Conventional wisdom has long held that, while everyone likes the idea of vocational training in theory, everyone also wants their own child to go to college. But that’s no longer true, if it ever was.
Americans are more aware than ever of the importance of making things and enthusiastic about efforts to reindustrialize the economy. Big tech companies are laser-focused on the skilled trades, as their own growth suddenly depends on an unprecedented expansion of physical infrastructure. And the labor market data confirm: the college advantage is slipping away.
Two weeks ago, the Washington Post headlined a report, “For the first time in 50 years, college grads are losing their edge.” As the story explained:
The unemployment gap between workers with bachelor’s degrees and those with occupational associate’s degrees — such as plumbers, electricians and pipe fitters — flipped in 2025, leaving trade workers with a slight edge for six months out of the past year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It’s the first time trade workers have had a leg up since the BLS started tracking this data in the 1990s.