Welding the skilled trades to dignity
Two big investments in training Americans for noncollege careers reflect not only higher enrollment in trade schools, but also a rethink of social distinctions between white- and blue-collar work.
Construction workers at an office complex in San Diego, California, a hub for the defense and biotech industries and 鈥� more recently 鈥� for AI startups
Mike Blake/Reuters/File
The rapid adoption of artificial intelligence in workplaces across the United States is automating a wide range of administrative, managerial, and even specialized high-tech tasks. Employers and employees alike are understandably concerned.
Yet, the same AI boom is also driving demand for workers in professions long seen as declining in prestige and pay scales: the skilled trades or blue-collar jobs that helped build America鈥檚 middle class.
As the cost of a college education increases, and as young people seek less debt, enrollment in vocational community-college programs and private trade schools has increased by about 6% annually in recent years. Still, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 400,000 skilled trade jobs remained unfilled in 2025.
Paradoxically, these economic and social pressure points highlight new possibilities for expanding pathways to prosperity. Private industry is stepping up its efforts 鈥� and, in the process, also offering Americans an opportunity to reassess how they view work, wealth, and individual worth. (According to a March 2025 Pew Research Center survey, only 30% of blue-collar workers felt that their fellow citizens respect the work they do.)
Last month, the founder of BlackRock, the world鈥檚 largest investment firm, announced a $100 million philanthropic initiative to build up the skilled-trades workforce in the U.S. This week, Fortune magazine reported that Lowe鈥檚, one of the nation鈥檚 largest home-improvement retailers, will invest $250 million toward skilling workers in fields such as carpentry, electrical work, and plumbing.
In an interview with the BBC, BlackRock chief Larry Fink voiced a need to 鈥渞ebalance鈥� views of these professions. And Lowe鈥檚 CEO Marvin Ellison emphasized that skilled trades are 鈥渁 way to create meaningful wealth [and] earn a very dignified living.鈥�
Such views are 鈥渞efreshingly grounded,鈥� and help to reframe the conversation, according to GroundBreak Carolinas, an industry trade group.
鈥淐apital and technology alone do not build progress. People do,鈥� GroundBreak notes on its website, adding, 鈥淭he trades offer something increasingly rare: tangible skills, visible impact, ... and long-term stability.鈥�
This observation ties in to a broader civic need to uphold the dignity of manual or trades work and 鈥渃ombat condescension and credentialist prejudice,鈥� according to Harvard University professor and philosopher Michael Sandel.
鈥淭he most important role we play in the economy,鈥� he wrote in The Atlantic in 2020, 鈥渋s not as consumers but as producers [who] provide goods and services that fulfill the needs of our fellow citizens.鈥�
The Greek philosopher Aristotle, Dr. Sandel pointed out, 鈥渁rgued that human flourishing depends on ... cultivation and exercise of our abilities.鈥� And the 鈥淎merican republican tradition鈥� also taught that such endeavors 鈥渘urture the virtues that equip citizens for self-rule.鈥�
For today鈥檚 young people who pursue trades, the opportunity to become productive citizens and skilled producers could be a double bonus.