Throughline

Skilled trades

Electrician in the United States

100 postings read · sampled 2026-09-01 · source ats

What employers actually ask for

Credentials named in the 100 postings we read, ranked by how many mentioned each one.

What it costs

Exam and application fees plus typical self-study hours. Almost nobody needs every credential on this list — start with the top line.

Most-asked-for, on its own
$150Journeyman Electrician Licence · ~8000 hrs
asked for in 23 of 100 postings — 23%
If you earned all 1 of them
$150
fees checked 2026-08
8000 hrs
8000 hours — over a year at 10 hrs/wk

Not in the total: Secret Security Clearance — sponsored by an employer, not purchasable.

Lower signal for this role

Credentials that barely appeared in this sample. That is not a claim they are worthless — plenty are valuable for a different job, a different city, or a promotion later. It is a claim that employers here mostly did not ask.

What the official taxonomy says

O*NET surveys people already doing this job. That describes who got hired over a long window, not what employers are asking for now — where it disagrees with the counts above, the counts are the more current answer.

Education reported by people doing this job
62%reported post-secondary certificate
  • Post-secondary certificate62%
  • High school diploma or equivalent31%
  • Less than high school diploma2%

Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed. Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.

O*NET 47-2111.00 · pulled 2026-09-01 · percentages are of surveyed workers, each rounded separately, so they need not total 100

What it pays

BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. A different survey from the postings above, so the two do not share a sample.

$42,640
10th percentile
$63,190
median
$108,510
90th percentile

Every credential above costs $150 — less than a day's pay at the median.

Who was hiring

Employers with at least one matching posting in this sample.

Anduril Industries · Latitude Inc · Sila Services · McWane Inc · Walmart · SpaceX · Redwood Materials · Cogent Talent Solutions · Atlas Energy Solutions · 360 IT Professionals · J&J Snack Foods · Kodiak Robotics · Lucid Motors · Qualdoc · Relativity Space · Rocket Lab · Westgate Resorts · 1X · Able Services (ABM) · APR Consulting Inc · Boyd Gaming · Budderfly · City of New York · Etched · George P. Johnson (GPJ) · Hut 8 · Ingram Barge Company · Innophos · MAT Holdings · Pearce Services · Renuity · Saronic · The Florida Panthers · The Mural Group · Ursa Major Technologies

Next

  • Roast and Resolve — Now aim your résumé at this target. Free roast, paid rewrite.
  • Synap — Two-minute daily lessons to drill the skills underneath the credential.