Economy
Related: About this forumGen Z is ditching college for 'more secure' trade jobs--but ...
BY ORIANNA ROSA ROYLE
ASSOCIATE EDITOR, SUCCESS
July 2, 2025 at 8:52 AM EDT
With AI coming for white collar work, Gen Z have been ditching college and corner office ambitions, in favor of taking up traditional trades like welding, plumbing, and carpentry. But theyre in for a rude awakening: high unemployment rates, unhappiness and automation risks.
Trade jobs are having a moment. Touted as the smarter, safer alternative to irrelevant overpriced degrees and entry-level white-collar jobs (which tech CEOs warn could soon be swallowed by AI), traditional manual work is experiencing a resurgence among Gen Z.
Around 78% of Americans say theyve noticed a spike in young people turning to jobs like carpentry, electrical work and welding, according to a 2024 Harris Poll for Intuit Credit Karma. Theyre not wrong. Trade school enrollment really has been surging post-pandemic, even outpacing university enrollment.
And it makes sense: six-figure salaries without student loans, the freedom to work for yourself, and hands-on, real-world skills that cant be outsourced to a chatbot. But new research suggests that the reality isnt as stableor as future-proofas its being pitched.
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OldBaldy1701E
(8,339 posts)This is a reason to be worried about taking a job in the trades as opposed to giving universities more money to get a career that has the same amount of uncertainty and 'unhappiness', as well as no better guarantee of employment security?
(I am doubtful that anyone is 'happy' these days, except the power elite that are driving this nation into a full fledged oligarchy- dictatorship. So, using that as an excuse to try and get more people to support the universities, which cannot guarantee anything any better than the trades that the writer is dissing, except crippling debt of course, is pretty funny.)
NJCher
(40,672 posts)If you know anything about happiness, it is not dependent on exterior factors.
Its actually tied to neuroscience. Ones individual thinking habits have everything to do with it.
Its a matter of whether you want to invest your time and effort into practices that will cause conditions in your brain that are conducive to happiness. Sure, its work. Its effort. So is a physical workout every day. Millions of people do that, too.
Anyone can be happy, even in this political environment.
OldBaldy1701E
(8,339 posts)NJCher
(40,672 posts)Are scientifically proven.
Yours are a product of caveman brain.
Note to others who have an open mind: EFT tapping .
OldBaldy1701E
(8,339 posts)Hugin
(36,553 posts)But, that report only sees part of the picture.
What I am seeing is blended or hybrid couples are common in many of the younger generations that are still participating in the working age group.
One partner is in what this article defines as the trades while the other is in a traditional white collar occupation. I believe they fall into this pattern because it provides some stability of income.
bucolic_frolic
(51,381 posts)and try to tuck a 2 year degree along the way, and invest in retirement assets regularly even if unspectacularly.
nitpicked
(1,307 posts)And if the "fat cat bureaucrats", government contractors, etc. are laid off, optional trades work may go by the wayside.