Jobber revealed its The Annual Blue-Collar Report: Gen Z and the Trades Need Each Other.
The report, based on survey responses from 1,000 students in the U.S. aged 18-20, provides insight into how Gen Z navigates education and career choices and offers solutions on how to inspire and encourage younger generations to consider taking advantage of all that blue-collar careers have to offer.
According to The Annual Blue-Collar Report, 76% of Gen Zs agree there is a stigma associated with going to vocational school over a traditional four-year university. This reality threatens our homes, economy, and the livelihoods of younger generations.
Key findings include:
Gen Z has been taught to measure success through a white-collar lens, but AI, the economy and layoffs are changing their minds. Their concerns around white-collar careers are clear.
- One-third (33%) of Gen Z say that white-collar desk jobs are less stable today than they were for their parents' generation.
- Forty-one percent of Gen Z agree that the potential for AI to replace jobs has made it harder to achieve the "American Dream," and 46% believe there will be fewer future job opportunities as a result.
- Seventy percent of Gen Z say they are not optimistic about the future of the economy.
- When asked what would make a trade career more appealing, Gen Z described what blue-collar professions already offer, including flexible work hours (73%), job stability (61%) and overtime pay (58%).
Parents have blue-collar blindness, schools deserve a failing grade for blue-collar education and Hollywood is doing hard work dirty.
- Family (51%) was identified as the biggest influence on Gen Z and the careers they chose to pursue by a significant margin.
- Sixty-one percent of Gen Z say their parents haven't spoken to them about vocational school or told them not to consider it.
- Just 17% of Gen Z say they have been educated on the benefits of vocational training following high school graduation. This was significantly lower than bachelor's degree, community college, military service, and entrepreneurship.
- More than a third (35%) of Gen Z say television shows and movies have influenced the careers they want to explore, and 47% describe trade professionals as being generally portrayed negatively (incompetent, unhealthy and/or unhappy) in shows and movies.
We simply need more women in the trades
While many workforces have evolved to accommodate the modern gender distribution of labor, the trades have yet to establish this balance.
- Nearly half (48%) of Gen Z agree that women are discouraged from pursuing trade careers from a young age.
- Fifty-eight percent of Gen Z say that women face more discrimination within trade careers—compared to other career options—with the majority of women (68%) believing this compared to men (47%).
Finally, The Annual Blue-Collar Report highlights 10 specific calls to action for the general public, blue-collar professionals, policymakers and educators, and the media to help connect the dots between Gen Z's fears and desires and the blue-collar opportunity in front of them, as well as eliminate the existing harmful stereotypes.
The 2024 Annual Blue-Collar Report Powered By Jobber features findings from an April 2024 survey commissioned by Jobber and conducted by Conjointly of 1,000 students in the U.S. aged 18-20 currently attending or considering attending college / graduate school, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points at the 90% confidence level.
