can’t hire – Otis CEO Judy Marks says the elevator industry is struggling to bring on enough mechanics as demand stays high. Otis employs about 45,000 mechanics—up roughly 12.5% since the company’s April 2020 spin-off—and Marks points to long training pathways and a craft-
When the job market is roiled by layoffs. Judy Marks says there is one trade where the problem isn’t finding work—it’s finding enough people to do it.. As CEO of elevator company Otis. Marks oversees a workforce of roughly 72. 000 employees. including about 45. 000 mechanics. and she says the company can’t hire them fast enough.
“The demand is high,” Marks said.
Otis’s staffing shift highlights how tight the labor market has become. After Otis spun off from its parent company in April 2020, the company employed about 40,000 mechanics. Today, Otis says that number has risen by about 12.5% to 45,000.
The growth outlook helps explain why Otis is struggling to keep up.. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projected that elevator and escalator installers and repairers will grow by 5% between 2024 and 2034—2% above the average for all occupations.. Beyond installation, mechanics maintain and repair equipment, adding to the demand for skilled technicians.
Marks also tied hiring challenges to conditions in specific markets. In Japan, she said a declining population combined with a boom in refurbishment and construction has made hiring a challenge.
For workers considering the trade, Marks argued that job security is stronger than in other technical roles.. She said elevator mechanics don’t have to worry about losing their jobs to automation in the immediate future.. In most countries, the industry is regulated, and she said humans are essential to the job.. She also pointed to the years of training and the physical labor required. saying the work hasn’t been easily replaced by robots so far.
“This is truly a craft skill,” Marks said.
The promise of staying power runs alongside the pay. Marks said elevator mechanics tend to remain in the profession for decades. She said Otis has roughly as many mechanics with zero to five years of experience as it does workers who have been with the company for more than 30 years.
“We don’t have this kind of ‘silver cliff’ that’s coming,” Marks said, referring to how some older workers struggle in other trades.
Marks said many workers inherit the career too. “Most of them stay in the trade the rest of their life, and a lot of them, their fathers or mothers or grandfathers were in it.”
Otis mechanics in the US are represented through a multi-employer union, Marks said.. She described an apprenticeship path that starts at 18. with workers serving as helpers for Otis during the day while attending elevator service school at night.. After completing a four-year apprenticeship and passing a mechanic’s exam, workers achieve journeyman status.
Pay data reinforces the stakes around attracting workers.. The Bureau of Labor Statistics released data on Friday showing that elevator and escalator installers and repairers earned the highest average salary among construction and extraction occupations in May 2025. at $109. 820.. The 90th percentile reached $158,890.. That compares with the category’s average wage of $65,360 and the overall US average wage of $69,770, according to the report.
Other high-paying trades in the category included first-line supervisors of construction trades and extraction workers, who earned an average of $86,450, and terrazzo workers and finishers, who made $84,920.
Marks added that Otis offers support for further education. She said elevator mechanic roles at Otis include eligibility for paid college tuition. “When they come out and come work for us, I’ll pay if they want to go to college,” Marks said.
The pattern in the numbers is hard to miss: Otis has increased its mechanic headcount from about 40. 000 after the April 2020 spin-off to about 45. 000 today—about a 12.5% rise—while the broader labor outlook projects 5% growth for elevator and escalator installers and repairers from 2024 to 2034. even as Marks says the company still can’t hire mechanics fast enough.
For now, Marks’s message lands on a simple bottleneck—demand is strong, but filling the craft pipeline is proving difficult. In the meantime, Otis is leaning on long-term training and a work model that depends on people, not machines, as it tries to keep pace with the jobs it says are multiplying.
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