HVAC Recruiters in Jacksonville, FL

The BLS counted about 3,340 HVAC mechanics and installers in the Jacksonville metro in May 2025, earning a median of $28.17 an hour ($58,590 a year), above the Florida median of $27.24. In Duval County, BLS QCEW counted 361 residential plumbing and HVAC contractor locations employing 4,175 people in mid-2025, and 89 commercial ones employing 3,218.

The equipment base splits by county. Duval’s housing is old enough that many systems are on their second or third replacement, while St. Johns County, with a median home built in 2004, is full of equipment that needs maintenance agreements and first repairs. The local contractors’ association, the North Florida Air Conditioning Contractors Association, is a FRACCA chapter covering Jacksonville, St. Augustine, and the surrounding area.

We work outward from your shop across Duval, St. Johns, Clay, and Nassau, reaching working techs directly instead of waiting on job boards. Every HVAC candidate has EPA 608 confirmed and goes through a scored phone interview on diagnostics, replacement sales, and after-hours availability, plus the background and driving checks you set.

Each submittal states the candidate’s pay expectation against the $28.17 local median and where they live relative to the river crossings. Every placement carries a 90-day replacement guarantee.

Rarely on pay. Jacksonville’s HVAC median of $58,590 a year is well above its North Florida neighbors: Gainesville at $55,670, Deltona-Daytona Beach at $49,290, and Ocala at $49,020, per BLS May 2025 data. A First Coast tech would usually take a pay cut to move to any of them. That makes Jacksonville a market where techs change shops within the metro rather than leave it, so the competition for your next hire is the shop across the river, not the one across the state.

It also means relocating techs from those smaller metros is realistic when a shop needs depth, because the move comes with a raise. We include relocation candidates only when you ask for them.

Not under state law: Florida has no state journeyman license, and employed techs work under their contractor’s license. Locally, the City of Jacksonville’s Construction Trades Qualifying Board still examines journeyman craftsmen and has journeyman members on the board, and St. Johns County lists an HVAC journeyman license tested through the county. A card from any Florida county or city must be honored everywhere in the state ([s. 489.1455](http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0400-0499/0489/Sections/0489.1455.html)).

Confirm with the jurisdiction whether your seat requires one. We record card status on every submittal either way.

Mostly inside the metro, because Jacksonville is far from Florida’s other big trades markets and its pay is already high. The useful outer ring is the growth corridor: techs moving into St. Johns, Clay, and Nassau counties, where population grew 26.7%, 9.8%, and 18.3% since 2020. For techs who live there, a shop on their side of the county line can offer a shorter drive at the same pay, which is often the deciding factor.