Blog

Like many of you, I’m a sports fan and in my youth was a fair to middling athlete. Never a star but usually better than half of my teammates. That’s also a fair description of the physical traits needed to become a skilled trade worker. You don’t have to have a body builder’s physique or […]

1. More than one in six skilled tradespeople end up owning their own business and another 20% become partners in a business. 2. 30% of small business owners have no more than a high school diploma. 3. Construction is the most popular profession for people who own their own businesses. 4. The average...

For the last several decades April 21 has been marked on many calendars as Earth Day, dedicated to environmental protection. Many communities schedule programs and festivities on that date to draw attention to environmental problems and solutions. One problem in particular stands out. If you’re not...

I was about to submit a different insight for this month’s first blog, but during my daily online reading, an article about the importance of skilled workers as we enter a new phase of space exploration caught my eye. “ … Many different launch and crew vehicles, private space facilities, and other...

The construction industry will need to attract an estimated 546,000 additional workers on top of the normal pace of hiring in 2023 to meet the demand for labor, according to the Associated Builders and Contractors, a construction industry trade association. “As the demand for construction services...

“Demographics is destiny,” goes an old saying. Demographics refers to the makeup of a population in terms of age, ethnicity, income, etc. The most significant of these is the average age of a population. Only a large influx of immigrants can change this factor. Otherwise, the age of a population...

Included among my daily reading is a large amount of business and economic news from the Economist, Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and other credible publications. One article from the WSJ a few days ago struck me as relevant to those of you contemplating trade careers. It had to do with a rise in layoffs...

At Explore The Trades, we’re passionate about plumbing, heating, cooling and electrical, and bridging the technical talent gap to these trades. In This Issue: It’s the Season of Giving NEW Customer Service and Dispatch Webpage Over 1,100 Classrooms Have Received Poster Kits! It’s the...

That was the headline of an article in the Wall Street Journal a few days ago that grabbed my attention. It is yet more evidence for a theme that I have hammered home in this blog, which is, college degrees have been devalued even while their cost has skyrocketed. Various studies have shown that more...