Is Gen Z Bypassing the Corporate World?

At 24, she had successfully graduated from college and found herself living in the city, underemployed. Her options: take an entry-level corporate job that would require a side hustle to make ends meet, head to graduate school, or pursue a job in the trades. She chose the latter, and eights months later was earning $65,000 a year as a data-center technician; three years after that, she opened her own company and encouraged two friends to get trained so she could hire them.

Her path is becoming a new and surprising norm for Gen Z. Two out of five Gen Zers are currently pursuing blue-collar employment, including 37% of those with bachelor’s degrees, according to a survey from Resume Builder. Though recruiters for skilled plumbing and elevator installation and truck driving are presumably thrilled, the shift raises concerns for a corporate world looking for its own future leaders. After all, Gen Z already comprises a quarter of the workforce and will make up a third of it by the end of the decade. “Shunning that pathway could cause real problems in the next five to 10 years,” says JP Sniffen, practice leader at the Military Center of Expertise at Korn Ferry, whose practice is 60% skilled trades. “The risk is shrinking mid-level manager ranks.”

The tech boom had, for a while, cemented desk jobs as the path to a viable retirement account for new workers. For a time, strivers firmly equated a college degree with success—but that moment may be passing, says HR expert Louis Montgomery, principal at Korn Ferry. “This is an opportunity to work, and make good money—and not have any significant student loan debt,” he says. Boomer skilled laborers are retiring, opening up millions of roles, right as AI threatens to replace legions of desk workers.

Not surprisingly, Gen Zers are also disillusioned by watching their parents struggle to build careers that are now being crushed by tech and cost-cutting. At the same time, Gen Z is notoriously concerned with lifestyle, and trade jobs offer a straightforward route to owning a business. “We’re seeing a shift to entrepreneurialism,” says Matt Bohn, senior client partner in the Technology practice at Korn Ferry.

And today’s blue-collar work is nothing like, say, working on a diesel engine in the 1980s. “When you take a truck to the shop, the first thing they do is plug it into a computer,” says Sniffen. Some of the niftiest workplace tech around is in the hands of electricians, plant operators, and technicians. Though he still frequently sees veterans pursuing four-year degrees, he says, “they don’t necessarily need to hitch their wagons to a traditional white-collar job.”

Skilled jobs—which are defined as roles that require both thinking and use of one’s body—are a particularly strong long-term bet because they’re unlikely to be easily replaced with a machine. “They’re not automatable,” says Michael Yinger, senior RPO project director at Korn Ferry, whose hires are 40% to 50% blue collar. Corporations are so keen on building a pipeline that some are recruiting high schoolers as interns, he says. Finally, the blue-collar route is further glamorized at the moment on social media, where influencers on YouTube and TikTok “are showcasing trades like welding, plumbing, and electrical work as viable, lucrative, and fulfilling alternatives to college,” says Anya Weaver, principal consultant in leadership and professional development at Korn Ferry.

Experts says firms need to refocus their efforts on Gen Z workplace issues, as well look more closely within their own firms for skilled workers who could transition to middle managers. Indeed, many high-ranking operations and tech executives began with hands-on work. The talent is still coming through the door, says Yinger. “Talent has nothing to do with the type of work, he says, getting ahead is about capabilities.” 

Learn more about Korn Ferry’s Talent Recruitment capabilities. 

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