The Blue-Collar Boom Nobody Saw Coming
By Ahuva Chaitovsky
If AI is such a powerful tool that is taking over many industries, then shouldn't jobs be affected by that? Should we be bracing for a spike in unemployment?
Probably not.
What we might need to anticipate is a spike in demand for highly skilled workers, both in terms of physical and mental labor — such as hair stylists and construction workers, but also higher-level professional roles like executives, even if the nature of that demand differs.
Think back to the Industrial Revolution. Before then, most products were made by individuals or small groups who used their skills to craft custom handmade goods. The invention of the assembly line and machinery shifted the workforce into two main groups: factory workers, who mainly performed repetitive, low-skill tasks, and "white collar" professionals, such as accountants and business owners.
Now, we are seeing the start of a similar, yet somewhat reversed shift. No longer is it common for 20-somethings to land entry-level corporate jobs. Many in that age range face a troubling reality — a shortage of job openings. AI is slowly replacing the routine, entry-level work at the bottom of the corporate ladder. So where do they go?
The clear answer going forward is to fill the gap in blue-collar work. A staggering 20% of 20–24 year olds were working in such jobs in 2024. Unfortunately, this still isn't enough — roughly 400,000 blue-collar jobs are sitting unfilled. To make this path even more appealing, 47% of skilled tradespeople earn more than the median college graduate.
So is this not an easy choice? It seems straightforward: skip college, complete an apprenticeship or vocational program, and enter one of those fields. But many people already hold college degrees, and the sunk cost fallacy leads them to keep searching for jobs that may no longer exist.
All in all, humans are stubborn creatures, but adaptable all the same. To not only survive but thrive in this new era of AI, we must broaden our definition of success in the workforce.
