How Gen Z Is Becoming the Toolbelt Generation

[question everything]

America needs more plumbers, and Gen Z is answering the call.

Long beset by a labor crunch, the skilled trades are newly appealing to the youngest cohort of American workers, many of whom are choosing to leave the college path. Rising pay and new technologies in fields from welding to machine tooling are giving trade professions a face-lift, helping them shed the image of being dirty, low-end work. Growing skepticism about the return on a college education, the cost of which has soared in recent decades, is adding to their shine.

Enrollment in vocational training programs is surging as overall enrollment in community colleges and four-year institutions has fallen. The number of students enrolled in vocational-focused community colleges rose 16% last year to its highest level since the National Student Clearinghouse began tracking such data in 2018. The ranks of students studying construction trades rose 23% during that time, while those in programs covering HVAC and vehicle maintenance and repair increased 7%.

(snip)

The median pay for new construction hires rose 5.1% to $48,089 last year. By contrast, new hires in professional services earned an annual $39,520, up 2.7% from 2022, according to data from payroll-services provider ADP. That’s the fourth year that median annual pay for new construction hires has eclipsed earnings for new hires in both the professional services and information sectors—such as accountants or IT maintenance workers—ADP says.

Demand for trade apprenticeships, which let students combine work experience with a course of study often paid for by employers, has boomed lately. In a survey of high school and college-age people by software company Jobber last year, 75% said they would be interested in vocational schools offering paid, on-the-job training. The rise of generative AI is changing the career calculus for some young people. The majority of respondents Jobber surveyed said they thought blue-collar jobs offered better job security than white-collar ones, given the growth of AI.

More..

https://archive.is/uMRAe

[yardwork]

1. Very interesting!

[jimfields33]

2. I think it's great.

I heard colleges are raising tuition again. Here is brown.


In addition to tuition for the 2023-2024 academic year ($68,612), Brown's all-in cost also includes fees ($2,800), housing ($9,940), food ($7,504), and miscellaneous personal expenses ($2,820). These tallies are for Brown's fall and spring semesters combined.


Adults graduating from high school are making different choices. They don’t want to pay these prices. Who can blame them.

[Aristus]

3. I'm betting the boost in union membership is helping this.

IIRC, so many of the skilled-trade apprenticeships are fostered through the unions, who make sure the trainees get good, sound, safe training.

I'm tempted to chuckle at all the right-wingers now offering glad hosannas for the people going into the skilled trades, after all those years of cutting the knees out from under the unions.

[Chainfire]

4. The plumbing trade was very good to me.

I held every job starting as ditch digger, apprentice, advancing to journeyman, master, educator, estimator, superintendent and business owner in twelve years. I made a good solid middle-class income for my family and I am now comfortably retired. All of the years of physical activity left me in much better physical shape than many of my classmates who worked in offices all of their working lives. Of course, it is not for everyone, but I was never ashamed of my trade career and I held my own with the people who chose "professional" jobs. I am glad that young people are not avoiding the trades like they were a plague.

[WarGamer]

5. I sure hope so... because MY experience with the under-30 crowd....

Is that they're helpless to perform ANY home or automotive maintenance... but BOY can they program their cell phone.

[shrike3]

6. The trades were good to us.

Steel workers provide health insurance after retirement for both of us, plus a pension. Can't complain.

[iluvtennis]

7. Awesome news! n/t

[honest.abe]

8. This is good trend.

Too many younger folks have dug themselves into deep financial holes getting college degrees that don’t work out for them. However I still think I would advise most to go for a degree in STEM if they are capable and interested and can afford it. STEM is still the best future… imo.

[a kennedy]

9. I think it's great news as well, I just don't like how "some" are just trashing a college

education. JMHO

[question everything]

10. Once upon a time college offered liberal arts education. One 's horizons were expanded

the classic philosophers and writers. Today they would be trashed by all the young students who blame Western culture for all society’s ill.

[JanMichael]

12. That's harsh. Get off my lawn!

I would add that the classical university ideal that you mention was pretty freaking elitist.

And I would also add that my degree was similar but thinking that all liberal arts subjects and writers were all rah rah USA USA USA hegemony is wrong.

Are you using the califate types that have been active lately to swipe at all of the protesting types?

[Chainfire]

14. I don't know of anyone who was ever harmed by a college degree, in whatever field of study.

Right-wingers today believe that colleges should be vocational schools who teach MAGA values that they confuse with patriotism. My wife got a master's degree in a field that she never pursued after getting her sheepskin. She was able to use the degree to get her feet in the doors of a career that she flourished in. College proves, if nothing else, that you are disciplined enough to get up, even when you don't feel like it, go to class and produce quality work; exactly what employers want.

I only went to college for one year. I was not disciplined enough to do what was required, so I chose another path. It worked out. I supplemented my lack of higher education by reading...a lot.... As the result, I can hold my own with people with advanced degrees in most subjects.

[shanti]

11. They're getting the message

I asked my bright 16 yr old grandson if he was ready for college, and he told me that he was considering "the trades". I did not dissuade him.

[DemocraticPatriot]

13. Yes, plumbing can be dirty work--- but the paychecks are not, especially if

you can work yourself into the position of starting your own plumbing business!

Take all that money you saved by avoiding going into debt for a 4-year college degree, and you could have the funding you need-- if you don't mind getting dirty for a living!

For the past 50 years, we have been routing young people to college as 'the route to the American dream', but skilled trades workers have been 'aging out' of the workforce, and we still need them!!


Another, 'less dirty' profession is slated to be in great trouble to supply its needs in the coming years, and even now---

radio and broadcast engineers! Long-time station engineers are also 'aging out' of that industry,
and they will be in great demand! So if you have any bent for electronics,
this could be an extremely lucrative career path, with much less competition than there was in the past....


Of course, the chances of young people reading my post here on this site are slim, probably should say so on TikTok!!! LOL

[Marthe48]

15. I thought NAFTA was a good idea

But in the aftermath, like immediately, I saw that corporations screwed their employees. Instead of workers in other countries getting lifted, U.S. corp. exported good-paying jobs, and then used that move as a cudgel to force any remaining employees or new hires to take lower wages. Benefits, ha.

Since the 1990s. I've been telling younger people to consider training in jobs that can't be exported, such as plumbing, pipefitting, automotive, HVAC, hairstyling, nursing and so on. I'm a jack of all trades myself, and proud that I can bring home the bacon and fry it up in a pan

As handy as many of us are, many of us seniors are looking for help with jobs in daily life. I had a plumber in to repair, replace things in the house. I have horrible allergies, so I have a lawn service. I was so grateful they came by over the weekend and did the first mowing. From my point of view, getting trade jobs is a win-win for all of us.

[Chakaconcarne]

16. There is also an ever increasing part of the population that can't replace a heat filter

Even with so many resources at their disposal.... Toolbelt side hustles are popping up everywhere to meet the demand.