As the average cost of college in the United States soars, more young people are being drawn to skilled trades. It’s part of a career rethink among members of Gen Z, who have been called the “toolbelt generation.”
As the average cost of college in the United States soars, more young people are being drawn to skilled trades. It’s part of a career rethink among members of Gen Z, who have been called the “toolbelt generation.”
No one calls Gen Z the “toolbelt generation.”
Boomers are dying and Gen X and Millennials were told that college was the only option, so there’s a massive generational gap in most trades.
Not to mention that pay wasn’t that great in the trades back then as it is now. Even with college debt an engineering degree would get you financially ahead of someone starting a job in the trades 20-30 years ago. Pay is only good in the trades now because of the massive labor shortage. If GenZ and Alpha goes into the trades en masse wages will get suppressed and even fall and the cycle repeats.
Pay is good in the trades because by and large, a lot of the tradie boomers who depressed wages because “well I got by on $12/hr for years and you should also have to work your way up to making a livable wage” have retired or died.