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.
this post was submitted on 13 Nov 2025
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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.
Or like, they can't afford it, and it does not look like those with education are very successful. So basically, that is the whole country getting poorer and giving up on a future.
Trade school tuition is already skyrocketing. In my home area hair school is $12,000 and a journeyman's license will set you back $25,000.
Getting education in a trade is cheaper for now but is quickly catching up to a university degree. Once they hit parity will there be an advantage? I guess AI isn't coming for plumbers anytime soon.
That's not "hair school", that's for a cosmetology license. Dated a teacher at such a college, very eye opening.
They have to handle dangerous chemicals and know their effects, how different people will react, how to act in emergencies, etc.
Sitting on the couch one night I was trying to explain something, mumbling to myself:
"Uh, damn, what's the opposite of a exothermic reaction?"
"Endothermic."
"How did you know that?!"
Pretty crazy what all they have to know.
Oh I wasn't trying to throw shade by any means, in my state they are the same license. My point is when I was in college, there was a large cosmetology school across town that was like $1500 to complete your license. It was seen as a cheaper alternative to college, with a decent career path. Now that same program is nearly 10x as much, it's still cheaper than college but not by much.
But complain about college tuition to most boomers and they will tell women hair school is only $100 and candy bars are a nickel.
States should have a "hair cut only" license for like $20 and a few hours of training. No coloring, no chemicals, scissors and hair only. Guess that would be ripe for abuse though.
The other issue is that skilled trade firms don't want to hire new graduates because they don't want to train anyone. Plumbing school is one thing, but getting out there and trying to shutoff a toilet that's spewing shit can't be taught. The only people making miney in the trades are those who opened their own shop 30 years ago. We need electricians and plumbers and pipe fitters, but no one wants to hire or pay new ones.
I think there are still opportunities for people just finishing, but that's in areas with strong unions which isn't much of America unfortunately.
Same with welders they don't want to hire them straight from school either.
You must be talking about those private trade schools. My son is currently in night school for his master plumbing cert, and it is only 2k a year, with his boss sponsoring him.
I come from a red state that is waging war on all public education, especially higher education. They have slashed budgets and closed many programs including trades. They did a similar thing to the universities after 2008, it is part of what is forcing tuition to skyrocket.
Because there are no fucking jobs and people are treated like cattle. Case closed
Because the last life advice advertising campaign from corporate assholes has ended and they've moved onto the next bullshit advice advertising campaign. They push labour around wherever the fuck they feel and don't care if it doesn't pan out for millions of us. Trades will end up in the exact same spot with too much labour and depressed wages. Then they'll start the next campaign for whatever sector they figure they might need us to waste our lives devoted to, helping them feed their ambitions.
Given how an electrician wanted like £500 to install a socket about 2m above the consumer unit and I really didn't care about it being pretty as that section of wall wasn't even plastered. I think their wages should be depressed.
I said no and came up with an alternative option I was allowed to do myself.
Shit like this is scary. We have a fuck ton of guys (boomers mostly) getting ready to either leave the career entirely before retirement or retire normally once the economy takes a real dump.
Class sizes at my local are only roughly 20ish apprentices a year. I see us having a real hard time finding trade labor going into the future.
If demand climbs and there are people out of work, then people will learn to do the jobs as long as they aren't as bad as working in a coal mine. I'm strongly considering learning a trade or robotics maintenance because demand is increasing rapidly.
I totally agree the demand will be there, provided the jobs are there.
We may need those skilled trades to maintain infrastructure but, if no one is opening the books for large projects to begin we won't see a boom in training.
Also opening the wallet for wages. I can tell you that wastewater is seriously graying because nobody in the US wants to hire unlicensed or level 1s, and while getting your Operator L1 license might be a couple hundred dollars, getting L2 or L3 depending on state can run into five figures easy. Pay is also serious shit - Level 1 operators make basically the same as your local barista, and L3 barely makes $70-80k in most areas (for an idea, an L3 in most states should be able to design, source materials for, oversee the construction of, and run a wastewater plant unaided. They're professional engineers in all but name.)
I was talking to a first year apprentice about his time in college and aside from him being a writer he studied that kinda stuff. I think he said it was "conservation" was the course he took in college. I asked him why he didn't get into that field. He told me it was very competitive and there weren't many jobs.
I know for other locals they pay your licensing because, allegedly they see the return on investment from their contractors. I guess it could also help if your local union has its own training facility.
All this to say, I think the barrier for entry is gate kept by the wealthy when there's no union involved.