The Romance and Reward of Hard, Physical Labor

 

 

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According to the Wall Street Journal:

“Long beset by a labor crunch, the skilled trades are newly appealing to the youngest cohort of American workers, many of whom are choosing to leave the college path. Rising pay and new technologies in fields from welding to machine tooling are giving trade professions a face-lift, helping them shed the image of being dirty, low-end work. Growing skepticism about the return on a college education, the cost of which has soared in recent decades, is adding to their shine.

“Enrollment in vocational training programs is surging as overall enrollment in community colleges and four-year institutions has fallen. The number of students enrolled in vocational-focused community colleges rose 16 percent last year to its highest level since the National Student Clearinghouse began tracking such data in 2018. The ranks of students studying construction trades rose 23 percent during that time, while those in programs covering HVAC and vehicle maintenance and repair increased 7 percent.”

The compensation for a journeyman in the mechanical trades, on the basis of the general 2000 hours worked annually, is in the neighborhood of $80,000. Big deal. The skills and knowledge needed to perform the work are greater than those of their managers and company owners. Their work is dirty and dangerous, performed in bad light and under intense time pressure. 

As in many areas of the American work place, competition is the rule, rather than cooperation. Since they are employed at the employers' discretion, workers are competing with their workmates to avoid the next lay-off. When there's a slow day at a big corporation management can't lay off their work force because they would never get them back. In the case of trade workers they can because a pool of idle workers is always available. In the case of union men, there's a reluctance to go to another industry because that would eliminate their investment in a retirement program financed by their own contributions.

Prior generations of blue-collar workers were part of the exodus from rural America to the city. They were made superfluous by the mechanization of agriculture, which went from being the largest employer in the country to one of the smallest. They grew up in a society dedicated to the hard work necessary on a farm and acquired the many skills to keep the operation going. This is now over. Building trades workers from the boomer generation have retired. There is no similar work for the youthful. High school graduates in any community are unlikely to develop mechanical skills.

While work in blue-collar construction and maintenance has its bright spots it will continue to be a secondary choice for the young even under the current financial regime of academia. A career in blue collar work doesn't fulfill the American desire for social advancement.