After the COVID-19 pandemic, more and more people in the U.S. are reportedly choosing technical positions instead of university campuses or Silicon Valley among Generation Z (born in the late 1990s and early 2010s). Some say that the emergence of AI (artificial intelligence) has affected it, as it is judged that it is better to have a professional technical job with higher wages than to obtain a degree given the soaring university tuition.
On the 1st (local time), the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) said in an article titled “How Gen Z Becomes a Tool Belt Generation” that the younger generation is giving up going to college and choosing vocational training centers as wages for skilled technicians such as plumbers, electricians, and welders and demand for them increase. WSJ analyzed, “This is because there has been a growing perception that university tuition has soared over the past few decades, while its utility has decreased.”
In fact, the number of students enrolled in vocational training colleges in the U.S. increased 16% last year compared to the previous year, the highest level since the National Student Information Center (NSC) tracked related data since 2018. During this period, the number of students studying construction technology increased by 23%, and the number of students learning air conditioning and vehicle maintenance techniques also increased by 7%, respectively.
“I originally thought of going to college, but when I saw my parents just staring at their computers all day long during the COVID-19 pandemic, I thought it wasn’t good to go to college,” Tanner Burgess, 20, who completed a nine-month welding program last year, told the WSJ. He is currently working on pipe installation welding in a hospital in San Diego. “If you listen to people who have worked in this field for about five years, they say you can make a salary of billions of dollars,” he added.
In fact, the wages of technology workers are rising sharply. Last year, new construction workers saw their wages rise 5.1 percent year-on-year to 48,089 dollars. During the same period, the wage increase rate of service workers stood at 2.7 percent, only 39,520 dollars. According to ADP, a salary analysis firm, “The average annual salary of new construction workers has exceeded that of accountants or IT maintenance workers for four years.”
The Pennsylvania Association of Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling Contractors runs a vocational school, and the starting salary for those who graduated from vocational school was $35,000 until five years ago, but it has nearly doubled to $60,000 these days. Michael McGraw, executive director of the association, said, “Since the pandemic, there has been a large influx of workers in this industry.”
The WSJ also pointed out that some young people’s career choices are changing due to the emergence of Generative AI. In a survey of local high school and college students conducted by a U.S. company last year, the majority of respondents said that blue-collar jobs offer better job security than white-collar jobs.
Some analysts say that Generation Z chooses skilled technology positions first from an entrepreneurial perspective. For example, the company plans to attend a vocational school for automobile repair and learn automobile-related skills before ultimately setting up a private business.
JULIE KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL
