We do need those jobs but what gives me pause is that many of these jobs can cause physical ailments. I used to work for an organization that managed health claims for electricians who worked on the lines. Almost all of them ended up taking early retirement. Also, a lot of them, particularly the older generations who didn’t use sunscreen, would get skin cancer.

I agree that vocational education needs to be emphasized but these workers will also need skills to obtain desk-based jobs in the event they can no longer physically work in demanding roles. Last year, I myself was diagnosed with a neurological condition that could potentially impact mobility. If I’d have gone into a vocational field, even something like hairstyling (lots of periods of standing), this could have been very bad.

A welder may be a manual job, but it’s also a high skill job with some risk attached. If you want good folks in jobs like that, you need to be willing to pay a good wage. “Above minimum wage” doesn’t cut it.

Please. Of they don’t want political discussions they could use language that is not so obviously political. I’d say the same thing if they said something like “Neanderthals need not apply”

A welder is a manual job that requires a lot of skill and training, kinda like a surgeon is a manual job that requires a lot of skill and training. Not anyone can do it and an experienced welder is worth a lot more than $12/hour. This is not about employee attitudes – this is about employers being unwilling to pay the proper wage for the skill they require.

@MariaRose

The problems are more high level than that. The thing is, a generation or so ago, we started pushing the almighty college degree as a status symbol. So overtime, what’s happened is that college tuition has skyrocketed, many people pursue college degrees for occupations that don’t require them, entry level pay has stagnated… and in the process, we demonized “the trades”.

I have a tech job that pays well, but I still need my car serviced, my roof replaced, my plumbing fixed, and… somebody to haul my gas from the refinery to the gas station. Who *wants* those jobs when we as a society have said they’re inferior? We need to change the messaging.

The same people who didn’t want the job when $12/ hour was higher than minimum wage still won’t take the job today. A welder job is a manual labor job and the younger generation of workers mostly don’t want to have manual labor jobs, no matter what pay is offered. People don’t view these jobs as important or long term employment because of the physical demand on the body, but also complain about others taking the same job that they refuse to do.
A job pays you an income to spend/ have money, it doesn’t have to be a “dream job”