'Yeah, No. It's Low Wages,' A Worker Responds To Whether The Skilled Labor Shortage Is Just Because Everyone Was 'Told To Go To College'

Adrian Volenik

Sat, May 3, 2025, 12:48 PM 4 min read

For years, people have debated why there aren't enough skilled workers to fill all the open trade jobs in the U.S. A Reddit thread this week on r/jobs asked a simple question: Is the skilled labor shortage because everyone was told to go to college?

Plenty of commenters said yes, the college push was intense. One user recalled, “Graduated HS in ’06. Anything outside of the college pipeline was painted as a bad idea to me. Trade work and apprentice programs were talked about as if they were slave labor/scams.”

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Another said, “As a 2007 graduate, all we were told in school was to go to college. The trades were not discussed at all.”

But that's just one part of the puzzle. Many pointed out that skilled labor jobs come with real downsides: physically punishing work, inconsistent hours, and pay that often doesn't reflect the toll it takes on the body.

One user shared, “Worked in the trades for 5 years out of college. Ruined my back and wrists. Have a cushy office design job now... I will never go back.”

The most upvoted comment came from a user who said, “People hear the ‘just join a trade, you'll make 6 figures‘ meme and don't realize your first few years you don't make much, the work is hard, and the hours are brutal.” They added, “You'll look 50 at 40 and 75 at 55. Your knees, back, and hands will be a disaster by 50.”

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Others echoed that. One said that the risk of injury is so much worse than in an office job: “It's not a matter of if, but a matter of when, depending on the severity of your job, and the carelessness of others around you.”

A recurring theme was that employers often blame a “labor shortage” when they just don't want to pay better. “There is no skilled labor shortage. Only an abundance of resume farming,” one user wrote. “Employers hold the power to frame the job market the way they see fit.”

Another added that their company laid off half the maintenance crew, kept production running with forced overtime, and then claimed they “can't find any skilled labor.”