Blue collar labor shortage
Rowe believes many of the vacant positions are for what he calls “dirty jobs” — blue collar work that requires training and experience in the trades rather than the traditional four-year college degree.
A 2019 study by The Conference Board supports this claim. It said that 85% of companies in “mostly blue-collar industries” reported recruiting difficulties versus 64% among companies in “mostly white-collar industries.”
It may be that young adults are not keen to acquire trades skills and fill these jobs. Seventy-four percent of American 18- to 20-year-olds perceive a stigma over choosing vocational school instead of college, and 79% said their parents wanted them to pursue a college education after high school, according to a McKinsey survey.
In addition to this, McKinsey said that “the on-site and highly structured nature of construction and manufacturing jobs” doesn’t map to younger workers’ employment preferences like workplace flexibility.
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Get Started“Scandalous” push for college degrees
Rowe clarifies that he isn’t against the idea of young people pursuing college. But the benefits of attaining a degree, he argues, must be weighed against the costs involved.
“There's nothing wrong with a four-year degree,” he said. “I've got one. It served me well. But in 1984, when the dust settled, two years at community college and two years at university [cost] $12,400. Today, same schools, same course load, $95,000. So, never in the history of Western civilization has anything become more expensive more quickly than this four-year degree. And yet, and yet, the pressure we've put on kids to get one cost be damned is scandalous.”
Total student loan debt has ballooned from $260 billion in the second-quarter of 2004 to $1.58 trillion in Q2 2024, according to the Federal Reserve. This crisis may have convinced some young adults to reconsider their approach to education. A recent survey by Pew Research found that only 22% of American adults believe a college degree is worth the cost if the student needs to rely on loans to finance it.
This may be an early indication of a turnaround in public perception about education and skills training.
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