OP is clearly a blue collar guy
This will change with the immigration crackdown
Lol no idea about unemployment numbers but thats probably less about available jobs and more about people looking or even how they collect those stats.
I know some trade work is seasonal and people are happy to take a season off and collect unemployment year after year. Thats probably captured in those stats.
This guy from Forbes states otherwise.
The Booming Job Market For Skilled Tradespersons
I think Gen Z are just crybabies, lol.
Employers are crybabies too
They’ll break the law or get the law changed when they don’t get what they want
A lot of these guys cant handle the physical actuality of many trades.
They are soft. Rather than forcing them to toughen up, the market is adapting to these pussies.
much like the college lie of the 80’s, 90’s, and 00’s, people have bought the “just join the trades” hype wholesale without realizing they aren’t going to start out making the ridiculous salaries that are always cited.
I’ve seen eye watering “average” income stats in some of these reports. Like, really? You think you’re going to join a road crew out of highschool and pull in $120k? In Arkansas?
Try $45k. For three or four years. Probably longer since these are people who didn’t grow up around any kind of physical work, at all. Zero aptitude and often very little tolerance for discomfort.
It’s exactly like the people moving into the trades during the pandemic. Maybe half of them could learn to do the work at all and maybe a third of that fraction was willing to
Yet both of ours are gainfully employed and stacking up cash.
It’s all work ethic. You either have it or dont.
Its not employment that gets you paid in trades but self employment and some trades are better for that than others.
Self employment gets you paid in white collar industries too but its much less common in most of them.
I did some implementation work for a large construction company (200 million dollar + projects) and they only employed probably 20% of the people on their site and most of that was actually dumb labor almost all high skilled trade work was subbed out and not to large contractors but independents and small crews.
Plenty of welders make ridiculous cash employed by companies.
Whats ridiculous to you? What hourly rate?
I heard a podcast where the host was talking about his daughter deciding to not go to college but is learning welding. Just got an apprenticeship making something like $20/hr. During her first week, she had 2 companies approach her with job offers starting at $60/hr once she gets her Journeyman.
Neighbor does home improvement work and is booked out 18 months. He constantly complains about not being able to find good trades people to do electrical or plumbing work.
If they’ll pay you $60 an hour as an employee you can get $150-200 an hour as a subcontractor.
Its funny i work in software but virtually everyone i know who is rich in my personal life (or even through professional contacts) got rich from trades, manufacturing, wholesale, farming. Lol. All the non sexy stuff. Maybe just where i grew up .. Maybe would be different growing up some where like NYC or something.
And the company he works for charges double to the gc and the gc probably doubles or triples that cost to the customer.
In all industries the closer to the client you are the more money you should make.
Absolutely.
