Young People Want Skilled Trades Careers — So What’s Stopping Them?
19 out of 20 Thumbtack pros would encourage their kids to join the trades.
David Steckel•Last updated Aug 24, 2023
Last updated Aug 24, 2023
Homeowners don’t need to read the news to know there’s a severe shortage of skilled trades professionals these days. Anyone who’s tried to hire a contractor for jobs from a plumbing or electrical fix to a full home renovation has likely scrambled to get bids, much less get a project scheduled. As existing housing stock ages and demand rises for repairs and upgrades, we need to get more young people into the business — fast. So what’s the holdup?
As a tech company helping millions of people care for and improve their homes, Thumbtack set out to help answer this question. Our marketplace makes it easier for homeowners to find and hire the right pros from our community of 300,000 local service businesses, and it’s our ambition to help these small businesses grow. But lately that growth has been harder to achieve because of the labor shortage. And many local service business owners are putting off retirement because they don’t have anyone to take over their business. But why? These pros love their jobs, and there’s no reason young adults won’t find them just as satisfying.
Our recent study highlights both reasons to be optimistic and the challenges to overcome to solve this talent shortage. First, the good news: our survey of young adults shows a strong interest in the skilled trades. They recognize that these are flexible, secure, and rewarding jobs. That lines up with the results of our companion survey of Thumbtack pros, who report being overwhelmingly happy with their career choice.
But as any pro knows, it’s tough to get a job done if you don’t have the right tools. And as a society, we’re just not offering young people the training, mentoring, and support they need to pursue these skilled trades careers.
Let’s dig into the data — and figure out how we can get a new generation of skilled trades professionals on the job.
Skilled Trade Professionals love their careers.
First things first: these are indeed good jobs. More than 800 Thumbtack pros participated in our survey, and their enthusiasm came through loud and clear:
- 87 percent of skilled trade workers are happy with their jobs — compared with the 51 percent of young adults who say they’re extremely or very satisfied.
- 87 percent would choose the same career again if given the opportunity.
- 94 percent would encourage their own kids or family members to pursue a skilled trade.
It’s hard to get 94 percent of people to agree upon anything, but nineteen out of twenty Thumbtack pros see the skilled trades as the kind of career they’d want for their own sons and daughters. And for good reason:
- 95 percent are optimistic about their job security and believe they won’t be replaced by AI
- 95 percent are optimistic about their potential to make more money.
- 93 percent are optimistic about exciting career growth opportunities.
- 92 percent are optimistic about learning new skills or technological advancement in their trade.
It makes sense. At a time of turbocharged innovation, office workers are sweating that they’ll be replaced with artificial intelligence. But when’s the last time you saw a robot climbing the stairs to fix a second-story bathroom leak? As long as there are homes, we’ll need humans to help fix, maintain, and improve them.
But skilled trade workers are also worried. They’re concerned about their ability to attract and retain skilled workers (58 percent), and the possibility that future generations won’t pursue skilled trade careers (53 percent). They’re not the only ones who should be worried. Who’s going to help fix our leaky sinks, build out new rooms for our growing families, or rewire our garages for our electric cars?
Young people are embracing the trades.
More good news: nearly half of young adults — 47 percent — are interested in pursuing a career in the trades. And why not? These jobs are a great fit for the priorities of a generation that values independence, self-employment, and flexibility.
Asked about the advantages of a skilled trade over a desk job, over 80 percent of young adults mentioned each of the following:
- A more flexible schedule
- A faster educational program
- A less expensive education and/or less debt
- Quicker entry into the workforce
- The ability to be your own boss
The financial security of the skilled trades is especially appealing — it’s the most important factor in career choice for 70 percent of young adults, far beyond any other consideration. Beyond money, young adults want jobs they can be proud of. In our survey, only medicine commanded respect from more respondents than the skilled trades, and not by much — 77 percent to 73 percent.
College prep is killing shop class.
College can be the right choice for a lot of high school graduates, but is it really the only choice? That’s the message kids have been getting for a while from parents, guidance counselors, and society as a whole. In our survey of young adults:
- 82 percent reported that kids and teens are often incorrectly told that college is the only way to become successful in life, including 90 percent of respondents who actually went to college.
- 59 percent had felt pressure to attend a 4-year college or university, most often from family (56 percent) or general societal expectations (51 percent).
As part of this college-or-bust mindset, shop class — a vital first taste of the trades for countless pros — is quickly becoming a thing of the past.
- Nearly one third (32 percent) of young adults weren’t offered shop classes in high school.
- Of those who did get to take shop, 86 percent say it was one of their favorite classes.
- According to another study, the number of vocational credits earned by high school students dropped by 14 percent between 1990 and 2009.
And about that college path kids have been pushed onto…
- 65 percent of young adults who graduated from college have had regrets about that investment.
- 83 percent — including 90 percent of respondents with college degrees — feel that learning a skilled trade can be a better pathway to economic security than college.
Rebuilding the pathway to skilled trades careers.
At this point, the problem is clear: skilled trades offer opportunities that young people are eager to explore, but they need more encouragement and support to get started. This doesn’t seem like it would be a tough fix. After all, there’s never been a better time to enter the trades. Demand is strong, tools are cheaper than ever, and there’s a world of online learning available. But we shouldn’t kid ourselves. This is a structural issue, not a minor adjustment, and it’s going to take a lot of work in a lot of areas to restore our skilled trades workforce.
Our survey of young adults highlighted a few places to get started:
- 85 percent, including 92 percent of college grads, think high schools should do more to tell students about alternative job pathways like trade schools and apprenticeships.
- 90 percent think increased funding to make trade schools and apprenticeships more available and more affordable will help more people get into the trades.
- 48 percent don’t remember having the opportunity to attend a technical high school — and 48 percent of that group say they would have attended one if given the chance.
- 53 percent of young adults — as well as 55 percent of Thumbtack pros — think providing better access to information and education about skilled trade careers will help attract the future workforce.
At Thumbtack, we’re doing what we can as well. One of our main reasons for conducting these surveys has been to help shine a light on this critical issue and amplify the voices of the skilled trade professionals we partner with. It’s our hope that educators, policymakers, communities, and others in a position to drive change will respond with meaningful efforts to make these careers more accessible to newcomers.
As part of our commitment to support a thriving skilled trades industry, we’re also launching our first Pro Advisory Board to help us understand and improve the pro experience on Thumbtack so they can better serve our customers and grow more profitably.
We’ll also be piloting a free mentoring program to connect young adults with top Thumbtack pros so they can learn more about starting and growing their own local services business. These small group sessions will kick off in 2024 with entrepreneurs from trades like HVAC, plumbing, home painting and more.
The state of skilled trades workforce development has been allowed to languish for far too long — and any pro can tell you about the perils of deferred maintenance. But the interest among young people is strong, and the opportunities are endless. With a little effort and ingenuity, we can ensure a bright future for skilled trade professionals and the homeowners who need them.
Methodology
2023 Consumer ‘Gen Pop’ Survey
This sample of 1,000 U.S. young adults (aged 18–30) was surveyed on July 18 and 19, 2023. Sampling was calibrated to reflect even gender and geographical distribution. DKC Analytics conducted and analyzed this survey with a sample procured using the Pollfish survey delivery platform, which delivers online surveys globally through mobile apps and the mobile web along with the desktop web. No post-stratification has been applied to the results.
2023 Skilled Trade Professionals Survey
Sample B of 837 U.S. adults, consisting of 659 completes and 178 partial completes, was surveyed between June 21 and July 17, 2023. All respondents in Sample B are primarily employed in the skilled trades in home construction, home maintenance or home systems via self-confirmation. Thumbtack conducted this survey via link sharing through their internal email list. No post-stratification has been applied to the results.
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