The Time Is Now

by Paul Deffenbaugh | 1 October 2020 12:00 am

All of that is true, and what else is true is we now have a rare opportunity. For the last couple of decades, we have seen less and less support for skilled trades. I won’t say our culture denigrates blue-collar workers, but we certainly haven’t embraced them. Consequently, not only do we struggle to attract young people to the trades, contractors labor to convince building owners of the value of their work and are constantly battling over price. If our culture understood the true value of skilled labor, we wouldn’t have to work so hard to sell it.

That attitude is changing right before our eyes. There are a couple of reasons and they are explicitly related to the current pandemic and economic slowdown. For decades, parents have been pushing their children to get a college degree. All the statistics have shown that people with college degrees out earn their counterparts over the course of a career. But college costs have spiraled up at a rate that far outstrips the cost of living. Between 1978 and 2010, college tuition increased more than 10 times. Home prices rose about 4 times and the consumer price index increased about 3.5 times.

The result is a college cost that is now making families doubt it as a reasonable investment. If you need to take on $200,000 in debt to get a four-year degree, the degree needs to translate into a career with significant income possibilities. Those opportunities are not widely available, especially for graduates coming from the humanities. In contrast, a job in the skilled trades, which provides a good career and requires no absorption of debt, appears pretty enticing.

During the pandemic, parents are further questioning the value of that investment when their children are sitting at home taking classes. Why, after all, should you pay $50,000 a year for Harvard while you’re attending classes in your bedroom and getting none of the ancillary benefits? That doesn’t seem like a smart investment.

This environment, where college costs are being sharply questioned, is mixing with a new attitude about the trades and a recognition by many parents that John, Jean, Jamal or Jaan may not be the best match for college given that he/she is struggling to get through high school. The trades provide a great career path and a smart alternative to working as a barista.

All of this means that for the first time in at least two decades, our industry has an audience that is willing to listen to its pitch. We have open minds, and a message of opportunity and possibility in the trades will fall not on deaf ears or a cold shoulder, but among parents, teachers and guidance counselors more willing to consider alternatives to the traditional college path.

Within my own circle of friends and family, I know four young people who are going into the trades from families that would have sent them to college a few years ago without question. The young people are interested in learning a trade and the parents don’t mind saving a few dollars. (All of a sudden that European vacation seems like a possibility.)

I believe change comes not in steady increments but in huge leaps. In biology, it’s called punctuated equilibrium. And I believe that during times of societal upheaval, change becomes more achievable. We are at a crossroads of upheaval and changing attitudes. With a push and with a sense of urgency, our industry can get a message about the opportunities in the skilled trades to a sympathetic audience.

If we ever want to solve the skilled labor shortage, we have to make the trades a more competitive career path and convince young people of that fact. Because of rising higher education costs, the trades are more competitive. Because of societal upheaval from the pandemic and economic downturn, young people are more open to convincing.

The time to act is now.

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