Are the trades Having Issues since Covid ?
 

I casually mentioned to my neighbor his vent smelled of natural gas (wasn't sure if it was dryer or heater, but clearly unburned). That led to multiple visits of plumber types and a new furnace for him (tragedy averted, multiple leaks , vent not to code etc). He casually mentioned that he asked for a quote to add AC to his new furnace (same ducting) and the total bill would have been $39000.

I mean, seriously ?

Then again, I was quoted $11000 with a straight face by an electrician to add power down my yard's deck (small trench straight down, plastic pipe, 100 Ft of romex, one plug at the end)

And recently a plumber charged my neighbor $350 to thread a pipe sticking out of a wall and put a faucet on it, outside... took 7 minutes with the chit chat.

I'm telling my pre college kid to forget about a degree and use that college money get into AC, and I am not even joking.

Prices for almost everything has doubled over the past 4 years in the cities/states where I have property. That is both for labor and materials. It will probably only get worse for CA after the fires as everyone (trades) will have plenty of work.

Bodywork/paint has done the same where I had mine done in the past.

A friend of mine said he got a new garage door opener the other day when his went belly up with a stripped gear.
I asked how much it was. He said the guy charged $250 to put it in. My friend supplied the opener. He said the guy was pretty quick as it only took him about an hour and a half to put it in.

Its only going to get worse in the EL and HVAC trades.

Check out the charts for trade shortages NOT able to be done by illegals.

Anybody with any smarts should consider a C10 contractor license.
A couple of classes at community college is enough to become a sparky, if you can learn electronics and programming the world can be your Oyster.

https://eyeonhousing.org/2024/03/states-and-construction-trades-most-reliant-on-immigrant-workers-2022/

Supply and demand. Older tradespeople are retiring and less young people are entering trades.

I think that too many youngsters are spending time on electronic devices and less on physical hobbies.

Skilled trades will be future good careers.

Yea, first off is finding a good independent guy for any trade. The huge heat and air, or plumbing companies spending mega thousands on advertising are not the ones for me. I try to find someone that is independent. When I find one and then he retires!

Our central furnace and AC was installed by the builder 27 years ago. We have replaced the compressor outside twice, but not the stuff in the closet in the garage I had had the burners replaced, and the motherboard. It just keep working. It will be a large bill when it all croaks and we have to upgrade to the new stuff.

Only trades/ jobs that can not be outsourced or automated.

ie. installing HVAC vs building HVAC

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https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/kids-arent-alright-gen-z-admits-they-dont-know-how-change-lightbulbs

Andy Turbefield of Halfords, a UK-based motoring and cycling retailer, said: “The ability to do basic, practical tasks is being lost amongst younger generations.”

“They simply haven’t really had to [do things for themselves],” said Yamalis Diaz, an NYU Langone psychologist.

She continued: “So much of their (and all of our) lives are automated, convenient and outsourced, which today’s generation of young people have benefited from way more than past generations. So, it makes complete sense that Gen Z simply doesn’t know how to do as much with regard to non-tech or independent tasks.”



The Post report says that a Halfords survey of 2,000 adults found nearly 25% of Gen Zers don’t know how to change a ceiling lightbulb, often citing safety concerns like hot bulbs or ladder risks. Instead of attempting the task, many prefer to "GOTDIT" — Get Others To Do It.



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Older, Gen X and up trades can charge whatever they want. Millenials (suck) and down have no work ethic and have no idea what they are doing. I have a lot of stories of dealing with millenials and gen z. One at this very moment as a matter of fact.

Dropped of front brake calipers for a 65 Cobra. PO said clear cadmium and nickel strike clear cadmium. Caliper halves were in plastic bags with slips saying Nickel Strike Clear Cadmium. What did I get back?

First, obviously, it's all yellow cadmium. I tumbled the caliper halves and polished them with burnishing agent, they glowed. Should have looked like the Ferrari door catch below. I don't know what they did to them but they definitely don't have nickel on them and why there are two different cad tones is beyond me. And the hardware looks closer to the chromate used for zinc than cadmium.

I have to restrip, retumble, bring back. That's 6 billable hours gone because the kids (I know who they are at the plater) f'ed up. You'll note the cast early pulley to the left with the note in a bag. That wasn't nickel'd in prior batch and came out like the calipers. At least that turned out perfect.

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My oldest son is 20, he’s finished his tech certificate for Aviation Maintenance Technician (A&P) and should have his final two FAA tests wrapped up this month. After that he can go work anywhere in the country and will probably start at about $65k without OT. Many places are offering signing bonuses for A&P mechanics, locally it’s up to $10k. Basically the same story for welding, HVAC, plumbing, electrical, linesman, any skilled labor. You can make college money for a technical school education. It’s a great place to be for a kid coming out of high school.

I'm a geotechnical engineer who also works with surveyors, architects, and structural engineers. None of us are under 50 years old, and many are retiring soon. We're swamped with work, so I raised our prices so that we'd get paid the same overall for fewer jobs. We can't find anyone to hire, so we're doing it this way. I don't know what people will do in 5 or 10 years. There's no one replacing us.

The trades have suffered since boomers told their kids for decades that all they needed was a college education to succeed.... now look at us.

on the contrary, contractors and other folks charging more and retiring, is the key reason why most people just go on youtube and do it themselves.

i was just having this conversation with some racers about shops closing up. and its like, yeah, if you are going to ***** and moan to me, wont respond to emails like a normal person, and take forever ... im going to go on youtube, and figure it out myself and your going to go broke. i do all my own diffs cause the local diff guy just plain sucks. like id be happy to pay someone, but the someone sucks, so i have to do it myself.

yes and yes

Trades have been that way here for a few years as well. Charging like they have some rare skill best I can tell it’s caused by a massive influx of people from out of state or from denser population areas where salaries are higher, and Home values are higher. They cash out of their houses in New Jersey and New York and Baltimore and move to our rural/resort area. Don’t have enough sense to be careful with the newfound money.

I’ve been told point-blank by contractors things got so busy for the past few years that they would respond to any pricing requests with 2X or 3X quotes. So from my point of view, these ridiculous increases are not based on cost increases as much as they are increases in money available to idiots many of which are tech services people.

That was largely true...as long as your degree was in the right area. Basketweavng is really not a good choice. My younger (millennial) kid that went to college (based on my recommendations) makes about 6 times as much as my Gen X older kid (trades job) that chose otherwise. It is all about making good choices/decisions and ambition/hard work.

I told my kids it’s like a business case. If you’re going to college, you need to explain the ROI. My daughter for aerospace engineering, absolutely. If you’re going to party for a business degree, not so much.

The problem is, most of "the trades" require hard work. The person making the money is the business owner. The techs do okay.

I did commercial hvac and retired almost 10 years ago. It was a large company. I don’t miss it one bit. The money was great.
Two of my former co-workers/friends have gotten their sons working with them. Those kids are set for life, all hard workers.
Now my friends can get set to retire in the next couple of years knowing their kids are on their way.

The trades are going strong here. Maybe because we're a destination spot (?)

Everywhere there are remodels, renovations, and repairs happening. You should see some of the new homes being built - a fair number where older homes were demolished and replaced.

LOT of skilled trade folks.

I hired a plumber not long ago to replace an outside hose spigot on Mom's house - it had to be sweated on and I didn't have the skill set. Was around $150. The service was excellent. We had a few other things done and all went almost perfect.