Gen Z is being turned off to blue-collar jobs because of Hollywood: Report

Terrence Lurry, a 21-year-old chemistry student at Emory University, once considered becoming an electrician. Now he’s primed to enter medical school and become a doctor.

While electricians can get paid more than $70,000 yearly and require only a high school diploma, Lurry chose to pursue the white-collar profession over the blue-collar trade.

“I have often been told to ‘use my brain, instead of my body,’ by my family members who work blue-collar jobs because it is so physically taxing,” Lurry told Newsweek.

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Even with the extra years of schooling and potential education debt, it’s a common choice for Gen Z, new data shows.

Gen Z is increasingly being turned off to blue-collar trade jobs, and Hollywood may be playing a larger role than expected, a new Jobber study found.

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Though social attitudes are becoming more critical of higher education and in favor of trades, Gen Z—which has made a name for itself as one of the most skeptical generations—is still not jumping completely on the bandwagon.

As “digital natives,” Gen Z has grown up with the internet, and the media has likely affected their ideas of career success more than previous generations.

In the Jobber survey, more than one-third, or 35 percent, of Gen Z said TV shows and movies influenced the careers they want to explore.

“I think Hollywood is also pushing a narrative towards more post-secondary education,” Lurry said. “Not often in film and media do you see high school students portrayed as having dreams of entering the blue-collar workforce.”

This has huge ramifications for trades, as 47 percent of Gen Z said trades professionals were portrayed negatively in shows and movies, and 47 percent said white-collar workers are portrayed as more successful.

Growing up, Lurry watched many of his family members work in blue-collar jobs like construction or as mechanics.

“I figured I would follow in their footsteps,” Lurry said. “It was some of the only professions I had seen people work first-hand.”

However, a combination of factors saw Lurry decide a four-year chemistry program, and then hopefully medical school in pharmacology and anesthesia, was the better route.

“I knew that if I wanted to practically pursue a consistent career in the medical field, going to a four-year university was really my only option,” Lurry said.

He said if he ended up becoming an electrician, he thinks he would have enjoyed it but there would be things he’d be missing out on in a career.

And the push from Hollywood, school and parents was always toward a college degree and the type of job that comes after that, he said.

“They are encouraging more and more students to move towards the college path because it is more popular and ‘secure’ in their minds,” Lurry said.

There’s a lingering stigma that might be preventing Gen Z from joining the trades, even when it’s advantageous to them. According to the Jobber report, roughly 83 percent of Gen Z think that trade professionals do not have a strong sense of accomplishment compared to white-collar professionals. Additionally, 76 percent of Gen Zers said there was a stigma attached to these kinds of jobs.

But not everyone is sure Hollywood’s depiction of blue-collar jobs is preventing Gen Z from taking their chance on the trades, especially if you look at the numbers of young men and women entering college.

Studies routinely show that women are entering college at far higher rates than their male counterparts, meaning a substantial portion of young men likely enter trade or blue-collar work.

“What this is telling me is that men are joining the workforce at a much earlier age and putting college off,” Kevin Thompson, a finance expert and the founder and CEO of 9i Capital Group, told Newsweek. “Men are taking on more trade and service jobs moving towards experience versus academia.”

While the stigma against vocational schools persists, Thompson said this is seen more along the lines of “a class issue” than anything else. But he admits Hollywood is making a substantial impact on how young people view different career paths.

“Hollywood and media in general play an integral role,” Thompson said. “Every Saturday you see hundreds of thousands of kids at football games in the fall, which is plastered across your television sets. It can make one feel as if they are being left behind in this great race.”

Real-world consequences

The loss of Gen Zers from the trades could have serious consequences, though, especially as the workforce looks to replace college skills with new automation and technology.

“I often wonder what my life would be like if I had opened a heating AC business in Texas,” Thompson said. “Many of the skills kids are receiving in college are often replaced by automation and technology. However, the jobs in the trades are being complimented by technology, not replaced.”

Plumbers and AC workers will always have to come to your home, with many key aspects of their job unable to be replaced by AI or technology.

“I do believe it hurts them in the long run because when you get a four-year degree from a college, you oftentimes end up in a career that has very little to do with your degree. Seems like a waste of four years, in my opinion,” Thompson said.

Alex Beene, a financial literacy instructor at the University of Tennessee at Martin, echoed the sentiment, saying the demand for blue-collar jobs now pays more on average than desk jobs coming out of school.

“Some of these vocational career fields are gold mines, but students still don’t want the stigma associated with that job,” Beene told Newsweek.

The cost of earning a vocational degree usually is tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars lowers, with hourly wages often double or triple. The blue-collar roles often allow workers to set their own hours as well, Beene said, and this is something Gen Z has shown great interest in.

“In order for the conversation to change, we have to change how we word the conversation,” Beene said.

Bryan Driscoll, an HR consultant, has witnessed schools and parents work to instill in the impression that white collar is superior to blue collar time and time again.

“Schools push this narrative, and parents often buy into it, thinking 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, often pay well, and offer a sense of accomplishment that sitting in a cubicle or at your kitchen table just can’t match.”

Driscoll said the lack of representation in Hollywood reinforces what Gen Z has been told all along.

“When was the last time,” he asked, “you saw a blockbuster where the hero was a skilled tradesperson? Instead, we’re bombarded with images of tech geniuses and corporate moguls.”