As members of Gen Z continue to graduate high school and enter adulthood, many elect to forgo traditional college degrees.
That’s in part because of the cost of getting a bachelor’s degree, they tell CNBC Make It. The annual cost of attending a four-year, in-state public college increased by about 30% between 2011 and 2023, according to Make It calculations based on data from the Education Data Initiative, and went up by 42% at private, nonprofit four-year colleges.
“There are about 2 million fewer students in a traditional four-year university now than in 2011,” says Nich Tremper, senior economist at payroll and benefits platform Gusto.
Instead, many young people are entering skilled trades like construction, plumbing, electrical contracting and automotive repair. In the first quarter of 2024, Gen Z made up 18% of the workforce, according to the Department of Labor, but 18- to 25-year-olds made up nearly 25% of all new hires in skilled trade industries that year, according to Gusto.
Here’s how Gen Zers are finding their place in blue collar work and what could be in store for them given the Trump administration’s latest tariffs.
‘I’m not going to go stop my business and pay for college’
Morgan Bradbury, 21, first tried welding in high school. She loved it.
“I just immediately was mesmerized by the fact that I could have the ability to build things with my own hands,” she says. After graduating high school, Bradbury took a nine-month welding certification course at Universal Technical Institute for about $21,000.
She got a job at military and information security company BAE Systems before even completing her course with a starting salary of about $57,000 per year. She’s now a second-class welder on U.S. Navy ships in Norfolk, Virginia.
Morgan Bradbury.
Enrique Huaiquil | CNBC Make It
Chase Gallagher, 24, began landscaping when he was just 12 or 13, he says. He registered his landscaping company, CMG Landscaping, in 2015. By 18, he had as many as 82 clients. “I just kind of looked at the numbers and said, ‘Listen, I’m not going to go stop my business and pay for college,'” he says.
In 2024, Gallagher’s business brought in $1,085,000 in sales. He earned just under $500,000 through his salary and his owner share of the business.
The average starting salary for workers in the skilled trades is about $23 per hour, according to Gusto. Electricians make a median annual salary of $62,350 per year, plumbers make a median of $62,970 per year and construction workers make a median of $46,050 per year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Despite the high costs of education, wages for college graduates still tend to be higher. The median wage for college graduates in 2024 was $80,000, according to recent data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. College graduates also get a median 12.5% return on their investment.
‘They’re adding to the dynamism of the economy’
President Donald Trump’s latest tariffs might present some challenges for Gen Zers opting into blue collar work, says Tremper, like those opting into manufacturing or construction, for example.
Trump has imposed a 10% tariff on “all countries,” according to the White House, plus steeper tariffs on various products from Mexico and Canada. Canadian soft lumber, used in home construction, for example, currently has a tariff of 14.54%.
Chase Gallagher.
CNBC Make It
“We definitely need to think that tariffs on soft lumber coming into the country will hurt opportunities for these people to work and to grow their skills,” Tremper says, adding that “increased costs on home building can lead to lower demand, which will limit the amount of construction trades jobs available.”
Still, “in recent months, job security has been stronger in the trades than in many traditional white collar jobs,” Tremper says. That’s according to BLS data measuring termination rates, or people who left their jobs because of layoffs and discharges.
“Industries like construction, manufacturing, and trade, transportation, and utilities have had lower termination rates than sectors where many white collar workers are concentrated, like professional and business services,” he says.
And with Baby Boomers slowly exiting the workforce, more opportunities could open up. “As these folks age out,” says Tremper, “Gen Z workers are going to be able to move into a space where they’re building their own businesses, adding to the dynamism of the economy and really providing a lot more opportunity for themselves financially.”
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This story has been updated to more accurately reflect current data on the increase in college attendance costs.
