Introduction
2026 has been, without a doubt, an incredibly pivotal year for the automotive, collision, and truck service technician, setting up great momentum as we enter 2027. Spear heading such momentum is the historic $25 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to the Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) Education Foundation. This grant, which is the largest workforce grant the U.S. Department of Labor has ever awarded to the transportation service industry, aims to expand technician apprenticeships. The goal is clear: Add 6,000 new technicians in just 4 years.
The technician shortage has been a buzz topic for some years. The TechForce Foundation cites in its annual report titled “Supply, Demand & Opportunity” a 58% technician shortfall in supply vs demand across 10 sectors ranging from automotive to HVAC, and even to medical equipment. Dialing into transportation sectors specifically, the report shows a 29% technician shortfall for automotive, 57% for collision, and 52% for diesel.
What's clear is we have a problem. We don’t have enough technicians. What's not so clear is why this problem exists. While many organizations across the automotive industry discuss potentialities and hopeful solutions, the industry received the answers directly from the technicians themselves via the 2026 Voice of Technician Report from ASE Connects (Formerly WrenchWay) and ASE.
Insights from the 2026 Voice of Technician Report
The report surveyed more than 5,500 transportation industry professionals with job roles ranging from technicians, to instructors, and even students, service advisors, managers, and owners. While the study provides pages of detailed data regarding technicians, there are a few massive data points to call out.
When asked, “On a scale of 1-10, how likely are you to recommend the technician profession to a friend?” 70% of the sample responded as a detractor, meaning they would not recommend the technician profession to a friend. What's more telling is the three year trend observed based on this question. In 2024, only 45% of the sample were detractors and in 2025, that climbed to 64%. This marks a three year decline in sentiment toward the technician profession.
The next pivotal data point from the ASE Connects report is regarding industry issues. When asked to rank a list of industry issues based on urgency, we can observe a very clear picture of where technicians feel they are struggling the most. Dialing in on the automotive technicians’ responses specifically, 77% reported higher pay as the most urgent industry issue. The second most popular option is better pay structure, where 61% reported this as the most urgent industry issue. And in third place, 13% reported better management as most urgent. This sets a crystal clear precedent: automotive technicians are overwhelmingly unsatisfied with their level of pay and/or the way they are paid.
Continuing with that clear call out from automotive techs, the third data point to examine provides us with details regarding how technicians want to be paid. The study asked the sample to indicate their preferred pay structure from several common compensation models. Pulling from the automotive technicians only, 17% reported their desire to be compensated on an hourly or salary basis. 16% desire a traditional flat rate. 43% selected hourly or salary with a production bonus. And 24% chose a flat rate with a guarantee.
Putting it all Together: the 2026 Voice of Technician Report
Knowing we are short on automotive technicians, and now knowing what those technicians need to be satisfied with their work, we can begin to leverage solutions as we head into 2027. Notably, we observed a three year decline in sentiment toward the technician profession as 70% of the sample were identified as detractors from promoting the trade. We also understand that for auto techs, higher pay and better pay structure are overwhelmingly their most urgent industry issues. And finally, we note that less than 20% of auto technicians desire to be compensated on a traditional flat rate or on an hourly or salary basis, while 43% selected hourly or salary with a production bonus, and 24% chose a flat rate with a guarantee.
What's interesting is while traditional flat rate is clearly not popular for auto technicians, many are still paid on this model. We understand that pay issues are clearly top of mind for these professionals as their numbers dwindle year after year. Perhaps it is fair to hypothesize that should automotive leaders lean into what techs are asking for, which is essentially more stability in their paychecks, we may see these negative trends begin to turn around. It is notable that automotive technicians chose the only two pay structures that add a layer of stability to their income (hourly or salary with a production bonus and flat rate with a guarantee).
Stability to the individual brings stability to the group. It is reasonable to assess that by altering technician pay plans to those that provide stability, tensions across the automotive service trade will begin to decline. As this happens, we may see more technicians promote the trade again, and the aforementioned selected top industry issues will begin to dissipate, allowing us to focus on other issues such as stronger leadership and dedicated apprenticeships.
Taking Action
This may be critical as we enter 2027, the historic $25 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to the ASE Education Foundation is setting out to add 6,000 technicians to the transportation trades. Any automotive shop that hires and enrolls an apprentice into this program will be eligible to earn $3,500 per every apprentice that reaches a certain point in the apprenticeship along with specific standards being met. This program is free to any shop via NADA’s “Apprenticeship in a Box” which details precisely how to set up a successful apprenticeship.
Any shop that leans into this incredible offer has nothing to lose, as they can earn money and hire more technicians via dedicated apprenticeship programs simultaneously. Rooted in the center of this initiative from the ASE Education Foundation, is proper mentorship and training for the next generation of technicians. It’s no secret that the automotive industry has always struggled to keep pace with proper training for all its team members as the industry moves and changes at an unbelievable pace.
RockED Thankfully there are now many options for dealerships and shops to lean into for coaching and training solutions. RockED remains available for any automotive organization that wishes to leverage its app-based micro-learning solution which has already helped thousands of professionals increase their ability to perform. RockED already offers short-form coaching programs for automotive technicians that you won’t find anywhere else. The platform offers technicians resources to sharpen their soft-skills, such as time management, change management, professionalism, proper documentation, communication, and many more of the skills techs must use, but are rarely ever trained in. In addition to RockED’s offer to automotive organizations, any accredited automotive school in the U.S. can access a portion of RockED’s technician content for free thanks to its partnership with ASE Connects (Formerly WrenchWay).
Conclusion
The stats for the automotive industry’s technicians has never been dimmer, but in juxtaposition, the outlook and momentum for true change and improvement in the near future has never been brighter. Now is the time for leaders to get engaged and seek out these great resources to secure their place as the automotive industry sets course to turn around the infamous technician shortage.
Resources/Citations
ASE receives DoL grant to boost apprenticeships in US - ASE Education Foundation
2. TechForce: 2026 Supply, Demand & Opportunity Report
Supply, Demand & Opportunity: 2026 Technician Workforce Report
3. ASE Connects (Formerly WrenchWay): 2026 Voice of Technician Report
https://aseconnects.com/resources/2026-voice-of-technician-survey-report/
4. ASE Education Foundation: Pay-for-Performance Incentive Payments ProgramPay-for-Performance Incentive Payments Program - ASE Education Foundation
5. RockED