what's the future look like for the trades?
 

plumbers, carpenter, electricians...............

i talked to a guy that runs the plumbers class..he said it is a six week course to become an apprentice. he said there was 3 students this time. back in the day, there was a waiting period.

he said after 3 year, you move up a step..(journeyman?) and get $68/hour. that's $130k+ per year.

the recent wildfire really is gonna tax our labor force.

I'm not saying you're lying, and I have not googled it yet, but I have a hard time believing 3 years out of plumbing school someone is making $130k

https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Plumber/Hourly_Rate

https://www1.salary.com/Plumber-I-Salary.html

https://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/plumber/salary

Sounds like the same type of bait that the other for-profit schools to reel in the suckers.

For so long the mantra was go to college and get an education. Now we have a raft of people with art majors and other useless degrees and 6 figure student debt.

A good tradesman is like finding a great mechanic. Almost don't want to share their contact info so they don't get too busy.

he was exaggerating?

maybe with fringe benefits?

I don't know about pay, but trade jobs would be difficult/impossible to automate or outsource anytime soon. If I were just out of high school I would give a trade school serious consideration over a college degree.

Edit - apprentice for a few years, branch out on your own. If you are the type of person who takes pride in their work then the jobs will find you. I would pause on auto repair, I think near future cars will be locked down by the manufacturer in a way that would ace out the independent shop.

To be perfectly honest if I had to do it all again I’d seriously consider going that route, building a nice bit of savings, getting on my own feet financially and THEN (after being a journeyman for a few years) going to college (loan-free), maybe open my own business, etc. afterwards.

The biggest advantage one has in going the “conventional” college route (aside from being around a lot of peers your own age and in similar situations, which does count for something...) is that you’re a lot likelier to see it through. I know a lot of people who said “oh I’ll take a couple of years off do do ___ and then go” who never went back or who never finished. People get wrapped up in their lives and lose the ability to see where they are as a temporary step - relationships / marriages / kids or other complications come among, they get additcted to the money (forgetting that they could surpass that hugely in a few years if they stayed committed to the course of action they originally intended, etc.)

Yea. No one will ever outsource a plumber, especially a sewer rooter guy. Not until they have true androids or robots and then we are out of jobs.

You know what that smell is don't you? That is the smell of money! says my plumber buddy .

I think that only happens in porn

I would not be surprised some day to see an indentured servant style visa for the trades, like the H1-B is for techies

Philosophy undergrad. Worked for 2 years. Now in an MBA program. Paid internship at a major bank, graduating in April, have an interview this Thursday at a technology consulting company.

If I could do it again? Probably the same. My philosophy degree has been indespensible, to be perfectly honest. Not employable, but valuable in the way I can think about problems, learn, and break down concepts.

However, as fairly well off old welder told me once, "Programming is the **** man, that's where the money is."

We'll see where the cost of college is in 12 years when my oldest is there.

Right now, it seems like the cost/benefit of college is way off. 17 years ago four years of college cost me $32k (total, everything included) and landed me a $50k a year job. Today, the same major at the same school would run $96k and the same job and the same employer would pay $60k. So a college degree landed me with debt equal to 64% of on year's salary. Today it would be 160%. A decade before me, that number was more like 30%. I'd also argue that over the same time period, the actual quality of a college education has declined significantly as well.

I was at the top of my field, Computer Science degree, Communicatiins Systems Programmer/networking guru until I retired at 48. Easiest, funnest way to make a living I could ever imagine....doing what I wanted while essentially playing with the most sophisticated computers, networking gear...always leading edge.....loved it :). Then I got tired of corporate bs....so when my dept was outsourced in '08, I opted to retire rather than continue on with HP. That said, if I hadn't been "gifted" in IT, Math, etc. I would seriously consider doing the trade route....good $, but make no mistake, they earn it the hard way...not sitting on their azz driving a keyboard :). College isn't for everyone...lots of ways to skin a dawg....

You guys are not considering the toll these types of jobs can have on your body over the years.

One of my friends is a very smart electrician. He owns his own company. He only does the interesting projects. He prefers to figure out a piece of equipment. There are many old industrial machines that are in great shape but some controller board or motor has died. He figures out how to get them going again. His son has joined the company and they do the occasional commercial electrical job but he avoids home projects. His son gets the attic parts.

He is very expensive but he does not waste time, just fix the problem. I managed to get him over to my house to do one simple project on replacing an electrical panel. The meter had to be pulled to do it and that was more than I wanted to try.

You're tellin' me!

http://gavwright.net/wp-content/uplo...mputer-guy.jpg

Trump's trade apprenticeship programs were gobbled up by industry...a few month's past.

SO true!!

I run a manufacturing company that produces auto parts and assemblies for the Japanese 3. We have several trade jobs open that can easily pay 80K per year with some OT. Cant fill them......

I graduated in August of '96 and until April of that year, I thought I had one more semester. So when a few jobs opportunities didn't pan out, I went to work for a mechanical company. We did commercial construction and I worked with the plumbers. For the first month or so I was the "go get" and manual labor type guy. After that I was doing a lot of the same work the journeymen plumbers were doing for a lot less. I always had one there checking my work etc.. I knew one of the senior management guys at the company that had started out in the field.

They offered me the apprenticeship program, but in my mind at the time I wanted to be a police officer, so I was applying to departments with POST certification schools where they paid you to attend. I ended up working in the security field and still am today.

With all of that said, I have used the plumbing skills I learned more times than I can count, including replacing all of the water lines in a friend of mines house and lots of jobs around my houses. I worked there for almost 8 months and it was hard, start at 5am done by 2pm type work (unless we work doing a turn off or something major) but it was fulfilling. By the end of the day I had accomplished something concrete.

I still have friends in the trade fields and they do well.