Artificial intelligence and uncertain salaries are pushing young people to rediscover craft professions. Generation Z is truly becoming the “Toolbelt Generation”
Can generational change also manifest itself in the labor market? It would seem so, at least according to the data regarding the young people of the generation Z which, data in hand, are increasingly opting for a return to manual laborso much so that it earned its nickname “Toolbelt Generation” (the tool belt generation).
Artificial intelligence, huge expenses for university studies and an increasingly precarious economic situation they are convincing more and more Zoomers (young people belonging to Generation Z) to abandon the prospect of office jobs and put on their tool belts.
Fewer managerial and humanistic faculties, more high craftsmanship, plumbing, welding and carpentry schools. The boom in enrollments recorded in recent years in the United States (and also in Italy) is clearly the result of a radical change in the perception of the job market.
Manual and tangible work is now perceived by young people as “safer from AI” and mentally more satisfying than a day spent in front of Excel sheets.
According to a study conducted by the American financial platform SimplyWise, the 34% of Gen Z youth believes that attending a vocational school is the safest path to achieving financial stability by age 30, against only 23% which still focuses on the traditional degree.
Even in our country, an official survey conducted by LinkedIn Italia photographs a polarized generation: the 49% of Gen Z consider technical-operational professions an absolute guarantee for their future, a percentage almost identical to those who prefer office work.
To put it simply and directly: computer work is at risk, repairing a plumbing pipe is not.
Data in the USA
In the United States the phenomenon is evident. The data of National Student Clearinghouse show that while enrollments at traditional four-year universities have seen a steady decline, there is a flight towards technical and vocational courses.
Just think that between 2020 and 2025the total number of Gen Z students enrolled in public two-year schools with a focus on business and technical programs is increased overall by almost 20%compared to growth in traditional four-year degree courses which has remained almost flat.
Consolidated data from the National Student Clearinghouse shows a solid +23% in Carpentry and Construction. Same thing for the manufacturing sector Welding and Metallic Carpentry (+7%), professions considered to have a highly specialized content that allow you to work immediately in the petrochemical, aerospace or advanced manufacturing sectors, with high entry salaries.
A comparison of average salaries is clarifying: according to the data of Bureau of Labor Statisticsthe average national entry salary for a new graduate is around $52,000 – $59,000 per year (excluding engineering or computer science).
The average must be subtracted from this figure $400 a month to repay the average student debt accumulated (about $39,000).
A young person who enters the technical professions at 22-23 years old as a qualified electrician or plumber instead debuts with an average of $62,350 per yearwith zero student debt.
The phenomenon is also Italian
In Italy the return to technical professions is equally evident. Enrollments in the ITS Academy (the post-technical/professional institute specialization academies) have gone from 11,000 in 2021 to almost 41,000 in the last three years, more than tripled, also thanks to the PNRR funds.
The salaries of ITS graduates are between 1,400 and 1,700 euros net per monthwith peaks between 1,500 and 1,900 euros net in sectors of excellence such as advanced mechatronics, exceeding the initial average of three-year graduates.
If a change in perception between white collar workers and blue collar workers is therefore certainly underway, the stigma resists: 64% of Italians still consider technical professions a “second choice”.
A paradox, if you consider that in 2025 companies looked for 120,000 ITS graduates, managing to find less than half of them: 57.3% of the profiles are unobtainable. The demand is there, the salaries are better than the entry-level of a new graduate. Perhaps the only thing missing is the courage to change the narrative.
