The gist of it: with each passing decade there’s a growing shortage of construction laborers, resulting in large wait times for housing to be built. Some analysts wonder why the key demographic isn’t showing up.

I’ve seen a few articles in the past few years about young men supposedly checking out of society and work, I wonder if there is a connection between that and this article here because young men tend to be the prime demographic for working this job.

Companies need to pay their workers better.

  • Zev@beehaw.orgEnglish
    8·
    10 months ago

    Ex construction worker here. I did HVAC installation for 6 years and worked as an apprentice electrician for two. This is in California(SoCal;southern California). I didn’t get any health insurance benefits. Also I wasn’t in a union of any kind. The work is demanding; the pay was ok. There’s a lot of toxic Mother Fuckers in construction, besides your boss I mean. I also felt that there wasn’t many trade schools to go to and they were not easy to find. I went to get a certificate in an electrician course and found out that the certificate ( which I didn’t even get, because I didn’t show up on the last day (came to get it multiple times after with no luck)) that they were giving out didn’t even mean shit really. I always felt there’s not enough clear information on how to climb the ladder if you wanted to get accredited education in construction. Unless You went to LA TRADE TECH college (Los Angeles) . Or if you didn’t get a job at LADWP, your skills and knowledge didn’t offer You any good jobs. I worked private sector jobs and got my knowledge from; (basically) an online school ( penn foster ) .

    Anyways 🤨 I just always felt that the state didn’t provide enough information on how to climb the ladder in your career, where to go get certification that was accredited ETC.

    We really need some bad ass trade schools (out here) that aren’t for profit. And clear information on how to get licensed in different trades.

    That’s my two cents

    Edit; let me add this; to me it feels like the government can be shortcited. They didn’t invest in training 😕 new generation of trade workers IMHO ; and now they’re like; “oh shit!”

    For profit; “everything”, makes life shit. (Pardon my French and also the terrible use of English grammar)