America needs carpenters and plumbers. Gen Z doesn't seem interested

[shockedcanadian]

Why would I do that?

So that's a no then.

 

[Moonglow]

So that's a no then.

Correct.

 

[Quasar44]

Why would I do that?

Evert Jew wants to be another lawyer

 

[The Sage of Main Street]

Lots of the skilled trades are evaporating.
Trim carpentry, electricians, tool & die making, boilermakers, and of course pipe fitters. (Is plumbing a skill?)

Much of the manufacturing has left the USA. So with that the skilled trades have also left, retired out, or not needed. Hey, I can purchase a top end used knee mill for pennies of what the thing used to cost. Biggest expense will be moving and converting it to run on residential current.

Most people don't even know how to run power for a plant. Much less the data cabling. Especially when Data is usually a larger portion of the contract than the power anymore.

But then again most people don't know or care about basic trigonometry or how to apply it. (Electricians only look dumb...they aint)

Blueprint reading? HA! Not happening. Heck they can't even print them right. So understanding of how the crappy printer program screwed them up requires more than most can figure. Besides....now prints are on tablets and not paper so much.

If You Don't Pay Students, You Get What You Pay For

 

[Unkotare]

If You Don't Pay Students, You Get What You Pay For

 

[JohnDB]

If You Don't Pay Students, You Get What You Pay For

Construction apprentices make good wages....really good. Better than fast food or other low skill work. And there's always overtime and a schedule for them to keep advancing in wages until they become journeymen.

Skilled trades may be blue collar but they are making better $$ than most office jobs pay. The clothes are more comfortable and cheaper than suits and nice clothes cost....except for boots. Good boots will run $200 easily. (Not cheap boots)
Good tools are the next biggest expense...
And
If you are actually Skilled in your trade you can freelance on the weekends or do some subcontracting. Where you really make bank.

You won't get rich but you will make a very respectable income.

The things holding people back are:

1 going to college....people invest in these college courses and either don't finish or know how to apply their very overly common skills (ultra competitive environment) to advance....

2. Everyone goes to college....few even consider Skilled Trades as a career.

3. Skilled Trades work outside often....or in buildings under construction. Meaning hot in summer or freezing in winter. It's not a comfy desk job.

4. Early morning or sometimes graveyard hours. Most shifts start at 6am or a few are ending at 7am.

Here in Nashville TN journeymen electricians are getting $30/hr....that's $1200/wk for just 40 hrs.

 

[sparky]

I'm going on 4 decades in the trades.....

The way i put it to the noobs is, 'when it's cold you'll be cold. when it's hot you'll be hot ,when it's dirty you'll be dirty, but you'll always have work if you like to work, and you'll always feed the fam if you do'

~S~

 

[Unkotare]

Construction apprentices make good wages....really good. Better than fast food or other low skill work. And there's always overtime and a schedule for them to keep advancing in wages until they become journeymen.

Skilled trades may be blue collar but they are making better $$ than most office jobs pay. The clothes are more comfortable and cheaper than suits and nice clothes cost....except for boots. Good boots will run $200 easily. (Not cheap boots)
Good tools are the next biggest expense...
And
If you are actually Skilled in your trade you can freelance on the weekends or do some subcontracting. Where you really make bank.

You won't get rich but you will make a very respectable income.

The things holding people back are:

1 going to college....people invest in these college courses and either don't finish or know how to apply their very overly common skills (ultra competitive environment) to advance....

2. Everyone goes to college....few even consider Skilled Trades as a career.

3. Skilled Trades work outside often....or in buildings under construction. Meaning hot in summer or freezing in winter. It's not a comfy desk job.

4. Early morning or sometimes graveyard hours. Most shifts start at 6am or a few are ending at 7am.

Here in Nashville TN journeymen electricians are getting $30/hr....that's $1200/wk for just 40 hrs.

“Everyone goes to college “?

 

[sparky]

“Everyone goes to college “?

A rather antiquated option . jmho Unkotare.....~S~

 

[Unkotare]

A rather antiquated option . jmho Unkotare.....~S~

EVERYONE has never gone to college.

 

[sparky]

EVERYONE has never gone to college.

I would not know that Unkotare

~S~

 

[strollingbones]

hubby is retired "master carpenter" ...he says meth is big in construction now...

and sparky is right...hard work...long hours...clients whining...hubby loves timber work...he would work 12 hours and then come home and be on the phone....supervisors are on phone all the time...that gets old fast...

young people do not want to dig ditches...all carpenters start as laborers to earn their tool belt ...that was hubbys measure of a laborers...the day they came in with a full tool belt and said...i am a carpenter now..what about a raise

he does high end or did high end work where he stated....they expect a miracle ever day

 

[JohnDB]

hubby is retired "master carpenter" ...he says meth is big in construction now...

and sparky is right...hard work...long hours...clients whining...hubby loves timber work...he would work 12 hours and then come home and be on the phone....supervisors are on phone all the time...that gets old fast...

young people do not want to dig ditches...all carpenters start as laborers to earn their tool belt ...that was hubbys measure of a laborers...the day they came in with a full tool belt and said...i am a carpenter now..what about a raise

he does high end or did high end work where he stated....they expect a miracle ever day

Yeah....lots of work.
And miracles? Tell me about it....
I had to remind people that I'm an electrician and not a magician....and that when the magic smoke comes out of your device it's now dead and time to get another one.

But the things I could do were phenomenal....
You could plug your laptop into the table and the moment you played a video or something the lights would dim, blinds would close, sound system would come on, and either the TV or projector and screen would lower and come on....all automatically. Just because you played a YouTube video of a monkey riding a pig.

Podiums and microphones weren't so automatic. But there was a switch. And the lights had a different scheme of which ones would or wouldn't dim.

Not much different than any other motor controls cabinet for a robotics production line...push a button and it begins making widgets, yogurt, or automobiles.
(Petroleum/chem production requires instrumentation which is different but not by much)

They don't teach this stuff in college....but they do in trade schools. Not the hokey ones either...(bs trade schools have been popping up)

 

[sparky]

Just because you played a YouTube video of a monkey riding a pig.

lol!

don't get me started on all the DIYers John.....~S~

 

[The Sage of Main Street]

Construction apprentices make good wages....really good. Better than fast food or other low skill work. And there's always overtime and a schedule for them to keep advancing in wages until they become journeymen.

Skilled trades may be blue collar but they are making better $$ than most office jobs pay. The clothes are more comfortable and cheaper than suits and nice clothes cost....except for boots. Good boots will run $200 easily. (Not cheap boots)
Good tools are the next biggest expense...
And
If you are actually Skilled in your trade you can freelance on the weekends or do some subcontracting. Where you really make bank.

You won't get rich but you will make a very respectable income.

The things holding people back are:

1 going to college....people invest in these college courses and either don't finish or know how to apply their very overly common skills (ultra competitive environment) to advance....

2. Everyone goes to college....few even consider Skilled Trades as a career.

3. Skilled Trades work outside often....or in buildings under construction. Meaning hot in summer or freezing in winter. It's not a comfy desk job.

4. Early morning or sometimes graveyard hours. Most shifts start at 6am or a few are ending at 7am.

Here in Nashville TN journeymen electricians are getting $30/hr....that's $1200/wk for just 40 hrs.

Generic Credentials

I have to point out something that is decisive but never mentioned in this programmed debate. Talent is the only thing that matters, and its paramount importance can only be honestly recognized if the talented are paid highly during training.

So if someone announces that we need "30,000 engineers," for example, he is misleading us (which is what he was hired to do). The forbidden truth is that we need to motivate the 30,000 with the most natural talent to be engineers; wannabes need not apply. So all this talk of shortages misses the point. Even where there are no shortages, the ones doing the job are short on talent, including most college graduates.

 

[The Sage of Main Street]

“Everyone goes to college “?

Ambitious Imbeciles Become Diploma Dumbos

If going to college were based on brains instead of brown-nosing, you never would have made the cut. Jealous inferiority is the real reason the pseudo-educated oppose coolie college being replaced by highly paid professional training.

 

[Dont Taz Me Bro]

Several reasons for this, but I would argue a primary reason is the attitude the Boomer generation bestowed on their kids that if they didn't go to college they would end up being a loser. As a result, I think people began looking down on manual labor as a profession, that it's a career path for uneducated people and this attitude has been passed down to their children and now the current Gen Z.

 

[Unkotare]

...

If going to college were based on brains instead of brown-nosing, you never would have made the cut. ...

What the hell are you talking about?

 

[Unkotare]

Several reasons for this, but I would argue a primary reason is the attitude the Boomer generation bestowed on their kids that if they didn't go to college they would end up being a loser. As a result, I think people began looking down on manual labor as a profession, that it's a career path for uneducated people and this attitude has been passed down to their children and now the current Gen Z.

Long waiting lists to get into voc high schools today.

 

[Unkotare]

...

If going to college were based on brains instead of brown-nosing, you never would have made the cut. ...

What the hell are you talking about?