If you haven't noticed yet, the past few high school graduating classes (the kids who survived their remaining school years through COVID restrictions) are hitting the workforce and hitting the workforce hard.
The generation of people who are mid-20s to 40 are different from the kids that are coming out of high school now. That crowd was told that college is the only next step out of high school. It was either go to college, get a job like in fast food, or join the military. Those were the three slots of employment sold to an entire generation. Directionless, these kids found their way through the world through trial and error, pride and embarrassment.
Suppose you haven't had the pleasure of meeting the newest working-class kids who just graduated high school. I think you would be surprised.
I argue that the generation of now 20somethings to 40-year-olds had many kids who would have excelled in the trades, making a great living for their family if they weren't pushed so hard to get a degree from a costly university. The trades missed out on so many people who would have loved to progress through a career in the trades.
The newest working-class generation, however, figured out the "college trap" very early on in their schooling. Lots of these kids want to be involved in the trades right out of high school. They don't view being in the trades as settling. They look at it like they want to be here, want to learn, want to grow, and want to build wealth. They want to hustle and look at a trades career as a way to earn money to do the things they want to do without going into massive debt. They do have it figured out.
How did they figure it out? Pandemic shutdowns. Most of the younger kids I talk to had parents laid off during the shutdowns. Many of their parents had difficulty making ends meet and may have owned small businesses or worked in the restaurant industry. Many have older brothers and sisters who were laid off and face soul-crushing student loan debt. They saw many of their teachers struggle during the pandemic. They saw friends and friends' parents dealing with the inflation that followed. They also saw their older friends who have college degrees struggling to find a job with high enough pay to pay off their student loan debt.
They quickly realized that going into a half-a-million-dollar debt and spending four or more years at a university in hopes of finding a higher-paying job might not be the best option. They also realized that they don't want to make a career out of working at a fast food restaurant, a job where they could be easily laid off, a job doing manual labor or sitting behind a computer all day. They also are not so trusting of high school guidance counselors.
When you add all this to the fact that most of the younger generation are online hustlers, you get a very interesting generation. Did you know that much of the stuff you buy online goes through a bunch of young kids between the ages of 15 and 20? They run online drop shipping platforms that sell through Amazon. Have you ever read an advertisement on social media? These kids are getting paid to write the copy for the ads. They make websites; they do SEO; they write copy; they operate drop shipping stores; they have relationships with handlers overseas who provide them with manufacturing companies; they freelance on third-party websites writing code, copy, editing videos and images for international business, etc. These are not your average kids, and they do it all quietly behind the scenes. They invest in the stock market; they own some cryptocurrency and do this while hanging out at home as "side money."
What do they value?
So, you're sold on hiring this generation. Now what? The No. 1 thing they value is time off. This generation wants a clear path to career success, a clear pay and benefits structure, a clear amount of vacation time, weekends off, a pleasant place to work, a place to work they can be proud of, paid trade schooling/training, room to advance in position, and most importantly free time.
They want to be able to take the money they make and use it to buy trucks and trips. They are a very active generation. They want to spend their weekends hiking and kayaking with their friends, doing their side hustles online, playing video games and hunting. They are not the lazy phone-all-day lobs you think they are (most of them, at least).
Get to trade shows, get to local fairs, get to local high schools. Make your company well known for taking apprentices, set your company up for a structure and career path, give them time off, and watch your business grow.
About the Author
Anthony Pacilla is a registered master plumber for McVehil Plumbing in Washington, Pennsylvania. He has over two decades of experience in the plumbing and HVAC trades and has a bachelor’s in business and economics from Thiel College.
