Over the last two years, we have been dealing with the COVID pandemic globally. There is another pandemic, while not deadly, is very costly to homeowners. That would be the national shortage of appliance repair technicians. The COVID pandemic has actually made this even more apparent, as home appliances are being used more than ever with so many people staying home to work remotely. This has led to more breakdowns of common appliances, but there is nobody to fix them.
The Pandemic from the Pandemic
There is another issue that was created by the COVID pandemic… supply chain shortages. Raise your hand if you had a damaged or broken appliance that you traded in for a new one or just threw out because you figured it was time to get a new one. We have become a disposable society, but the COVID pandemic changed that dramatically.
The number of new appliances available was dramatically reduced due to supply chain issues. This meant that people had to repair their appliances (gasp). Only, when they called around to get something repaired, they found out they often had to wait weeks because of the backlog.
For example, Carl McCarthy took his family to his Catskills home to ride out the pandemic. His appliances had never had prolonged daily use, and it took its toll rather quickly. His Kenmore dishwasher broke down and he was told it would be a month before someone could get out there to fix it. McCarthy stated, “We had to do dishes by hand, and it proved to be too much for the family to handle. One day I bought a huge plastic trash can and tons of paper plates, disposable plastic cups and cutlery and hid all the real dishes and cutlery.â€
Corrine C. Caruso, president of the United Appliance Servicers Association, commented on why repairmen are so hard to find these days. She stated, “There aren’t enough appliance service technicians because there are very few formal training schools available. The majority have learned on the job. Generally, if you’ve trained a technician from the ground up, a business owner has made quite an investment into this technician, so will pay well to keep the technician, and will offer good benefits so that it is a career, not just a job.â€
Thankfully, if you live in Texas, you have an appliance repair academy right in your backyard. We have also been posting job openings every week just to show you how dire the need is for appliance repairmen today. If you would like to learn more about our appliance repair technician training, click here. You can also give us a call at 888-296-2383.
Source: Washington Post
