Posted on 02/17/2023 7:07:31 PM PST by SeekAndFind
The American economy needs fewer bachelor’s degrees and more ironworkers
Thousands of high-paying blue-collar jobs that don’t require a college degree sit empty because too many people think college is necessary, according to the Hechinger Report.
“While a shortage of workers pushes wages higher in the skilled trades, the financial return from a bachelor’s degree is softening, even as the price, and the average debt into which it plunges students, remain high,” the higher education news outlet reported.
So many high school graduates have been coached and primed to get a bachelor’s that highly paid jobs requiring less expensive and time-consuming training are not being filled. This “poses a real threat to the economy,” according to the news outlet.
There’s a mistaken idea that college “is the sole path for everybody,” Chris Cortines, co-author of a report on Washington state career and tech education programs, told the Hechinger Report.
“There’s an emphasis on the four-year university track” in high schools across the country, he said. However, “when you look at the types of wages that apprenticeships and other career areas pay, and the fact that you do not pay four years of tuition and you’re paid while you learn, these other paths really need some additional consideration,” Cortines said.
Most trade employers do require some post-secondary education, according to the Hechinger Report. But those qualifications typically cost a lot less and take much less time than a bachelor’s degree.
U.S. has a deficit of skilled tradespeople
Nearly 90 percent of contractors struggle to find craft workers and 61 percent of firms reported delays due to workforce shortages, according to a 2021 news release from the Associated General Contractors of America.
The country needs more ironworkers, drywall installers, and sheet metal workers, in particular, according to the Hechinger Report.
Ironworkers earn an average of $57,160 per year, the news outlet reported.
Even more, median wages for construction jobs are higher than the median pay for all jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“Half of payroll workers in construction earn more than $49,030 and the top 25% make at least $68,690 [in 2020],” according to a news release that year from the National Association of Home Builders. In contrast, in 2020 the U.S. median wage was $39,810.
Overall, approximately 30 million jobs in the United States that pay an average of $55,000 per year don’t require bachelor’s degrees, according to the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce.
In response, at least 39 states actively encourage career and technical education, and many have increased funding for these pathways, according to a 2017 Brookings Institute review.
Even more, legislation introduced in Congress last month would make some shorter post-high school workforce programs eligible for federal Pell Grants.
“For too long, the college-for-all mentality drove Americans toward expensive and often ineffective education pathways,” according to the legislation’s sponsors.
“As our country stares down a historic worker shortage, fewer Americans are getting the skills they need to be successful.”
Straight, white, older males are shunned due to DEI and the alternatives can do the jobs!
95+% of today’s millennial/Z lazy bums couldn’t handle the workload of a real trades job anyway.
If you don’t go to college, how will you know it’s time to re-gender?
Of course I don't like heights so I got a little queasy just listening to him describe the job. So back to my desk I go.
Construction workers avg 50 bucks an hour around San Jose CA, get 2x for any overtime, get 2x pay for working their birthdays, and get 3-6 weeks paid vacay a year.
Lot of other perks too.
Programmer’s cannot match that, and you can’t outsource labor to india.
I gave up my MOS certs, my MCSE in windows 7/server2008 and went into heavy machinery mechanics. One of the best decisions I did. If I went back into the mechanic field i’d have an easy job as a tech and make 40-50 an hour doing diagnostics only. The apprentices can turn the wrenches easily enough.
I will never send my kids to college. They are leftist indoc centers.
While in college one of my better friends started installing inside fire sprinkler systems on the side. It went so well that he quit college and grew the business. Today he goes into the office a couple times a week to check on things. On Friday his accountant wife goes in to do payroll. The rest of the time they travel extensively including cruises. He once joked that they keep six-figure balance in their vacation account so they can do something spontaneous. Needless to say their other assets are substantial.
So needless to say college is not the answer if you have a willingness to work at something you enjoy. Many times that combination results in success simply as a by-product.
Tell me about it. I'm 57, working 12 hour shifts doing physical work and wondering how the hell I'll make it to 65/67. I bruise and cut easier and my feet and back are in pain all day. Thinking about getting a job at the auto parts chain, counter or driver. Probably driver since it doesn't require standing on concrete like I've been doing for 40 years.
Only a limited number of blue collar can end up getting promoted to foremen, management etc because if there's one foreman for 15 guys, only 1 of those 15 can eventually replace the foreman.
These days, $40-50k is not a "high paying job".
Yep, I could tell HR at the company I work for was looking to hire diversity applicants. But there arent many machinists to begin with, fewer of them in diversity groups, and fewer still that arent just button pushers. Got hired because the shop manager and supervisor knew what they had and told HR to hire me.
True. Only one of mine did the full college route to become a specialized engineer. His school was a small private university that worried about content of character, not color of skin. They didn’t even have a diversity department, or a sports program.
If the government will actually invest in national construction projects instead of diversity training for people who will never pick up a hammer, maybe those people can get on contracts and get back to work.
What is its name?
That’s funny.
Capitol Technology University in Maryland.
They specialize in Cyber Security and Astronautical Engineering.
They also have something really cool. An employment guarantee.
A job in your field within 90 days of graduating at a competitive salary, or they pay for your Masters Degree
Here in Florida the plumbers, hvac folks, etc. are constantly looking for qualified workers. They have begun training promising young people, but the drawback to that is the cost of training and their ability to keep them once they are productive. The owners of these entities can make really good money (mid to high 6 figures and some even more).
Entrepreneurs don’t need to go to college to make a good living.
“Tell me about it. I’m 57, working 12 hour shifts doing physical work and wondering how the hell I’ll make it to 65/67. I bruise and cut easier and my feet and back are in pain all day. Thinking about getting a job at the auto parts chain, counter or driver. Probably driver since it doesn’t require standing on concrete like I’ve been doing for 40 years.”
Working in the HVAC field, I ended up on disability in my mid 50s. The rest of the crew I worked with also ended up on disability or had to take early retirement. It’s hell on the body.
Started working in construyas a teenager and ran a business full time or on the side for years, even went back to building high end stuff for a while
It is hard on the body and despite being able to make a lot as a contractor I make far more in tech and frankly have a lot more freedom
Many who are chasing the college degrees can’t imagine having to do hard or dirty work they want to work in a climate controlled environment and sit all day for normal people it’s called caged.
Free range workers have more fun and are closer to reality.
“They” object to manual labor, getting hands dirty and sweating a bit.
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