Skilled Trade Workers Are Out Of This World
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 types of hardware […]
Construction Workforce Shortage Tops Half A Million
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 remains high, filling these roles with skilled craft professionals […]
How To Nail a Job Interview
You’re young, you’re inexperienced, your school grades were poor to middling, and you haven’t accomplished much in life beyond earning minimal wages in a few low-skilled part-time jobs. Yet, you’ve managed to somehow wiggle your way into an interview for a trade apprenticeship program or an entry-level position with the promise of on-the-job training (OJT) […]
Demographics Favors The Trades
“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 enables you to deduce various […]
Trade Jobs Are Secure Jobs
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 […]
Employers Rethink Need For College Degrees
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 […]
It’s National Apprenticeship Week
I’m submitting this article on Nov. 15, the second day of what’s been declared the 8th Annual National Apprenticeship Week (NAW), November 14-20, 2022. If it’s not marked on your calendar, you’re hardly alone. I didn’t learn about it until a few days before, when I found out First Lady Jill Biden was to visit […]
What Does Trade Work Really Cost?
Most trade workers get paid an hourly wage, although some service workers get paid on a commission basis depending on the value of jobs they finish. Rates vary in different parts of the country, generally in line with a regional cost of living, but for the purposes of illustration, let’s take an average of $25 […]
Never Work A Day In Your Life
Have you always been fascinated with how things work and fixing them when they stop working? Some people are born mechanics, and it’s a shame that too often they are discouraged from pursuing the kind of work they love. This realization hit me many years ago when I was an instructor at the University of […]
Be Productive Members of Society
Recent years have seen the emergence of a work-from-home trend in the white-collar world, driven by the Covid epidemic and the need for social distancing. Even though most restrictions have been lifted, many businesses are still allowing various office staff to continue working from home. Recently I read an article about various business management experts […]