Gen Zers are steadily abandoning the college-to-corporate pipeline, opting for trade school and blue-collar jobs instead. They’re suiting up as electricians, plumbers, and carpenters for six-figure salaries—but there’s one thriving industry they’re still turning their nose up at.
Manufacturing is one of America’s hottest growing professions, with 3.8 million new jobs expected to open up by 2033, according to research last year fromDeloitte and the Manufacturing Institute.
Yet half of those roles are predicted to go unfilled. Just 14% of Gen Z say they’d consider industrial work as a career, according to a separate study from Soter Analytics.
These retiring boomers are leaving a union position and taking a pension in many cases which is not transferred to the next generation. Management has been squeezing and squeezing.
Without the union pay and with the spike in housing costs, it shouldn’t come as any surprise that the third generation in a row that re told that blue collar work is awful is not getting on board with the least fulfilling version of blue collar work.