A major new investment from Stanley Black & Decker sends a powerful message: America’s future depends on the skilled professionals who build, manufacture, repair, maintain, and strengthen our communities.
On August 12, 2026, Stanley Black & Decker announced plans to invest $1 billion in the United States through 2028. The investment is intended to advance innovation, develop next-generation tools, strengthen American manufacturing, and help expand the skilled-trades workforce needed to build our nation’s infrastructure.
Approximately half of the investment will support research and development for new tools and technology. The other half will support capital improvements, American manufacturing operations, and new product development.
Stanley Black & Decker also committed $60 million through its DEWALT Grow the Trades initiative through 2030. According to the company, $27 million has already been deployed to support training programs and create new pathways into skilled-trades careers.
This is more than a corporate investment. It is recognition that skilled workers are essential to America’s economic strength, infrastructure, public safety, energy systems, manufacturing capacity, and quality of life.
Stanley Black & Decker reports that the construction industry could need nearly half a million additional workers by 2027.
The broader federal outlook reinforces the importance of developing this workforce. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects approximately 587,000 construction and extraction occupation openings each year from 2025 through 2035. Those openings will be created through industry growth and the need to replace experienced workers leaving the workforce.
Behind every one of those numbers is an opportunity for someone to build a meaningful career.
America needs:
These are not fallback occupations. They are essential, technology-driven professions that require knowledge, precision, responsibility, continuous training, and pride in one’s work.
Investing in tools, technology, and manufacturing is important—but those investments reach their full potential only when we also invest in people.
Union apprenticeship and training programs offer one of our country’s strongest workforce-development models. Apprentices receive paid, supervised on-the-job training while completing technical classroom instruction and learning from experienced journey-level professionals.
Through this pathway, apprentices can:
The federal Registered Apprenticeship system reports a $86,000 average starting salary after program completion, 93% employment retention and an estimated lifetime earnings advantage of more than $300,000 compared with peers who do not complete an apprenticeship.
This is what makes apprenticeship so powerful: it connects education directly to employment, income, experience, mentorship, and long-term economic mobility.
The future of the skilled trades will include advanced tools, automation, robotics, artificial intelligence, digital modeling, prefabrication, energy technology, and data-driven safety systems.
But technology does not eliminate the need for skilled tradespeople. It makes high-quality training even more important.
The next generation must understand traditional craft knowledge while also learning how to work with modern equipment and emerging technology. Investments in research and development can help tradespeople work more safely, accurately, efficiently, and productively—but experienced workers and strong training programs remain at the center of that progress.
The best workforce strategy brings innovation and apprenticeship together.
The skilled workforce shortage cannot be solved by reaching the same audiences in the same ways. We must introduce more students, veterans, women, career changers, and people from historically underserved communities to the opportunities available in unionized skilled trades and public-sector professions.
That requires collaboration among:
Stanley Black & Decker reports that its Grow the Trades program supported more than 350 organizations with cash or products in 2025, provided 4,250 toolkits to graduates at 68 schools across 23 states, and continued investing in skilled-trades scholarships.
The ULA Network has witnessed the impact of these efforts firsthand. During our coverage at the DEWALT Innovation Center, we met tradeswomen and union leaders who are using apprenticeship, mentorship, and community outreach to open doors for others.
Their stories include Savy Francis of UA Local 537, whose journey from apprentice to union leader demonstrates how a skilled-trades career can create stability, homeownership, leadership, and an opportunity to lift others along the way.
These personal stories put a face on workforce-development statistics. They show what becomes possible when people receive awareness, access, training, mentorship, and a real opportunity.
Every bridge, hospital, school, transit system, energy project, manufacturing facility, water system, and community development project depends on skilled professionals.
But the impact goes even further.
A quality skilled-trades career can help someone support a family, purchase a home, build retirement security, mentor the next generation, and become a leader within their union and community.
That is why we must continue changing outdated perceptions about vocational education. College can be a valuable pathway, but it is not the only pathway to success. Students and families deserve to understand all their options—including union apprenticeship programs that combine education, paid experience, mentorship, and career advancement.
As we discussed in Why Union Apprenticeships and Vocational Careers Are Gaining Momentum, these careers are hands-on, skill-based, purpose-driven, and essential to our country’s future.
Stanley Black & Decker’s investment is an encouraging example of what it looks like to connect American manufacturing, workforce training, technology, and infrastructure.
Now we must build upon that momentum.
We encourage manufacturers, contractors, unions, educators, workforce organizations, elected officials, and community leaders to work together to:
At the ULA Network and ULA Network Charitable Foundation, our mission is to support, educate, and promote union labor and our communities.
Through career awareness, educational content, apprenticeship resources, industry partnerships, community programs, and the stories of the people doing the work, we will continue helping more individuals move from:
Awareness → Access → Opportunity → Outcomes
The demand is here. The careers are real. The training programs are ready.
Together, we can prepare the next generation—not simply to find work, but to develop skills, build careers, strengthen families, and help build the future of America.
Support • Educate • Promote
Learn more about union apprenticeships, skilled-trades careers, workforce programs, and community initiatives at ULAnetwork.com.
Stanley Black & Decker, “Investing $1 Billion in the U.S. to Drive Innovation, Strengthen U.S. Manufacturing Footprint and Expand the Skilled Trades Workforce Essential to Building America’s Infrastructure,” August 12, 2026; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Construction and Extraction Occupations; U.S. Department of Labor, Apprenticeship.gov. Company investment figures and program descriptions are based on Stanley Black & Decker’s public announcement.
This article is intended for educational and informational purposes. ULA Network supports collaboration among labor organizations that strengthen workforce development, apprenticeship opportunities, worker safety, and the long-term success of union members and the communities they serve.
The Union Labor Advisory Network (ULAnetwork) is a mission-driven media and workforce development platform dedicated to supporting, educating, and promoting union labor and the communities it serves. Through strategic storytelling, charitable initiatives, apprenticeship awareness, veterans programming, and cross-sector partnerships, ULAnetwork advances high-road economic development models rooted in strong union careers. http://www.ulanetwork.com Subscribe to the ULA Network for more interviews, insights, and inspiration about union labor, skilled trades, and the opportunities waiting for you in the construction industry!
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