I am fortunate to travel around some (no, I am not on the missing Titanic tourist submarine, nor personally shepherding the new Credit Trigger Bill in MA), and am in the Bay Area to give a speech on the eve of the Summer Solstice, and am reminded of the passage of time and how my skill sets have become outdated. I can refold a map correctly, unknot curly telephone wire to get all the curls facing the right way, and can cover a textbook with a brown paper bag. I know how to write in cursive. But I don’t know why cars don’t need to warm up anymore, or why my cell phone doesn’t work in the guest bedroom. I barely understand how electricity actually works, aside from my Mom telling me not to poke my fork in the electrical wall outlet. But others have a better grasp of it, and it’s a great time to be one of the 1.032 million electricians in America, the most ever, and LOs pay attention to changes in demographics and job markets. Electricians’ pay has skyrocketed, averaging $37.51 per hour for an annual wage of around $78,000, a 7.8 percent year-over-year increase. A boom in the housing market plus the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022 (which steers $369 billion to beefing up energy infrastructure) is driving the golden age of electricians. (Today’s podcast can be found here and this week’s is sponsored by MCT and its Hedge Advisory division. Download their recently released whitepaper, Mortgage Pipeline Hedging 101, for more information on hedging in today’s market. Today’s includes an interview with MCT’s Andrew Rhodes on secondary market happenings in the current rate environment and the importance of loan sale automation.)