Not directly to your question, but I dislike this NPR article very much.
Mwandjalulu dreamed of becoming a carpenter or electrician as a child. And now he’s fulfilling that dream. But that also makes him an exception to the rule. While Gen Z — often described as people born between 1997 and 2012 — is on track to become the most educated generation, fewer young folks are opting for traditionally hands-on jobs in the skilled trade and technical industries.
The entire article contains a buried classist assumption. Carpenters have just as much a reason to study theater, literature, or philosophy as, say, project managers at tech companies (those three examples are from PMs that I’ve worked with). Being educated and a carpenter are only in tension because of decisions that we’ve made, because having read Plato has as much in common with being a carpenter as it does with being a PM. Conversely, it would be fucking lit if our society had the most educated plumbers and carpenters in the world.
NPR here is treating school as job training, which is, in my opinion, the root problem. Job training is definitely a part of school, but school and society writ large have a much deeper relationship: An educated public is necessary for a functioning democracy. 1 in 5 Americans is illiterate. If we want a functioning democracy, then we need to invest in everyone’s education for its own sake, rather than treat it as a distinguishing feature between lower classes and upper ones, and we need to treat blue collar workers as people who also might wish to be intellectually fulfilled, rather than as a monolithic class of people who have some innate desire to work with their hands and avoid book learning (though those kinds of people need also be welcomed).
Occupations such as auto technician with aging workforces have the U.S. Chamber of Commerce warning of a “massive” shortage of skilled workers in 2023.
This is your regular reminder that the Chamber of Commerce is a private entity that represents capital. Everything that they say should be taken with a grain of salt. There’s a massive shortage of skilled workers for the rates that businesses are willing to pay, which has been stagnant for decades as corporate profits have gone up. If you open literally any business and offer candidates enough money, you’ll have a line out the door to apply.
The second half is me. I absolutely loved being a carpenter for the 3 years that I did it. But I left the field because I knew the pay ceiling wouldn’t be like in the days when my dad was my age. So, I moved to an office job that pays more than the guys in charge of work sites were (and are currently) making and I get actual benefits. I’d go back to it in a heartbeat if the pay and benefits were better, and I don’t mean matching my current ones, just definitely middle class.
I do wonder what will happen when the number of people in the trades reduces because young adults aren’t going into them such that people can see it and feel it. Will the corps raise wages and improve benefits? Will the federal government make immigration easier or restart the WPA like during the Great Depression? I don’t know. What I do know is that my buddy who’s 35 is always one of the youngest electricians on job sites and that can’t be good for the trades.
Fund a Top Gun style movie only about carpenters, plumbers, and HVAC guys. ;)
On August 26, 1935, the United Auto Workers established an elite union for all auto mechanics. Its purpose was to teach the lost art of collective bargaining and to ensure that all the union members were the best compensated mechanics in the world.
They succeeded
Today, the UAW calls it a union. The mechanics call it:
TOP WRENCH
Actually, my office is in the maintenance building, so I see all those guys every day. It really could make for an entertaining movie. Like a handyman version of Waiting.
Civil Construction programs.
Basically military-like program for infrastructure. Sign up for 4 years, we’ll train you in an in demand trade, put you through the apprenticeship and pay you the whole time. Then send you to build infrastructure and work in construction around the country. Any out of region jobs would include housing.
Cities, counties, states, and federal government would be required that x% of all government construction projects are to be done by this civilian construction program.
Universal healthcare and supporting trade unionization expansion.
Cut war funding
Increase education funding
Raise taxes on the billionaire class
I agree we should do those things, but I don’t think that would increase trade job attractiveness.
Stop with the relentless “Everyone should go to college “ BS
Yes, historically college graduates make more over their lifetime; but if everyone has a college degree, and or every job requires a degree, especially when it really doesn’t need to; you devalue a degree.
I’d push for a CCC for the trades. You’re likely to have to leave home, but we’ll hire you for …2-3 years and train you. No debt, you’ll get paid the whole time, and when you’re done you’ll be good to go
We’ve spent the last few hundred years deciding which people are better than others, and then go surprised Pikachu when nobody wants to do the jobs that we’ve dubbed “inferior”.
I’m a 3 trade branch manager and the overwhelming commonality that drives motivation is telling the apprentices how much they can make a year consistently.
I had a guy who wouldn’t touch drains (plumbers mostly are above that for some reason) until he found out that he could make $150K/year as a drain tech (no license needed generally). Proved it with one of his peers and he literally switched his tune immediately.
Average HVAC service techs should be at $100K. Good electricians are at $200K+.
Yeah, they make a lot more than most people. That’s what they should be telling young people. Like working with your hands or you’re a visual learner? Trades is where you should be. You’ll be happy, well paid, and have an amazing sense of accomplishment every day. It’s a great living.
Tell me more about this drain tech please.
Basically, drain techs unclog drains with drain snakes or augers. They can also scope the drain with a 100’ inspection camera to see what is causing a clog. Could be roots ingressing a drain or a clay pipe that’s cracking. That’s where the big money is because replacing the pipe is the only long lasting solution. Some companies do pipe lining but that’s a bandaid for more year instead of decades. Replacing the pipe can involve excavating and concrete removal. Gets expensive fast. We’re doing a job that involves excavating 8’ down to the main drain, replacing 20’ of pipe and then covering it back up, demoing concrete to replace the basement line, and repairing concrete. $15k and the tech gets 8% of the sale and 10% if they do the work for a total of 18%. $2,700 gross isn’t bad for a hard day or 2 days work.
I would have one of my political allies propose a bill that would fund universal secondary education, then when it is inevitably shot down, I would use my newly granted immunity to have anyone thay voted against it very publicly removed then I would have an ally propose a constitutional amendment creating public education and removing presidential immunity. Then I would resign, and my vice president would pardon me, then my vice president would push a bill, preventing the president from being pardoned for crimes commited* while in office.
If I were President, my primary focus would be on restricting the ways we make people do anything economically.
I’m in favor of free markets, aka people doing that they choose, not what I make them do.
I would inform public universities that I would pull/reduce funding unless they start trade training programs. There would also be a media campaign to talk about trade jobs, and reduce the “uneducated blue collar worker” stigma around honest skilled work.
I’d also support, or at least not undercut, unions and tax billionaires.
Unions. If my kid who is choosing between college and electrician had a strong electrical workers union to go to to start, it would make a huge difference to that decision.
The unions don’t let in enough people for one. Thousands apply for a few dozen to a hundred spots per year for locals that cover major metropolitan areas.
The demand for the work is far greater than the desire to do the work.
Union carpenters in my area make about $33 an hour, starting off at around $14-16. Compare that to a union plumber who makes $55 an hour, starting at $20/hr. Carpentry pay is too low and plumbing can be some really shitty work. Both do hard work that is somewhat technical, it ain’t rocket surgery, but there is a fair amount of math involved and understanding diagrams.
I would work to address the barrier to entry to unions, but that won’t fix the fault of the person who should do the work but won’t regardless of the pay and benefits.
If those jobs came with a guaranteed pension after 20 years of destroying your body, people would be lining up for them. $24/hour is okay for getting by-day-to-day as a single young person but you can’t raise kids, build wealth, buy a house, or have a future outside of getting up tomorrow morning.
Easy.
Build public infrastructure. Lots and lots of public infrastructure.
I would kill the ones that are hired now.
