Terrence Lally, a 21-year-old chemistry major at Emory University, once thought he’d become an electrical engineer but now plans to attend medical school and become a doctor.
Although electricians can earn salaries of over $70,000 a year and require only a high school diploma, Lurie decided to pursue a white-collar career rather than a blue-collar one.
“Family members who have very physically demanding jobs often tell me to ‘use your brain instead of your body,'” Larry told Newsweek.
Terrence Lally, 21, thought about becoming an electrical engineer but is now going to medical school. Gen Z has a more negative view of blue-collar work because of Hollywood’s portrayal, Jobber’s new report finds. Terrence Lally, 21, thought about becoming an electrical engineer but is now going to medical school. Gen Z has a more negative view of blue-collar work because of Hollywood’s portrayal, Jobber’s new report finds. Terrence Lally
New data shows this is a popular choice for Gen Z, despite the additional years of schooling and the potential for student loan debt.
Gen Z is losing interest in blue-collar trade jobs, and Hollywood may be playing a bigger role than expected, a new survey of jobbers has found.
Societal attitudes are becoming more critical of higher education in favor of vocational education, but Gen Z, known as one of the most skeptical generations, has yet to fully jump on board.
As “digital natives,” Gen Z has grown up with the internet, and the media is likely to have a greater influence on how they think about career success than previous generations.
More than a third of Gen Zers, or 35%, said that TV shows and movies have influenced their future careers in a Jobber survey.
“I think Hollywood is also pushing that higher education narrative,” Lurie said. “We don’t often see high school students portrayed in movies or in the media as dreaming of entering the blue-collar workforce.”
This has a big impact on jobs, with 47% of Gen Z saying professionals are portrayed negatively in TV shows and movies, and 47% saying white-collar workers are portrayed as more successful.
Growing up, Lurie watched many of his family members work blue-collar jobs such as construction and mechanics.
“I knew I wanted to follow in their footsteps,” Lurie said. “It was one of the few professions I actually saw people working.”
But a combination of factors led Lurie to decide that a four-year chemistry program, followed possibly by medical school to study pharmacology and anesthesiology, would be a better path.
“I knew that if I wanted to pursue a substantial, consistent career in the medical field, going to a four-year university was my only option,” Lurie said.
He said that if he had become an electrician he would have enjoyed it but would have missed out on some things professionally.
And the pressure from Hollywood, school and his parents was always toward a college degree and then a career, he said.
“Universities are encouraging more and more students to go to college because it is more popular and, in students’ minds, ‘safer’,” Lally said.
Persistent biases may be preventing Gen Z from pursuing careers, even if they are to their advantage. According to a Jobber report, around 83% of Gen Z believe that professionals feel less fulfilled than white-collar professionals. Additionally, 76% of Gen Z say that these careers are fraught with stigma.
But not everyone is convinced that Hollywood’s portrayal of blue-collar jobs is hindering Gen Z’s career choices, especially when you look at the numbers of young men and women going to college.
Studies regularly show that women attend college at much higher rates than men, meaning a significant proportion of young men are more likely to work in trades or blue-collar jobs.
“What this tells us is that men are entering the workforce at an earlier age and putting off college,” Kevin Thompson, a financial expert and founder and CEO of 9i Capital Group, told Newsweek. “They’re increasingly going into trades and services, looking to gain experience rather than education.”
While there is still stigma against trade schools, Thompson says it’s seen as more of a “class issue” than anything else, but he acknowledges that Hollywood has a huge influence on how young people think about different career paths.
“Hollywood and the media in general play a big role,” Thompson said. “Every Saturday in the fall, our television screens are filled with images of hundreds of thousands of kids playing football games, and it can sometimes feel like we’re being left behind in this great race.”
Real-world impact
But Gen Z’s departure from the workforce could have serious consequences, especially as the workforce looks to replace college-learned skills with new automation and technologies.
“I often wonder what my life would have been like if I had started a heating and air conditioning business in Texas,” Thompson says. “Many of the skills students learn in college are often replaced by automation and technology, but professional jobs are complemented by technology, not replaced.”
Plumbers and HVAC technicians will always need to be present in customers’ homes to perform their work, and many of the key aspects of their jobs cannot be replaced by AI or technology.
“I think getting a four-year degree from college is going to hurt them in the long run because they often end up in a job that has very little to do with the degree. It just seems like a waste of four years in my opinion,” Thompson said.
Alex Bean, a financial literacy lecturer at the University of Tennessee at Martin, agreed, saying blue-collar jobs are now in demand and, on average, pay better than desk jobs available out of school.
“Some of these career fields are gold mines, but students still don’t want the stigma that comes with the work,” Bean told Newsweek.
Vocational degrees typically cost less, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars, and often pay double or triple the hourly wage. Blue-collar jobs also often allow workers to set their own hours, something Gen Z is keen to address, Bean said.
“To change the conversation, you have to change how you say the conversation,” Bean said.
Human resources consultant Brian Driscoll has seen time and again efforts by schools and parents to create the impression that white-collar work is superior to blue-collar work.
“Schools promote this idea, and parents often buy into it, assuming it’s the only path to stability and success,” Driscoll told Newsweek. “But blue-collar jobs are the backbone of our economy. They’re essential, they often pay well, and they offer a sense of accomplishment that can’t be found sitting at an office desk or kitchen table.”
Driscoll said the lack of representation in Hollywood reinforces what Gen Z has been told all along: They’re not cut out for the role.
“When was the last time you saw a blockbuster movie featuring a skilled craftsman as the protagonist? Instead, we are bombarded with images of tech geniuses and corporate tycoons,” he asked.
Rare knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom, seeking common ground and finding connections.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom, seeking common ground and finding connections.
