes at a rate comparable to HS diploma holders. The 18-point gap is a program design problem masquerading as a credential problem.
Second Chance: the strongest argument ever made from public data
Justice-involved apprentices (INMATE_IND=1 at registration) vs. general population · DOL RAPIDS FY26 Q1
Carpenters who were incarcerated at program registration complete at 6.2 percentage points higher than the general carpenter population. This is one of the most striking findings in the dataset.
If you're a policy advocate, a Second Chance employer, a JATC director considering justice-involved applicants — this data is on your side. The people who most need a second chance, in carpenters at least, are completing at higher rates than the general population. This is a fact. From 5.3 million federal records.
| Trade | General | Justice-involved | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carpenter | 34.7%n=293,427 | 40.9%n=10,772 | +6.2% |
| Electrician | 43.8%n=545,279 | 33.2%n=5,891 | -10.6% |
| Plumber | 44.3%n=140,170 | 28.9%n=3,833 | -15.4% |
| Painter | 31.7%n=49,007 | 30.0%n=1,208 | -1.7% |
| Operating Engineer | 53.2%n=44,133 | 45.4%n=302 | -7.8% |
Pre-apprenticeship: 6.3 points of premium
OJT credit at registration vs. no credit · all trades combined · DOL RAPIDS FY26 Q1
Apprentices who entered their program with pre-existing OJT credit — meaning they'd already logged field hours, typically through a pre-apprenticeship program — complete at 45.7% versus 39.4% for those entering without credit. That's a 6.3-point premium. Across 523,962 apprentices in the credit group, that's tens of thousands of additional completions that exist because of pre-apprenticeship investment.
What this validates: Pre-apprenticeship programs — YouthBuild, Building Futures, JATC pre-apprenticeship pipelines, union-run intro programs — work. The 6.3-point premium shows up in the federal data at massive scale. Defunding pre-apprenticeship programs to cut costs is a false economy. Every completion that doesn't happen costs the program more than the pre-apprenticeship investment would have.
Race and ethnicity: structural data, not individual data
Electrician completion rate by race/ethnicity · DOL RAPIDS FY26 Q1 · Race self-reported at registration
Read this before reading the table. Racial disparities in completion rates reflect structural factors: access to pre-apprenticeship programs, geographic distribution of high-completing union JATCs, program culture, mentorship availability, and compounding socioeconomic barriers. They do not reflect individual capacity or aptitude. The data below is structural data — it tells you something about programs, not people.
Methodology note: Racial coding in RAPIDS is self-reported at registration and is known to have inconsistencies. Hispanic/Latino is a separate ethnicity field, not mutually exclusive with race. Small sample sizes for some groups should be interpreted cautiously. Black/African American electrician samples derive from a separate subset of programs and may not be nationally representative.
Why the gaps exist:Programs concentrated in high-completion states (IL, PA, MN) have demographics that skew differently than low-completion states (TX, FL, CO). Barriers to pre-apprenticeship programs — transportation, childcare, English-language support — fall disproportionately on candidates of color. Mentorship culture in trades that are 88% white male creates retention challenges that aren't random. The programs that are closing these gaps are ones that acknowledge they exist and build for them.
What to do with this data
Year 1 is where GED holders drop. Build a bridge: academic tutoring, cohort-based mentorship, check-ins at 60 and 120 days. The 18-point gap is closeable with program design.
The female retention gap is a culture signal. It's not that women can't do the work — they're completing at 36%. What's happening on the job sites they're leaving?
Pre-apprenticeship is worth the investment. 6.3 percentage points across 523K people is massive ROI. Every pre-apprenticeship slot that gets defunded is a completion that doesn't happen.
Veteran-specific support isn't charity. The disabled veteran electrician rate of 22.7% is a program failure, not a veteran failure. VA liaison programs and transition counseling work.
If you have a GED: Apply. But know that year 1 math is where people wash out. Get ahead of it. Khan Academy, community college remediation, or your JATC's pre-class materials. Do not wait for the program to catch you up — they may not.
If you're a veteran: The data says you face real headwinds in transition. That's not your fault — programs aren't built for the specific challenges of recently separated service members. Look for JATCs with veteran liaison programs or VOW to Hire Heroes partnerships.
If you're a woman: You're entering a trade that is 92%+ male. The data gap is real. Connect with Tradeswomen Inc., NAWIC, or your local IBEW women's committee before day one. Having a network is not optional.
Pre-apprenticeship matters: If you can get OJT credit before entering — through a pre-apprenticeship, a summer program, or a helper role — do it. The data says it's worth 6.3 points.
The Second Chance data is weaponizable. Justice-involved carpenters completing at 40.9% vs. 34.7% general population is a fact from 10,772 federal apprentice records. Use it in every DOL, SBA, and state workforce board hearing you attend.
The race gap data needs context to be useful. Don't cite the numbers without the structural explanation. The gaps reflect program geography and culture — they're addressable. Programs in high-completion union states have better equity outcomes, period.
Pre-apprenticeship funding fights are data fights now. DOL RAPIDS shows a 6.3-point completion premium for people entering with OJT credit. Across 523K apprentices, that translates to tens of thousands of completions. Calculate the lifetime earnings impact. That's your ROI argument.
The disabled veteran gap demands attention. A 22.7% completion rate for disabled veteran electricians vs. 44.5% for non-veterans in the same trade is a 21.8-point gap. That's a policy failure documented in federal records.
Sources and methodology
Primary data source: DOL RAPIDS FY26 Q1 Public Use File (5,380,451 records). The RAPIDS system is the federal registration database for apprenticeship programs. Records span 2010–2023 start-year cohorts. Completion rate is computed as completed ÷ (completed + cancelled); active apprentices (status = still enrolled) are excluded from all denominators.
Minimum cell size: All rates shown require at least 50 resolved outcomes (completed or cancelled) in the cell. Cells below this threshold are excluded. Some subgroup × trade combinations lack sufficient data and are not shown.
Justice-involved: INMATE_IND=1 in the RAPIDS record indicates the apprentice was incarcerated at the time of registration. Not all programs report this field; the justice-involved population is likely undercounted.
Race and ethnicity: Race is self-reported at registration in RAPIDS. Hispanic/Latino ethnicity is a separate field, not mutually exclusive with race. Some states use state-level registration systems (NY, WA) and underreport to RAPIDS — their data may not be representative of program outcomes in those states.
OJT credit:CREDIT_HRS_GIVEN > 0 at registration indicates pre-existing credit. This typically reflects prior field experience or completion of a recognized pre-apprenticeship program.
DOL does not publish equity breakdowns of this type in the RAPIDS system. PlumbSquare computed all rates from the raw public use files. The DOL publishes aggregate completion data at apprenticeship.gov. This dataset represents PlumbSquare's original analysis and may contain classification or computation errors — if you find one, contact us.