Complete Respect
BY Louis Lopez
A major crisis facing the United States is the stigma around skilled tradespeople in the workforce. Their absence causes significant shortages in the maintenance and manufacturing sectors and directly harms millions of people, as my statistical and anecdotal evidence will illustrate. The social norm that everyone must go to college, get a degree, and become a “professional” perpetuates this crisis. The solution to this problem is simple: educators and parents must change how they direct the youth on their postsecondary paths; the youth must know that well-paying, important, and fulfilling alternatives to college education exist.
Much of the stigma surrounding the skilled trades originated from the post-war American Dream in the 1950s and 1960s. Parents told their children that going to college and becoming a “professional” was necessary for a well-paying career that mattered in society – something important. To them, being a lawyer, engineer, or doctor was such a career. No doubt, this perspective was highly influential. Between 1970 and 2010, undergraduate college enrollment jumped from “7.4 million” to “21.0 million” (Hanson). The prospect of being a college-educated professional became part of the American ideal. Being an electrician, plumber, or carpenter did not fit that image. The stereotype of tradespeople was that they were uneducated, working-class, and poor. This perspective created generations of gen-Xers, millennials, and gen-Zers raised to view the skilled trades as last-ditch alternatives to college. Although many high school students still opted for trade school and other postsecondary paths, they remained external to the American ideal. According to a survey conducted by Metal Supermarkets, an industrial supplies vendor, 54.9% of people between 18 and 24 stated that “people with office jobs get more respect than those who work with their hands.” This poll was conducted in 2019. The stigma has not dissipated.
Today, students view college as essential, with some choosing college out of pressure. Those who do not are marginalized. This is especially true of middle-class and upper-class communities because they foster such pressuring environments. A good example of this is from my own life. My high school has a tradition of venerating students attending college by posting on Instagram pictures of those students on a background themed with the university they attend. Additionally, my high school publishes highlights of college-bound students in the town newspaper. Those opting for trade schools or other postsecondary options are never recognized in such a way. They are ignored. Why can’t high schools treat technical schools in the same way they treat colleges? It is marginalizing in nature but unspoken in reality – and that is precisely the issue. Furthermore, many students realize that they never wanted to attend college in the first place. As a result, they drop out and face debt they should have never incurred.
The student debt crisis is currently subsuming the United States, and students who drop out and pursue a technical education are among the victims. Even students who do finish college but realize that the job market does not favor their degrees are victims of the same crisis. In 2012, total student debt surpassed “$1 trillion dollars” (NPR). This is not surprising considering how much college costs have increased recently. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, average annual tuition fees were $9,400 at public four-year institutions and $37,600 at private nonprofit four-year institutions in 2020-2021. The numbers for technical schools are very different. Trade school tuition “can range from $3,674 to $15,923” (Indeed Editorial Team). This is for the entire duration of trade school. Students can become employed directly after as apprentices and other skilled tradespeople. Therefore, it is a travesty to have students pressured into college experiences when they should have decided their futures – especially when they carry the burden of student loan debt. Meanwhile, many skilled tradespeople come out with much less or no debt.
Economic necessity is another reason to break the stigma surrounding the skilled trades. As of 2022, the shortage of skilled tradespeople in the U.S. stood at over “4,000,000 vacancies” (Addison). Covid-19 and the Great Resignation created these vacancies as experienced tradespeople retired, with very few young people there to replace them. This is a critical problem in the industry. A lack of talent at the bottom has created a vacuum of human capital, actively harming our economy. I know this firsthand. My father is a senior electrician at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. Out of the 16 electricians in his shop, four of them retired during the pandemic. Only one of them was replaced ever since, and to this day, NYPH struggles to attract maintenance workers – even when starting wages approach well over $50 an hour for new journeymen. The lack of skilled tradespeople has hit the market like a bombshell, endangering critical infrastructure and those reliant on that infrastructure. Across the U.S., this is only the beginning. NYPH is one entity in one sector of the larger skilled trades sector. Talent shortages in the skilled trades will worsen if we do not stop this crisis. It is a societal problem that began in our school system and can only end there.
One may say that my argument endangers our society’s progress in expanding college enrollment. College enrollment on its own is not damaging to society. It significantly benefits to our society as it makes our workforce more skilled in the long term. A college education is necessary for many professions that require specific skills and well-rounded individuals. Examples include medical professionals, attorneys, educators, and engineers. I am not suggesting that we actively disincentivize college education. Instead, we should be smart about how we advise our youth. Only people who need a college education for their occupation of choice should go to college and incur the costs associated. Moreover, we cannot marginalize those who do not wish to pursue a college education. Educators must learn how to advise students who choose other postsecondary paths. Potentially, schools can partner with technical schools and trade unions to establish pipelines for interested students. Perhaps they can even create technical skill electives as part of a more inclusive curriculum tied to new educational pipelines. Most importantly, schools must advertise and treat other postsecondary paths as respectable choices alongside college education.
Our parents and educators have the power to end the stigma surrounding the skilled trades. They must tell young people that there are more careers that pay well and that matter in society beyond the lawyer, engineer, and doctor. We must teach young people that they decide what fulfills them and makes them happy. If we do not, we will continue marginalizing millions of young people, indebting countless more, and destabilizing our economy. It is in our hands to fix. All we must do is change our view of labor and treat the decisions of all our youth with complete respect.
Works Cited
Addison, Joy. “Skilled labor workforce sees severe nationwide shortage.” Foxbusiness.com, FOX News Network, 4 Feb. 2022, www.foxbusiness.com/features/skilled-labor-workforce-severe-nationwide-shortage. Accessed 14 May 2023.
Hanson, Melanie. “College Enrollment & Student Demographic Statistics.” Educationdata.org, 26 July 2022, educationdata.org/college-enrollment-statistics. Accessed 14 May 2023.
Indeed Editorial Team. “How Much Does Trade School Cost? A Comparison Guide.” Indeed.com, Indeed, 24 June 2022, www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/trade-school-cost. Accessed 14 May 2023.
National Center for Education Statistics. “Tuition costs of colleges and universities.” Nces.ed.gov, U.S. Department of Education, 20 July 2022, nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=76. Accessed 14 May 2023.
“Student Loan Debt Exceeds One Trillion Dollars.” Npr.org, NPR, 12 Apr. 2012, www.npr.org/2012/04/24/151305380/student-loan-debt-exceeds-one-trillion-dollars. Accessed 14 May 2023.
“Survey Says: There is a Lack of Awareness and Negative Perception of Trade Schools and Careers.” Metalsupermarkets.com, MSKS IP, 13 Nov. 2019, www.metalsupermarkets.com/survey-says-there-is-a-lack-of-awareness-and-negative-perception-of-trade-schools-and-careers/. Accessed 14 May 2023.
About the Author
Louis Lopez is a sophomore at the Gabelli School of Business, majoring in global business with a concentration in finance and business economics. Originally from New Jersey, Louis is passionate about economics and is president of the LC Economics Society. This summer, he will intern for the Boston Consulting Group and plans to enter the consulting field after graduation.