Gen Z, the first generation entirely raised in the digital age, has officially thrown a wrench into the job market. Zoomers are a demographic adept at navigating the virtual world, and interest in blue-collar business — the dirty-hands kind — is on the rise. From plumbing to welding to electrical wiring, specialized trades appeal to over half of Gen Z, as in last year’s The report on the future of skilled occupations of home improvement company Thumbtack, said increased visibility of blue-collar work on social media has had the most significant influence on their thinking.
With student loan debt balloon balloonthe threat of AI looming, and corporate mistrust at what feels like an all-time high, Credit Karma consumer finance advocate Courtney Alev says it’s no surprise that Gen Z is heeding the call of commerce, once drowned out by social pressure to pursue a four-year degree.
In fact, Alev tells PS, “not only do 54 percent of those with student loans regret their decision to take on debt for a degree,” but exactly half of all Americans now disprove the once-common thinking that four-year college automatically produces a higher return on the investment than business school, according Credit Karma’s 2024 survey about Gen Z driving a resurgence in workers. As a result, almost a third of Gen Z works a corporate job have just now thought about starting vocational training.
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Courtney Alev is a consumer financial advocate at digital finance company Credit Karma.
Unsurprisingly, social media can hold the strings. Last year, nearly 80 percent of Gen Z respondents to the Thumbtack survey reported seeing “increased attention for the skilled trades on social media.” This appears to be particularly affecting Gen Z female users of apps like TikTok and Instagram, who rank social media as their number one “career influence,” even higher than their parents’ influence. So it shows that a whopping 52 percent of them now express an interest in professional work, almost equal to the 57 percent of Gen Z men who feel the same way.
Showing young women’s eagerness for the trade, the hashtag “blue collar babe” has over 124,000 posts on TikTok, with videos from popular women such as Australian welder Melissa Martini (TheWelderPrincess) with 58,000 followers; Washington-based skater Bethany Lipska (SouthernSugar33) with nearly 250,000 followers; and New York-based electrician Lexis Czumak-Abreu (LexTheElectrician) with over 1 million followers.
“Without (trade) jobs, your heat wouldn’t come on, your lights wouldn’t come on, you couldn’t drive on the road.”
Regardless of gender, Gen Z – dubbed the “tool belt generation” by The Wall Street Journal — sees job security in practical occupations like plumbing, which cannot be easily mechanized or replaced by AI. And many see exciting new challenges in the clean energy space that defines the modern economy, particularly solar and geothermal energy, which require highly specialized technical skills.
However, while there is an influx of qualified professional content that sparks excitement about working online, there is still a persistent lack of real training opportunities for the growing number of young people looking to make a living in a profession. Of Thumbtack’s respondents, only 41 percent reported having access to trading programs in school. And for all the enthusiasm for these careers, craft jobs have not been spared from the labor shortage crisis that is still spiraling out of “Major reshuffle” by the pandemic — and hiring managers are still finding it difficult to fill open roles.
In another Stapler examination as of 2023, 85 percent of respondents agreed that “high schools should do more to tell students about alternative job paths such as trade schools and apprenticeships.” But in the meantime, some professionals are taking matters into their own hands.
In the small town of Pleasantville, OH, Gavin Alexander is in the process of launching The Trades for Life Foundationan annual scholarship program that he hopes will help two children from each school in his county pursue vocational training each year.
During the pandemic, the 30-year-old farmer and graduate of the Agricultural Tech Institute at Ohio State University organized a one-time technical trade scholarship competition at his alma mater, a small high school with a class size under 50. year, Alexander was impressed when eight or nine children (he doesn’t remember exactly) applied for professions as varied as carpentry and horse dentistry. The winner graduated from the premier welding school in the country a couple of years ago and is now on his way to work on a welding rig.
“At the time, nobody was really doing anything to promote or help kids who don’t get a four-year degree,” he tells PS. “When you think about it, those careers are the backbone of society. Without those jobs, your heat wouldn’t be on, your lights wouldn’t be on, you couldn’t drive down the road.”
In the years since, he has struggled to balance his own work with the demanding nature of running and marketing a charitable trust. But in late 2024, he completed a group of Trades for Life board members, and had recently hosted a successful rodeo fundraiser that put him over his financial goals and back on track for 2025.
At the rodeo, Alexander chatted with some current high school students. First, when he asked them to describe what they consider a “good job,” he got a typical response: “the one that makes the most money.” But he made them think about it. Does a good job mean you work at a family-oriented company? Does that mean you spend much of your day outdoors? Maybe that just means more money, and that’s okay too.
“A lot of kids, once they sit down and think about it, they say, ‘No one ever asked me that,'” Alexander says. “No one ever asked them, ‘What’s a good job for you?'”
Emma Glassman-Hughes (she/her) is an associate editor at PS Balance. In her seven years as a reporter, her beats have spanned the lifestyle spectrum; she has covered arts and culture for The Boston Globe, sex and relationships for Cosmopolitan, and food, climate and agriculture for Ambrook Research.
