HIA Executive Director Tasmania Benjamin Price has taken the message of HIA's new national trade workforce report to Tasmanian industry and the wider community, marking National Tradies Day on a Glenorchy building site with builders, apprentices and trade contractors from Ronald Young & Co Builders and CK Contracting.

HIA's latest report makes the case for trade careers as one of the country's strongest pathways to secure work, an income from the first week, financial independence and business ownership.

HIA has also presented a copy to the Minister for Skills and Jobs, Hon Felix Ellis MP.

"Every home in this state was built by someone. Tasmanians live in homes tradies built, work in buildings tradies put up and get their communities back on their feet after a storm because tradies turn up," Mr Price said.

"Today is the day we say thanks and mean it. These are skilled professionals doing work you can stand in front of years later and say, I built that. Not many careers give you that."

Mr Price said families weighing up career options were increasingly asking which jobs would still be there in twenty years.

"There's a lot of anxiety in the air about artificial intelligence and what this will mean for the workforce. It's a fair question to be asking, and it's one where the trades come out looking very good.

"AI is brilliant at things that happen on a screen, but that good at getting into a roof cavity, working out why a wall isn't plumb, or making a call when the site doesn't match the plans. This work is hands-on, it's different every day, and it happens in the physical world. That's exactly the sort of work that's hardest to automate.

"Technology will absolutely change how homes are designed, planned and priced, and that's a good thing, with better tools mean better buildings. But someone still has to build the house, and that will always take hands-on skill and judgement on site."

Mr Price said the financial case for a trade was also stronger than most young Tasmanians and their parents realised.

"A carpentry apprentice earns from their first week, somewhere around $39,000 to $42,000 a year while they're training, where a university student is paying for the privilege. Three to four years either way, and the salaries land in much the same place at the end.

"It's a good deal and we're not selling it well enough.

"The other thing people miss is where it leads. Walk onto almost any building site in Tasmania and the person running it started as an apprentice. Trades are this state's best pathway into small business ownership, and those businesses go on to employ people and train the next generation."

HIA's research shows the modern industry offers far more than the traditional pathways, with efficient building systems, prefabrication and new construction methods opening up a broader range of careers across the housing sector.

The research also finds the residential building industry nationally is short around 83,000 skilled workers, with demand for trades in Tasmania set to stay strong as the state works to deliver the homes a growing population needs.

"We need more Tasmanians choosing this career, and we need the small builders who train them backed in to keep doing it. Get that right and this industry will keep delivering for the state."

HIA's five national priorities for action are to elevate the status of trade careers, improve apprenticeship attraction and completion, support the builders who train the workforce, strengthen school-to-trade pathways, and invest in workforce capacity.

You can access HIA's Australia's Future is Built by Tradies report here.

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