Harrisburg Barbershop Launches Formal Apprenticeship to Fight Barber Shortage

Union Barber Co., a longtime Harrisburg barbershop, has launched a formal in-house apprenticeship program after owner Marcus Webb spent nearly two years struggling to hire experienced barbers to replace retiring staff.

"I posted job openings for eighteen months and got almost no qualified applicants," Webb said. "The barber schools in the region just aren't producing enough graduates anymore."

The apprenticeship pairs new barber school graduates with senior stylists for six months of supervised client work before they're allowed to book appointments independently, a structure modeled loosely on traditional trade apprenticeships. Apprentices are paid an hourly wage during training rather than working commission-only, a departure from how Webb himself was trained decades earlier.

Webb says the upfront cost of paying trainees who aren't yet fully productive has been steep, but he views it as cheaper than the alternative of chairs sitting empty. Two apprentices have completed the program so far, both hired full-time afterward. Webb is in talks with a local barber college about formalizing the partnership to place additional apprentices going forward.