Registered Apprenticeships in Michigan 2021 Report

Executive Summary

• In 2020, there were just over 19,100 active registered apprentices in Michigan. Nearly 82 percent of these active apprentices were in the traditional apprenticeship industries of Construction and Manufacturing.
• Representation of nontraditional apprenticeship industries has been increasing since 2017. Prior to 2017, there was only one year (2014) where there were more than 1,000 new registered apprentices. From 2017 to 2020, there has been an average of more than 1,500 new apprentices in nontraditional industries each year. Increases in industries like Retail trade and Health care and social assistance have played a significant role in the diversification of industries.
• A key push among those involved with Michigan registered apprenticeship is increasing the representation of several demographic groups. From 2008 to 2017, just 5.8 percent of new apprentices were women. From 2018 to 2020, this share has increased to 15.4 percent. Similarly, the share of new apprentices who are people of color has increased from 9.8 percent in 2008–2014 to 12.8 percent in 2015–2020.
• While Electricians and Construction laborers remained the top occupations among active apprentices, other occupations have also grown significantly in recent years. From 2008 to 2017, Nursing assistants averaged little to no new apprentices while Pharmacy technicians had fewer than 50 each year. From 2018 to 2020, these occupations both averaged just under 250 new apprentices annually.
• Among the 10 prosperity regions, the Detroit Metro region had the largest share (42.2 percent) of 2020 active apprentices. East Michigan (15.6 percent) and West Michigan (13.3 percent) followed, while West Michigan had the largest share of active programs (30.6 percent).
• Apprenticeship data were linked with administrative wage record data to analyze employment outcomes of 2019 apprenticeship completers one year after completing. The median hourly one-year-post-completion wage was $32.22. These completers also had an employment percentage of 95.9 percent.