Posted on 04/25/2025 6:00:00 PM PDT by CFW
This was a really interesting couple of pieces I came across this morning, especially after writing that piece on all the student loan defaults.
It seems there might be a trend back towards the trades beginning to appear among the Gen Z crowd.
Some of the reasons seem obvious to me - the bloated cost of a college education, for one, and the ubiquitous nature of the sheepskin being required for even entry-level jobs now.
If everyone needs a college degree, doesn't that necessarily dilute the value of earning one?
...That’s in part because of the cost of getting a bachelor’s degree, they tell CNBC Make It. The annual cost of attending a four-year, in-state public college increased by about 30% between 2011 and 2023, according to Make It calculations based on data from the Education Data Initiative, and went up by 42% at private, nonprofit four-year colleges.
“There are about 2 million fewer students in a traditional four-year university now than in 2011,” says Nich Tremper, senior economist at payroll and benefits platform Gusto.
[snip]
...Morgan Bradbury, 21, first tried welding in high school. She loved it.
[snip]
She got a job at military and information security company BAE Systems before even completing her course with a starting salary of about $57,000 per year. She’s now a second-class welder on U.S. Navy ships in Norfolk, Virginia.
[snip]
...The outlook, Moore and other experts say, is that there will likely be many more such scenes in the years ahead. That's because the current class of high school seniors scheduled to graduate this spring will be the last before an expected long decline begins in the number of 18-year-olds — the traditional age of students when they enter college.
(Excerpt) Read more at hotair.com ...
So true. When I was a teen, for my mom I welded a bracket to hold a garage door opener motor, and converted the garage door to be automated. Also welded a water heater stand. I was proud to have built them with my own hands. Learned welding on my own after my dad passed away. Worked in shops later, making things. Later on when working a desk job, disliked lazy people behind desks who accomplished nothing with their own hands.
And we have more international students than ever.
So it may be as many as 3 million fewer American students compared to 2011.
So far, men are the majority.
But except for welding jobs that require brute force to position the parts one is welding, there is no reason a female can't do the job.
welding requires the type of craft skills and dexterity similar to sewing or knitting that women have traditionally done anyway.
It's just metals instead of fabrics.
The same with running CNC machines and 3D printing.
With modern lifting devices you don't need a lot of muscle strength to do a lot of jobs now.
They don’t get it. The young are moving away from Communism and back to a real way of making a living. They are moving to Trump and God.
“Are there more women or men welders?”
Women make up over 50% of the poulation.
Only about 0.1% of the population are welders. Even if all the welders were men there would still be more women than male welders
.
8% of the welders in America are women. Wonder why they never interviewed a man?
How does speed and production vary, employers must have some standard that they measure employee quality by.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.