A career in construction offers a multitude of opportunities for a great work life, big paychecks, career advancements, and more. Even though there are great benefits in becoming a skilled tradesperson, younger generations in the United States are largely ignoring the opportunity to join our booming industry. While the search for skilled tradespeople continues to become extremely difficult, we explore the reason behind why young people are avoiding the trades and what we can do to change it.
Why Do Young People Avoid Trades?
Though we cannot pinpoint one specific reason for why young people are avoiding the construction industry, there are a few obvious factors that stick out.
Perception
Over many decades, the perception of tradespeople has become negatively skewed. As a society we have been surrounded by negative advertising and have created unattractive stigmas such as the infamous “Plumber’s Crack”. With the influence of technology and social media, social acceptance is more important than ever.
What Path Would You Choose?
Though tradespeople have been branded as uneducated and unsuccessful financially, the opposite is quite true. Many trades require institutional training and once completed, jump straight into a well paid full-time position.
- Average Electrician Salary = $52,720
- Average Plumber Salary = $50,000
- Average HVAC Installer Salary = $44,247
Influence
In 2008, the Great Recession shook the American economy, and in particular, took a great toll on the construction industry. The construction industry alone saw a 37% decline, placing many companies and families into a financial turmoil. With this extreme downturn, it is no surprise that the people effected by this time period wanted more security for their children’s future and since have encouraged a college education implying a more secure and successful career.
Now that the younger generations are beginning their careers and entering the workforce, we are seeing the direct effects of parental influence. Since the last housing boom in 2005, the share of workers in the sector who are 24 years old or younger has declined by nearly 30% in 2016 according to U.S. Census data.
As a millennial myself, I can directly attest to the overwhelming focus on getting a college degree. Not only did I receive encouragement from my family to get a college education but I was also heavily influenced by friends. Parents of my friends encouraged that to be successful you need to receive an education and strive for a “white collar” job. This indirectly influenced my decision because I also wanted to be successful and the only way to accomplish this was by getting a college degree.
What we can do to help change it?
There may not be a perfect path to helping young people see the benefits of pursuing a career as a tradesperson, however, there are definitely steps that we can take to improve the way young people view the construction industry. Here are a few ideas:
- We need to improve the social perception of what it means to be a tradesperson by improving public awareness of trade education and training requirements.
- Improve marketing strategy and content on advertisements, online, and social media to be more attractive and less comical.
- Flaunt the fact that tradespeople have the opportunity to make great money if they are willing to work hard.
- Promote the great entrepreneurial opportunities that live within the construction industry.
- Provide more trade specific education through high schools and introduce trades at a younger age.
- Recognize and communicate that there are great career advancement opportunities within the construction industry.
- Teach our youth the find joy in working hard and creating something tangible.
- Show more success stories about people that have had a great career as a tradesperson.
- Stop speaking negatively about manual labor positions like being a waste collector (garbage man), janitor, or construction worker.
- As a society, acknowledge that tradespeople are critical for economic growth and play a huge role in American society.
Let us know what you think are some of the reasons why young people are not considering skilled trades as a career path and what we as an industry can do to better educate and attract young job seekers. Comment and share below!
Yeah.You hit it. I am an electrician. Not much to brag about but I fell good about myself and what zI do. People really dont value trades people,until the toilets dont flush, the lights dont turn on, or the heat is off. Then when you show up you are a God. When you need a plumber, you need a plumber. You can live without your computer but not without heat,water,and power. A computer tech or I T guy is more valued that a tradesman and the publics perception will never change. Then the whining and complaining when they.get the bill. I am sick of it, but its whatI do
Thanks for your comment John! We agree, the trades are slowly becoming under appreciated and we need to ensure that society knows the value of what we as tradesmen do! Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
A couple years back I graduated from trade school to be an Electrician. A nearby shipyard hired me and several other recent graduates from the region as journeyman candidates. It was hot and miserable work, but the pay and benefits were good and we took a lot of pride in building ships for the Navy. However a little over a year later there was a downturn and we were all laid off. Me and everyone I have kept in touch with left the Maritime construction industry and only one remained in the electrical trade. We did it for the same simple reason. There is little to no work for inexperienced electricians in many areas of the country. We found out that us getting work there was an anomaly. The one guy who did get an electrical job had to move halfway across the country to get it.
In the past year I have only seen a opening for a marine electrician of my experience outside of a few (government subsidized) apprenticeship programs, who have dozens of applicants for every open slot and tend to favor local applicants. Commercial/Residential/Industrial companies in my area flatly refuse to consider hiring anyone with less than a year of experience for even a helper position. Most shipyards across the country will not even give you an interview unless you have five years experience. Checking out the Apprentice Ads on this website showed similar results. Every one I clicked on required previous experience.
When a young person today tries to find a career they go online and look up job openings to see how their employment prospects could look after they graduate and consult their friends and family. They find out quickly that if they get a degree in encryption engineering they will have job offers before they even graduate. Not so with the trades. Many need only look to their older brother who is still living in the basement years after graduating trade school to find out how well the trades will treat them.
Everyone is looking to hire young people to fill their workforce, a few years after someone else breaks them in. Everyone wants to hire, few are willing to train.
Chris, thank you so much for sharing your story and insight to this issue! We couldn’t agree more with you statement in the fact that it is extremely difficult to find work as an electrical tradesmen if you do not have relevant experience. This is a large deterrent if you are a young individual considering a future career path. One of the challenges that we as a staffing company/industry face are the requirements that contractors need in order to generate value for using our services. Typically our industry relies heavily on the supply and demand of quality tradesmen and being able to fill the gaps to complete projects in a time sensitive manner. Contractors do not settle (nor should they) when paying a premium for temporary manpower because their need is immediate and we have to provide them with candidates who can jump in and assist them with meeting deadlines.
Contractors, associations, and staffing agencies need to come together to provide a better training experience and more opportunities for individuals to not only enter the trades, but provide those with little to no experience opportunities to gain the experience and knowledge needed to be an effective tradesmen!
Back in the 90’s Journeyman took the time one on one to ensure you understood with explanation and direction proper tasks With a safe execution !! These days projects are so time sensitive the client expects skilled tradesman & Safety prioritized projects mentors are extremely pressured to complete rather than mentor skilled and proper installation of various devices and apparatuses! In which could pose a safety issues unknowingly years down the road endangering generations to come!!
Thanks for your insight Kevin! Some companies have shifted more focus on profitability and often times that reflects poorly on the quality and safety of a project. X3 focuses heavily on partnering with Clients that share the same values and standards that we do in regards to training and safety and we believe that it is our duty to make sure that each of our team members has the appropriate skills and training to be successful for years to come! Our entire industry (including us) needs to ensure that we are prioritizing safety and training in the trades each and every day.
I am in the flooring industry and one of the major problems we have is that it is a quick turnover business so you need a lot of work to keep going. youngsters tend to look at the flooring industry as a quick way to earn money by only doing very little training and then leaving when work dries up. The problem is not enough skilled training locally where they can invest in themselves to learn the skill. We also have to remember that this industry has changed and in order to create the work we need the skill levels to be diverse enough to keep busy. The other thing about trades is the physical aspect that can reduce our expectancy, so we need to be resourceful enough to adapt so we can continue within the business. I could go on but this is just a part of the success of becoming a tradesman.