Mission Local25%
One of the most sought after jobs in the city of AI? A hands-on elevator technician. 48%
By Hamza Fahmy68%
7/16/2026, 11:30:00 AM
Keywords: Labor
BS Summary: This article contains 29 faulty reasoning types, including Availability Heuristic, Post Hoc (False Cause), and Appeal to Authority, with Anecdotal as the most egregious example at 14.4% saturation with 144 hits. Analysis detected 1,226 faulty-reasoning hits from 999 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 49.4% and a BS Rank of 48% (10,982 of 21,124 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 52.00% of the article peer group.
San Francisco’s old buildings give the city a lot of its charm.
But with age, things break.
And with older buildings, the infrastructure that breaks down most frequently is often the elevator — so much so that one of the most in-demand workers here is the certified elevator electrician.
It’s a trade that, nationally, pays more than six figures and, locally, pays $130,000 a year on average.
Along with construction managers, elevator technicians are among the best-paid trade workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
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And San Francisco is the most lucrative market in the country, said Greg Hardeman, business secretary of IUEC Local 8, San Francisco’s elevator technician union.
Hardeman calls San Francisco’s old-world charm its Achilles heel.
The technology the city used 100 years ago in its elevators is now antiquated.
Replacement parts are in short supply.
So are elevator technicians with expertise in the old mechanisms.
Few technicians means higher demand, and higher salaries.
“We're almost like the SEAL Team 6 of the trades because we do everything, everywhere.
If it moves people, we deal with it,” said Mike Moore, an elevator technician instructor for over 35 years.
Elevator technicians pull wires, align rails, and weld brackets, a skill typically associated with ironworkers.
They also install door jambs and hang doors on tracks, work that falls under the carpenter trade.
San Francisco and New York generate a lot of elevator work due to the sheer number and age of their buildings.
That means both cities have the most competitive and sought-after elevator apprenticeship programs in the country.
“In San Francisco, elevators have been around forever.
We've been putting elevators in probably longer than 130 years,” Hardeman said.
The demand for seasoned technicians is at an all-time high, said Hardeman.
He noticed a recent uptick in enrollment in the city’s apprenticeship program, especially in April, the latest application period.
“We took 750 applications and filled them up pretty quickly — in under a minute,” he said.
Qualifying as an elevator technician in San Francisco isn’t quite as competitive as becoming a power forward for the Warriors, but competition is keen.
Shaun Sweeney, 32, a recent enrollee in the apprenticeship program, said he had applied during every application cycle for the past 12 years before finally being accepted into Local 8, one of the 350 technicians accepted into the apprenticeship program for the union’s northern California chapter.
“I've only met a couple people who've had the long process that I did, but I think the perseverance over those 12 years was what really set me apart,” he said.
Sweeney said school was never for him.
His mother died after he graduated from high school and he inherited her home.
The change prompted him to quit his job as a lifeguard and become a carpenter, to honor his mother and maintain the house.
There are fewer than 20,000 elevator technicians nationwide and only 1,400 in all of Northern California, so being among the 350 applicants who passed the initial round makes you part of a tight-knit community.
Moore, 77, comes from a family of tradesmen in Daly City.
His father was a lifelong elevator technician in San Francisco.
After graduating from high school, Moore thought about joining the trade, but his dad said he’d break both of his son’s legs if he ever followed in his footsteps.
His “heart's intent” was to go to medical school anyway, and he ended up earning a degree in biochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley.
When he couldn’t find a job as a biochemist, he took a job as a retail clerk at Value Giant at 22nd and Mission streets.
It’s even tougher now.
Reports show entry-level hiring has been collapsing nationwide this past year as the rise of AI has affected traditional career starting points.
When Moore had trouble getting hired in the 1970s, his dad asked, “‘Why don't you become an elevator man?’
I go, ‘Because I want both my legs.’
And he laughed and he said, ‘No, I just wanted to make sure you went to school,’” Moore said.
Little did he know he was ahead of the curve, as skilled trade jobs are now on the rise nationwide.
According to LinkedIn, construction is the fastest-growing industry in 2026 for new college graduates.
Moore became an elevator technician with IUEC Local 8 and has been an instructor for aspiring technicians at the local trade school on Potrero Hill since the '90s.
It is one of only two trade schools in California.
Becoming certified takes four to five years.
Applicants only need a high-school diploma to qualify for the program, but having more experience in the trades does help applicants get accepted.
Sweeney said a lot of acquaintances have asked him about his career plans.
“There's people calling me that I would have never expected to call me who want to make the switch,” Sweeney said.
Moore says job security is another reason the union is so competitive to get into.
Several years ago, Moore’s son was laid off less than a year into his first job after graduating from the University of California, Los Angeles with an MBA.
Moore soon convinced both his son and his son-in-law to join him in the elevator technician trade.
Despite the convenience and flexibility of remote work in other occupations, Moore puts more value in being “irreplaceable.”
“Do you realize you're kind of shooting yourself in the foot?”
he said of stay-at-home remote workers.
“Because if you can stay at home and work, then somebody in India can do your work for cheaper.
And that's what's going to happen.
If your elevator breaks down, they're not going to outsource a broken elevator to India.
They're going to require somebody to come in and look at the elevator in person.”
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