It is disheartening to see a recurring theme of individuals expressing frustration over their inability to afford a home or advance in society, yet also expressing reluctance to engage in activities that could potentially bring financial stability. Our predecessors sacrificed their physical well-being in order to construct and maintain the infrastructure and amenities that we now benefit from. In order to maintain a functioning society, it is necessary for individuals to contribute their skills and labor to the greater good. Whether it be through manual labor or desk work, every individual is essentially selling their time, effort, and health to their employer. While it may not be the most desirable circumstance, it is a necessary component of societal functioning.
The skilled trades haven't caught as a career choice with Gen Z
181–190 of 915 posts
Re: The skilled trades haven't caught as a career choice with Gen Z
#182Trades pay shit. I have friends that are electricians and they made more a decade ago than the current journeyman rate. Nevermind inflation, we're talking only nominal pay.
I'm in Houston. A "manual" machinist (non-CNC) working in my factory in 1980 could make $25 per hour. In 2020, I was still paying the same machinist $25 an hour nominally, except now he operates a CNC machinist and is vastly more productive. However, his productivity gains have been competed away both domestically and by oversees manufacturing, and via boom and bust cycles in the oil patch that reset wages.
Re: The skilled trades haven't caught as a career choice with Gen Z
#183Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It isn't a bad career But there is a finite end to the career - when your body gives out. That's the biggest problem with the trades, you're selling your health and body. And eventually the body parts will wear out, on a schedule decided as much by genetics as how you live.
This is the reality of all jobs where you work for someone else. You're selling your time, and your body to someone else.
You're right, but there's a gradient: there's selling your time and then there's selling your time and being in constant pain.
Re: The skilled trades haven't caught as a career choice with Gen Z
#184Any former software developers here who transitioned to plumbing/electrician/etc? If so, what did the steps look like?
welder. learn to weld. take a community college class to get certified. somewhere in there get a job at an abusive shop making $30 migging tube fences and grinding all day. try to find any lifeline to a higher paying less brutal work environment hopefully without assholes constantly doing hinky shit for a laugh
Yes, at least do it once. Classes are very cheap! $500 for about 30h with a welding instructor pays for itself in fun alone.
Re: The skilled trades haven't caught as a career choice with Gen Z
#185Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah it's weird right, how can we make homes and rent cheaper without more supply of homes?
i think that , if land and materials were cheap, genz or genX or any gen would learn to build their own homes. We ve actually been doing that for thousands of years
Its not just a land/materials problem, its a zoning/permits issue in many places.
Re: The skilled trades haven't caught as a career choice with Gen Z
#186Earlier quoted context omitted.
Many adults were told college was the only way to go. Those who went through college and those who didn't. Doesn't matter the debt. It's always better. Except it's not. First, society is going to have too few skilled trades folks in the coming years due to people retiring and not being replaced. Second, a lot of college degrees can't get someone a good job. I remember someone telling me they had a business degree and…
A business degree makes the candidate over-qualified for managing a mall store is the likely reason. They are afraid of the employee using the position as a stepping stone to a higher paying, higher status job.
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Re: The skilled trades haven't caught as a career choice with Gen Z
#187Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm curious, has your employer tried paying more? There are a fair few desk jobs that pay $25-30/hr, and it's entirely possible that people are trading job stability for something that isn't so physically demanding.
There's not that many jobs that pay that much around here. However, our Seattle location has that problem. It was almost closed down because of competition. edit: can't reply to the person who replied below, but if you have a contract to sell parts to a company you can't just increase your worker pay to whatever you want and have it be sustainable.
There's not that many jobs that pay that much around here.
But that doesn't answer the question. If you can't get people to apply for a physically demanding job, despite other benefits like stability, unionization, etc, at $25-30/hr then it seems rational to try $35-40/hr unless the need really isn't there. We've been living with so much inflation relative to such little wage growth that if I was told things are more expensive because machinists want a wage they can use to buy a house with I would still chafe at the inflation but the justification would be a lot more palatable than "the board raised the prices and did a stock buyback with the profits".
Re: The skilled trades haven't caught as a career choice with Gen Z
#188It is disheartening to see a recurring theme of individuals expressing frustration over their inability to afford a home or advance in society, yet also expressing reluctance to engage in activities that could potentially bring financial stability. Our predecessors sacrificed their physical well-being in order to construct and maintain the infrastructure and amenities that we now benefit from. In order to maintain a…
"every individual"
ha ha hah ha
Re: The skilled trades haven't caught as a career choice with Gen Z
#189In contrast to most people here, I have actually worked outside of an office chair, for a short period of time, in a factory and also do woodworking as a hobby. The reason fewer people want to learn the trades is because it sucks. It's usually too hot or too cold, dirty (not just oil, I'm talking about spiders and bugs, nasty customer's homes and so on), loud and dusty, it's hard on your body (try standing for 8h straight without moving or holding a vibrating tool for hours), it's less intellectually stimulating than STEM office jobs and the low barrier of entry, combined with a much lower margin than software makes for low wages.
I'm happy with my home office programming jobs, even though it is pointless and unfulfilling.
The US and European economies are increasingly becoming service economies and the middle class is eroded. People nowadays are too poor to pay for skilled domestic labor, only cheaply produced trinkets from overseas are still affordable. I think the only time, if ever, that production and building will become popular again is when China will finally cut us off und people realize that you can't eat software, metaphorically speaking.
Re: The skilled trades haven't caught as a career choice with Gen Z
#190It is disheartening to see a recurring theme of individuals expressing frustration over their inability to afford a home or advance in society, yet also expressing reluctance to engage in activities that could potentially bring financial stability. Our predecessors sacrificed their physical well-being in order to construct and maintain the infrastructure and amenities that we now benefit from. In order to maintain a…
I’m going to be deadass with you brother. We don’t have a functioning society, we have an immigration labor camp.