Gen Zers are steadily abandoning the college-to-corporate pipeline, opting for trade school and blue-collar jobs instead. They’re suiting up as electricians, plumbers, and carpenters for six-figure salaries—but there’s one thriving industry they’re still turning their nose up at.
Manufacturing is one of America’s hottest growing professions, with 3.8 million new jobs expected to open up by 2033, according to research last year from Deloitte and the Manufacturing Institute.
Yet half of those roles are predicted to go unfilled. Just 14% of Gen Z say they’d consider industrial work as a career, according to a separate study from Soter Analytics.
Gen Z’s interest in degree-less manufacturing jobs should be obvious—after all, they’re already ditching cushy air-conditioned offices for blue-collar horizons. But they’re choosing to sit this one out.
That’s likely because a quarter of them believe the industry doesn’t offer flexibility and isn’t safe, as per Soter Analytics’ study—two non-negotiables for Gen Z, who value hybrid work and being cared for on the job.
Gen Z wants blue-collar work—just not on the factory floor
The workforce’s youngest generation is swapping “office siren” attire for hard hats and neon vests. But they won’t be rushing to fill open seats on factory floors.
Enrollment in vocational-focused community colleges jumped 16% last year—reaching the highest level since the National Student Clearinghouse began tracking the data in 2018. There also was a 23% surge in Gen Z studying construction trade from 2022 to 2023, and a 7% hike of participation in HVAC and vehicle repair programs. Most Americans, 78%, have seen a rising interest in trade jobs from young adults.
These blue-collar careers allow Gen Z to be their own boss, have more flexibility over their hours, and still rake in six-figure salaries. The work is in high demand, and doesn’t require a costly college degree, sinking many young people into debt.
But factory work faces some issues that are complete turn-offs to Gen Z.
Indeed, manufacturing was once advertised as a stable career—padded with a pension, the industry was rife with opportunities in America’s industrialized society. But today, plumbing and even waitressing present better financial opportunities (and are more dynamic) than being a functioning cog in an assembly line.
Manufacturing jobs in the U.S. pay an average of about $25 per hour, or about $51,890 per year—far below the 2024 average American salary of about $69,850 annually.
One reason why wages in the sector have stagnated may be chalked up to corporate suppression of factory labor unions. Workers have far less bargaining power to barter for better salaries that once made the jobs so attractive.
Gen Z also don’t want to be sequestered to ‘boring’ factory floors, when they might find more intrigue bartending or unclogging drains for better wages.
Gen Z are not alone—but someone needs to fill the gap
The U.S. is desperate for more assembly workers and machine operators, and Americans recognize the need, with 80% believing the country would be better off if more U.S. workers were funneled into manufacturing.
But talk is cheap—and few are actually willing to do it themselves. The same 2024 CATO Institute poll found that only 25% of Americans think they’d be better off working in a factory.
“You’re up against these huge technological changes in addition to trade and in addition to the fact that people are getting more educated,” Kyle Handley, an economist at the University of California, San Diego’s School of Global Policy and Strategy, told Business Insider.
“The country’s growing richer, and there are these other jobs in the service sector, which people have gravitated toward.”
The once-thriving industry is under the microscope now more than ever as President Trump’s policies wreak havoc on the sector’s labor supply.
America’s manufacturing industry has long relied on immigrant workers to take on the jobs that U.S.-born citizens don’t want to do. Deloitte’s research found that a decline in immigration in recent years has already strained the labor supply. Trump’s crackdown on immigration and deportation efforts could set back the sector even more.
Now, the problem is reaching a boiling point as America’s workforce saddles up for a big change: baby boomers exiting for retirement.
A version of this story originally published on Fortune.com on April 17, 2025.
