Everywhere you look in New York, the clean energy transition is picking up speed. EV charging stations are being installed at a rapid clip, buildings are shifting away from fossil fuel systems, and state and city programs keep raising the bar on sustainability targets. It’s easy to get caught up in the momentum. But there’s a question hiding underneath all of it that doesn’t get asked nearly enough: who’s actually going to install and maintain all of this?
Richard Sajiun has spent his career answering that question. As CEO and master electrician of Sajiun Electric Inc., he’s watched New York’s infrastructure ambitions grow year after year, and he’s convinced that none of it works without enough skilled tradespeople to execute it.
Demand Is Outpacing the Workforce
Across New York, electrical contractors are busier than ever. EV charger installations, building retrofits, and grid upgrades have created a surge of work that shows no signs of slowing. The catch is that this surge is colliding with a labor shortage that’s been building for years.
Sajiun Electric has a long view of this problem. Founded in 1965 by Richard’s father, the company has spent six decades working on hospitals, government buildings, and commercial properties throughout the state. That history has taught Richard something the industry sometimes forgets: expertise doesn’t scale as fast as demand does.
“Electrical work has always been a trade built on mentorship,” he says. “The expertise required to complete projects safely and efficiently is learned over time through hands-on experience.”
That kind of experience takes years to build, and the pipeline is shrinking. Veteran electricians are retiring faster than new ones are entering the field. On a national level, the industry needs to fill approximately 81,000 electrical jobs every year just to keep pace, a number that hits especially hard in a state as construction-heavy as New York.
EV Mandates Are Raising the Pressure
Nowhere is this gap more visible than in New York City’s push around electric vehicles. Local Law 55 requires parking facilities to phase in EV charging infrastructure over the coming years, a mandate that will require sweeping electrical upgrades and thousands of new installations across the five boroughs.
Programs like Con Edison’s PowerReady initiative and the state’s Make-Ready program are designed to help businesses shoulder the cost of these changes. But Sajiun is quick to note that financial support only goes so far.
“Policies and incentives are important, but every project still relies on licensed electricians to carry out the work,” he says. “The challenge isn’t whether the technology exists. It’s whether there will be enough trained professionals available to install and maintain it
properly.”
Put simply: funding builds momentum, but people build infrastructure. Without enough of them, timelines slip and ambitious plans stall.
Training the Next Generation
Sajiun’s answer to the shortage is investment in people, not just projects. At Sajiun Electric, new hires are paired directly with experienced electricians from day one, learning the trade through real fieldwork rather than classroom theory alone.
He’s careful to point out that the job is about more than technical skill. Working on the systems that power hospitals, government buildings, and now EV infrastructure requires a level of judgment and responsibility that can only be developed on the job.
“Becoming a skilled electrician takes time,” Sajiun says. “There’s no substitute for learning directly from experienced professionals in the field.”
As New York races toward its electrification goals, Sajiun argues that workforce
development can’t stay an afterthought; it has to be part of the plan from the
start. Every charger installed and every building retrofitted depends on
someone with the training to do it right.
For Richard Sajiun, New York’s EV future isn’t just a question of infrastructure spending. It’s a question of whether the state is building the workforce to match its ambition.
