The growing trade labor shortage is a crises that has not quite struck home yet...but it's about to. This short video from The Honest Carpenter discusses how the generational decrease in trade participation is hitting the entire construction industry. But it's affecting some trades more than others...
WHERE HAVE ALL THE CARPENTERS GONE?! (Why The Trade Labor Shortage Is Only Beginning...)
For what it's worth, I think that the trade labor shortage is a reflection of a true paradigm shift. A hundred years ago, nearly every job in the world was primarily physical. For that reason, physical labor was considered cheap, because everyone engaged in it to some degree. You had your choice of workers to pick from.
Now, so many of our jobs are intellectual in nature. There are so many places to go and work that aren't really physical at all.
When these jobs were fewer, and fewer people were qualified to do them, they were considered high-value. But as they have multiplied, their relative value has decreased overall (except for certain positions).
But at the same time, people have maintained their view that trade labor is not very valuable. And yet, they completely neglect the fact that FAR FEWER people are doing it now, and it is in EXTREMELY high demand.
In a way, I think that blue collar jobs will slowly become sort of the next steady white collar jobs, as the general population is forced to adjust, slowly over decades, its understanding of the value of these jobs.
When you can't find a carpenter anywhere, a good, independent carpenter will suddenly seem very high value. And I believe that this should be reflected in their pay.
