A student participates in a hands-on class of the Advanced Electrical program at Apex Technical School in Manhattan, New York. Long looked down upon, skilled trades are booming in the United States.
Long looked down upon, skilled trades are booming in the United States, especially among young adults drawn by strong demand -- even as artificial intelligence (AI) eats into service-sector jobs.
"I think it's definitely shifting," said Nizier Lawrence, in his early twenties.
Prior to the pandemic, "people weren't really talking about going to trade school, vocational schools, stuff like that. It was like: 'Go to college, get your four years.'"
The New Yorker spent three years at Keuka College, a private school upstate, before changing plans. "I wanted a break," he remembers, partly because he was "homesick" for the city.
