Lowe’s and Home Depot Are Both Solving the Trades Shortage. They’re Doing It Differently.

The Lowe’s Foundation announced on April 7 an expanded $250 million commitment to train and develop 250,000 skilled tradespeople by 2035 through its Gable Grants program, increasing its prior workforce commitment five-fold. The grants flow to community colleges and nonprofit training organizations with job placement infrastructure, not to individuals. The foundation had already invested nearly $53 million across 65 nonprofits and community colleges and was tracking to reach its original funding goal a year ahead of schedule.

The announcement came with a cultural argument that drew most of the coverage. Chairman and CEO Marvin Ellison, speaking to Fortune ahead of the release, said that AI can write code, draft emails, and analyze spreadsheets, but cannot show up to fix what is broken or build the physical infrastructure that powers the future. That framing is consistent with his role as co-champion of the Business Roundtable’s “Skilled Trades for America” initiative. Less visible in the press release is the connection between the foundation’s expanded scope and the Pro customer growth strategies both Lowe’s and Home Depot are running in response to the same labor market constraint.

The Pro Strategy That Requires a Functioning Trades Market

At its December 2024 Analyst and Investor Conference, Lowe’s announced it had reached 30% Pro penetration and identified growing that share as the lead initiative in its Total Home strategy. Increasing Pro penetration is listed first among five strategic initiatives the company is currently executing. Third quarter 2025 comparable sales growth was driven by continued Pro sales growth alongside double-digit home services growth and 11.4% online sales gains. On the Q2 2025 earnings call, CFO Brandon Sink said that growing Pro and online sales, not an improved home improvement backdrop, is what would drive results for the year.

CNBC’s reporting on that call described home professionals as “a steadier and more lucrative customer” for Lowe’s. That steadiness depends on those professionals having sufficient work to keep buying. Qualified tradespeople who are scarce turn down jobs, run smaller crews, and defer materials and equipment purchases. The Home Builders Institute’s Fall 2025 Construction Labor Market Report found the skilled labor shortage costs the residential construction sector $10.8 billion annually, comprising $8.143 billion in lost single-family home production representing approximately 19,000 homes and $2.663 billion in higher carrying costs. Associated Builders and Contractors estimates 349,000 net new construction workers are needed to meet demand in 2026 alone. More than one in five skilled tradespeople in the United States are currently over 55, according to the National Association of Home Builders, and retirements are outpacing new entrants into the field.

On the same call, Ellison said Lowe’s believes Pro penetration is “where the inflection and the growth is coming when housing finally unlocks,” and cited the Foundation Building Materials acquisition as preparation for that recovery. A housing turnover rebound that collides with a shortage of licensed tradespeople limits how much of that recovery reaches the top line.

How Each Company Is Responding

Home Depot identified the same constraint and built a different mechanism to address it. The Home Depot Foundation’s Path to Pro program has introduced nearly 600,000 children, teens, and adults to careers in the construction trades and certified more than 70,000 participants since launching in 2018. In March 2026, the Foundation announced $1 million in nationwide grants to help schools and nonprofits modernize shop class programs across all 50 states. Home Depot has been direct about the commercial connection, noting that 94% of its Pro customers report difficulty finding skilled workers.

Lowe’s routes investment through an independent foundation to community colleges and nonprofits, building labor supply in the general market. Home Depot built a proprietary hiring network alongside its training curriculum. The Path to Pro Network now carries nearly 165,000 job-seeking candidates and connects them directly to Home Depot Pro customers looking to hire. Lowe’s develops workers and releases them into the broad labor market, while Home Depot’s network connects trained candidates to its own Pro customers directly. The Lowe’s Foundation’s original five-year structure proved undersized for the problem: it was on track to reach its initial 50,000-trainee goal a full year early, which is why the revised commitment is five times larger and extends a decade out.

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