Why Good PLC Technicians Are So Hard to Find
Supply, retirements, and the skills gap between “talks about PLCs” and “can diagnose one.” What’s driving the shortage and how to compete for the few who can.
A small pool, getting smaller
There were never very many people who can stand at a panel, go online with a controller, and methodically find the fault. The role sits at the intersection of electrical skill, controls knowledge, and hands-on troubleshooting instinct — and that combination is rare by nature. Now demand for automation is rising while the supply of people who grew up with it is shrinking.
The retirement cliff is real
A large share of the technicians who learned PLCs in the ‘80s and ‘90s are retiring. They carry decades of plant-specific knowledge that doesn’t transfer in a two-week handoff. As they leave, plants lose not just headcount but institutional troubleshooting memory — and the people qualified to replace them are already employed elsewhere.
“Talks about PLCs” vs. “can diagnose one”
This is the gap that costs companies the most. Plenty of candidates can discuss ladder logic, list the platforms they’ve seen, and use the right vocabulary in an interview. Far fewer can actually go online with a running controller, read the logic, and isolate why the line stopped. A résumé and a smooth interview can’t tell these two apart. Only a technical screen can — and most hiring teams aren’t equipped to run one.
Why job boards fail for this role
The strongest controls people are not on job boards. They’re busy, well-paid, and quietly indispensable to their current employer. Posting and praying reaches the wrong end of the market. Worse, a generic posting attracts a flood of unqualified applicants who use the right keywords, burning your team’s time on screening that goes nowhere.
How to actually compete
- Recruit passively. Reach the people who aren’t applying, through network and direct outreach.
- Screen technically. Have someone who understands controls run the evaluation — real scenarios, not keyword bingo.
- Pay for scarcity. The market clears at a number; pretending otherwise just keeps the seat empty.
- Sell the work. Good controls people want interesting systems, modern equipment, and respect. Lead with that.
- Develop a pipeline. Grow your own through apprenticeship while you recruit externally — the shortage isn’t ending soon.
The EAS takeaway
Good PLC technicians are hard to find because they’re rare, retiring, and rarely looking — and because most searches can’t tell the real ones from the fluent ones. We can, because we’ve been on the wrong end of a downed line at 2 a.m. ourselves. When we present a controls candidate, it’s because they passed a screen built by people who’ve done the work.
