“You can make bank as a skilled worker in this environment”

Skilled worker pay is high and rising. Recent reports project that construction wage inflation will outpace CPI (now around 5%) for at least the near future, as employers are scrambling to find some 400,000 welders, 78,000 truck drivers, and 18,000 aircraft mechanics, just to name a few.

Stephanie Ferguson of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce says, “There are more than 10 million job openings in the U.S. — but only 5.7 million unemployed workers.” And a disproportionate number of those unfilled jobs are skilled labor, not white-collar work.

“This shortage is a direct consequence of politicians deciding that the ‘key to success’ is a college education,” says Antony Davies, an associate professor of economics at Pittsburgh’s Duquesne University. “They’ve spent the past half-century — from the GI Bill to subsidized student loans to standardized testing to (possibly) loan forgiveness — pushing students into college. The result is that fewer students go into the trades, and colleges create low-value fields of study to attract students who aren’t best suited to a college education.”

Meanwhile, young people who enter the skilled trades workforce after completing training at a proprietary school, community college or union apprenticeship program can earn significant money and enjoy the security of knowing their skills will almost always be in demand.

The median salary for a respiratory therapist is $98,000.

Construction managers earn a median of $120,000

Elevator mechanics earn $88,000. 

Aviation techs can make $100 per hour at a major airline.

“Contractor business owners are looking for HVAC and plumbing technicians coming out of apprenticeship programs and trade schools, but we hear manufacturers and suppliers also have open marketing, sales and management positions to fill. A skilled trade education can be an advantage in finding a job with those employers.”

Fewer than 9% of workers aged 19-24 are entering the trades! Part of the challenge is that skilled laborers tend to be older, and older workers left the workforce in large numbers during the COVID crisis. As workers age out of the skilled trades, reports the staffing firm PeopleReady, fewer younger workers enter these files. Its data show 40 percent of the 12 million people in the skilled trades workforce are over the age of 45, with nearly half of those workers over the age of 55.

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