reviving blue collar work

8/18/2019 Reviving Blue Collar Work

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Reviving Blue Collar Work: 5

Benefits of Working in the Skilled

Trades

A couple weeks ago, I outlined and (hopefully) debunked four common myths about skilledlabor . While these stereotypes about blue collar work may have been true 50 years ago, theysimply aren’t the case in today’s world.

In the 90s and early 00s, everything was about the business world. Wall Street was goinggangbusters, this new fangled thing called the internet was taking off, and dream jobs were thosein which you sat in an office with a computer and made millions. Those jobs were not terriblydifficult to come by. Today’s youth have those same notions of where the good jobs are, butnowhere near the same success in finding them. While the job market is improving from theeconomy’s nosedive six years ago, it’s still not what it was pre-recession, especially for newcollege graduates, for whom the unemployment rate is at 8.5%, versus 5.8% for the workforce asa whole. It’s time young people looked outside the white collar box when it comes to landing asteady, good paying job.

My aim with this article is to convince you that blue collar jobs are in fact what some young menought to aspire to, just like they aspire to be a lawyer or banker. I’m not trying to convince you

that blue collar jobs are better (though in some cases they will be, just as in some cases whitecollar jobs will be better), but that they are simply on par with office jobs by nearly everymeasurable factor in terms of what makes a career a “good” one. That’s the stereotype that mostneeds breaking — that blue collar careers are beneath white collar ones and less desirable. Thesimple reality is that they aren’t, and here are 5 good reasons why:

1. Trade School: Cheaper & Shorter

One of the biggest benefits to working in the skilled trades is the education required. While thereare many positives to going to 4 years of school for a bachelor’s degree, there are also a few bignegatives, including cost. Since 1990, tuition costs have risen over 300%, far outpacing thegrowth of the economy. When costs rise at 7-8% per year, while inflation grows 2-3% per year,

you end up with a product that becomes unaffordable. For many folks, though, thatunaffordability isn’t standing in the way, because student loans are easy to come by. Because ofthat, about 2/3 of students with bachelor’s degrees are leaving college with debt that averages$26,000 per student. That’ll make for a $300 monthly payment for a decade. (From experience,it’s a little depressing when your student loan bill is more than your car payment.) All in all, youraverage bachelor’s degree is likely going to cost you over $100,000 — closer to $150k ifcompletely financed through loans.


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and let me tell you, I don’t know a single bachelor’s degree holder who started out at that high ofa salary!).

! Maintenance Mechanic: $38,000! Aircraft Mechanic: $49,000

!

Sheet Metal Mechanic: $47,000! Driver: $51,000! Electrician: $44,000! Painter: $35,000! Machinist: $37,000! Pipefitter: $49,000

Remember, those are the most common blue collar jobs. If you look at the higher end of tradeswork, you’ll see wages that are much higher than college grads:

! Locomotive Engineer: $63,000! Elevator Repairer/Installer: $73,000! Subway Operator: $60,000! Nuclear Technician: $69,000

! Aerospace Operations: $61,000

Remember, these are base salaries that come just as a result of your having the proper skills. Justlike with white collar work, there are many trades fields in which you can move up the ladderand earn far more. If you show management skills and big picture vision, you’ll receive promotions and raises, just as you would in an office setting. You can also start your own business, and use your entrepreneurial, creative, and customer service skills to set yourself apart

from the pack, at which point your income potential is as high as your ability to hustle.

You may be surprised to learn that being a tradesman could get into that somewhat hallowed six-figure salary range in far less time, and with far less money spent on schooling, than just aboutany other field of work. And you could possibly make even more than that; think a plumber can’tmake a million bucks a year? Think again!

Beyond wages, there are many other factors that actually play a more important role inworkplace satisfaction. Which leads to our next point…

3. Job Security: The Skilled Trades Can’t Be Outsourced


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Photo Source: Foster Jacob Electrical Contracting

Compensation is important, but only the third most important factor in overall job satisfaction.The first is actually “opportunity to use skills and abilities” (more on that below) and the secondis job security. So while pay in the trades may be commensurate with white collar work, forsome, these other factors will boost this type of work ahead of occupying a cubicle.

In our new economy, complete job security just doesn’t exist. Anything can happen to anycompany, and you can be let go. But some jobs are a lot more secure than others. Informationand tech jobs are particularly vulnerable to being taken over by robots or moved overseas, buteven once-secure jobs in the medical and legal sectors have begun to be outsourced as well.

The trades, on the other hand, simply cannot be outsourced. While the world may not always

need bloggers, it will always need mechanics, electricians, plumbers, welders, etc. When you’relocked out of your house, you won’t phone a customer service line and deal with robots trying toresolve your issue, you’ll call a locksmith (unless of course you can pick your own lock!). Theroads and bridges in this country will always be built here. Our skyscraper projects won’t beconstructed in France and shipped over (that was a one-time deal with Lady Liberty). While jobsin the information/tech/customer service sectors can always be shipped away, the careers

that require literal hands-on work cannot be.


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One of the points that Mike Rowe hammers home in his book, Profoundly Disconnected , is thatAmericans are disconnected from the things that keep our lives and society running on a daily basis (hence the title of the book). Without the trades, our society would literally crumble.Roads/bridges would go into disrepair. Cars would break down and not be fixed, and new carswouldn’t be made to replace them. Our electrical grid would shut down and we’d lose power.

Plumbing would break down or back up, and we’d all be swimming in our own waste. Not a pretty picture, is it? It may seem sort of dystopian, but in fact our infrastructure is falling apart before our eyes. The American Society of Civil Engineers rates it as a D+. 60 Minutes, just thisweek, did a feature on America’s crumbling infrastructure. This is an incredibly salient issue.Without more skilled tradesmen, it will only get worse.Of course, as 60 Minutes points out, politicians need to fund these projects, to pay thesetradesmen, to fix our decaying roads and bridges, but that’s a whole ‘nother subject. Yet even ifthese projects don’t get funded for a long time…

4. Availability: There Are Plenty of Jobs For the Taking

Trades jobs are not only very secure, there’s a whole lot of openings for them as well.

In the last post I briefly mentioned the skills gap here in America – the state of having more jobsavailable than workers who are trained and able to take those jobs. A big part of that reality issimply that there are more tradesmen retiring than entering the field. Among all jobs in the US,workers aged 25-44 make up about 48% of the workforce; among skilled trades jobs that numberis 46%, a mere 2-point difference. When you look at the 45-54 age range the picture is verydifferent. That group makes up 23% of the general workforce, but 32% of skilled trades,meaning that millions more tradesmen will be retiring in the next 15 years than white collarprofessionals.

For the blue collar worker, there are jobs to be had. They may not be in your city of choice, butthat’s a reality faced by much more than just tradesmen. Certain industries flock to certaingeographical regions (show biz and Hollywood, fashion and NYC, etc.), so to be successful youmay have to move. According to some estimates (including Mike Rowe and his foundation,which works to put tradesmen in good careers), there are literally millions of unfilled jobs rightnow in the skilled trades, with many more to be created in the years to come.

In fact, in just the next two years, an expected 2.5 million middle-skill jobs (those that requireless than a bachelor’s degree but more than a high school diploma) will be added to theworkforce, accounting for an incredible 40% of all job growth. The city of Houston alone is

expected to add 100,000 jobs in that same time period. North Dakota is in the midst of a petroleum boom, requiring not just oil/gas tradesman, but also electricians, plumbers, carpenters,etc. to build up the infrastructure. Atlanta has a booming film industry that employs almost80,000 people, with many more needed for the technical aspects like setting up lighting andsound, set construction, etc.

All over the country, the skilled tradesman is in demand.


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5. Intangibles: The Satisfaction of Blue Collar Work

Above, I mentioned that the number one factor in overall job satisfaction is being able to useyour skills and abilities. It was in 2012 when that factor overtook job security for the first time, just four years removed from the economy crashing. People are quickly discovering that feelinghappy and fulfilled at work is incredibly important.Do you want to spend 40 years of your life bored and dissatisfied for most of your day?Obviously not. But that’s what 70% of Americans feel at work, with highly educated peopleactually being more likely to be disengaged with their workplace. While boredom can obviouslyhappen at any job, the tradesman who’s working with his hands all day simply has lessopportunity for disengagement, as boredom at work often happens when there just isn’t enoughto do. Idleness is not often a problem for the blue collar man. In the last article, I mentioned the false notion that one has to “follow your passion” in order to be happy at work. This is often taken to mean that you should find something you enjoy, thenacquire skills in that field. Actually, it works the other way around; find a way to use your skills,no matter what those skills are, and you’ll be passionate about your work. I won’t go into that atlength here, but give that section a read from the previous piece.


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Other intangibles to be mentioned are things like autonomy at work and work/life balance. In anage where most people’s jobs are accessible by internet and smartphone, disconnecting fromwork is hard to do. You see emails come in at night, and you respond almost without thinkingabout it. You hop on the computer for a second, and it turns into an hour or two of work becauseit’s right there, and seems urgent. You become a slave to email, and to your higher-ups, even if

that’s not the intention. When you work with your hands, you can come home at night andactually disconnect from your job. You aren’t always “plugged in,” which gives you a betterchance to refresh your body and mind for the next day’s work. Of course, you can choose towork after hours if you’d like – but you’ll also be able to charge your customers a premium foryour services if you do!

One final factor is simply the satisfaction that can come from doing something tangible andconcrete with your time. Fixing things, building things, seeing the actual, physical fruit of yourlabor; this is often far more personally fulfilling than spending 8 hours on an excel spreadsheet.As author Matthew Crawford notes in a great article in the New York Times, “Many of us dowork that feels more surreal than real. Working in an office, you often find it difficult to see any

tangible result from your efforts. What exactly have you accomplished at the end of any givenday? Where the chain of cause and effect is opaque and responsibility diffuse, the experience ofindividual agency can be elusive.” In fact, in our modern economy, 40% of jobs are related tocoordinating and mediating rather than actually doing something directly.The woodworking hobbyist pursues this pastime because it feels really good to build something.The tinkerer of cars loves doing it because he can see something dead come to life, as a productof his own two hands. There is a satisfaction and fulfillment that comes from manual workthat simply cannot be achieved in any other setting. For some folks, manual work will remaina fruitful hobby, but for others, it can blossom into a meaningful and long-lasting career.

Conclusion

When we’re weighing which types of jobs to apply for, or even which to accept from multipleoffers should we be so lucky, the differentiators often come down to benefits. Pay, job security, balance, work environment, etc. For too long the skilled trades have been neglected as nothaving any benefits. Thankfully, the tide is turning, and people are starting to see that bluecollar work offers some real advantages over white collar work. There are jobs available, pay isgood, job security is excellent, and the satisfaction may be greater than being in the informationindustry.

In some cases and for some people, better jobs and benefits will come as a result of a 4-yeardegree and being in an office setting. That’s just fine. But for some folks, that’s just not the case.

My hope is that the young men reading this, as well as the seasoned men considering a careermove, will weigh all their options, and determine what’s best for them and their future.

reviving blue collar work

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