Theodore Roosevelt famously said, “Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.”
Why is work worth doing such a prize? Over a lifetime, the average person spends roughly 90,000 hours working. In a week, we spend more time at work than we do pursuing hobbies or being with our families. Imagine spending all that time on work that you weren’t passionate about or fulfilled by. Imagine feeling no purpose in the work you do. That would sound more like a life-sentence than a life, and certainly not a prize.
On the other hand, imagine finding a career that means something, not just to you, but to the people around you - a career that serves and betters your community and contributes to the greater good of society. That’s work that has purpose, that you can take pride in.
Construction work has the reputation of being physically demanding and hard on your body. While some jobs in the building trades can be physically intense, there are many that don’t require brute strength or really much strength at all. It’s one of the biggest myths of construction work!
In fact, many people choose a career in the building trades because of the physical aspects. In the trades, work is active and engaging. No sitting in one place behind a desk for countless hours on end. In the trades, you’re up, moving, and working with your hands to build something meaningful and lasting. It is physical work, though, and physical work does require different abilities and skills than that of your average desk job.
You’ve heard about a career in the building trades and know that it’s an exceptional choice, offering great pay, incredible benefits, and almost limitless opportunities. You’re sold (and why wouldn’t you be?).
Thinking of joining the construction trades, and wondering if you have what it takes to be successful?
Being a successful tradesperson requires much more skill than simply being able to swing a hammer or weld a pipe. A master tradesperson has unique talents and meticulously honed skills developed over many years of training and hard work.
Similar to any job, it’s not just the hard skills and know-how that matter in the building trades; the soft skills matter, too. In fact, soft skills might matter more! Many of the most successful tradespeople entered their careers with little to no prior knowledge or experience in their field, but their soft skills are what have made them successful. So, what are those qualities and skills?
There’s nothing more satisfying than a job well done. But what might be even more satisfying is the day off after you finish a hard week’s work. All work and no play is no way to live. We don’t get up and go to work every day for the sake of working, we get up to make a living. A living for ourselves and for our families. And not just a living, a good living.
What is a good living? When summer rolls around, we want time off to go on vacations with our family and friends. We want a nice car or truck that gets us to work and then gets us out on the weekends. We want to play video games with our friends, go fishing, go water skiing, or have the family over for a holiday barbecue. The American dream looks different for everybody, but one thing is the same - PlayStations, fishing rods, water skis, and gas grills aren’t cheap. And time off to enjoy them isn’t always easy to get. Coming up on the 4th of July, it’s important to think about what independence really means.
Independence is the freedom to make what you want of your life, and that takes time and money. For decades, the construction trades have ensured that our workers have those freedoms. The building trades focus on what matters most - giving our craftspeople the kind of life they deserve after a hard day’s work. The world seems to squeeze harder and harder each year, but a tradesperson has great wages, vacation time, pension, and benefits. In the building trades, we don’t make do; we make a living.
Join us! The construction trades have room for every worker in America. Start making more money today without taking out a mountain of student loans that will weigh you down for decades. We’ll teach you what you need to know to start your new career and pay you while you learn. Come enjoy a fulfilling career and the independence that the American dream is built on in the building trades.
Happy Independence Day!
Did you know that 1 in 5 adults in the United States reports living with a mental illness? That’s a staggering number! And, as we all know, mental illness and other struggles don’t magically disappear when we walk out the door for work in the morning, only to return when we clock out. It’s something that we carry with us, wherever we go.
Not only do we carry our struggles with us into our work life, but our work environments and workload can also play a big role in how we respond to those struggles. It can be make or break. That’s why it’s imperative that employers be aware of these issues and actively advocate for and develop a healthy physical and mental work environment.
While working in the construction industry can sometimes be challenging due to tight deadlines and demanding physical conditions, what’s unique about the construction trades is their unwavering commitment to their members’ health and well-being. Not only do the trades provide comprehensive health and wellness benefits, but they are also working hard to break the stigma around mental health while providing countless avenues for union members to get the help they need when they need it.
Many of the building trades have dedicated mental health programs for their members to raise awareness and provide needed resources and services. SMART Union has a Membership Assistance Program, IUPAT has Helping Hand, and the Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers have a Member Assistance Program. These are just a few of many! There are also numerous joint initiatives, such as the Construction Industry Alliance for Suicide Prevention. This level of awareness, care, and support of employees’ mental and emotional health is unparalleled across industries.
In the trades, there’s also support and camaraderie between coworkers like nowhere else. It’s a brotherhood and sisterhood. When one person is down, it impacts everyone. Tradespeople are notorious for their steadfast support of one another, no matter what struggles are being faced, and are always there to lift each other up.
In life, you will always have difficulties; what’s important is surrounding yourself with people who genuinely care. In the trades, you can be certain you will be cared for physically, mentally, and emotionally and you won’t have to face any challenge alone in work or personal life.
Are you ready to get started with a rewarding career where you know you’ll be supported through all of life’s ups and downs? Consider joining the thousands of men and women pursuing a career in the building trades. Learn how to get started today.
When people think of construction work, they often think of jobs, and not careers. But for most in the construction trades, their work is not a job, not a career, but a true vocation. Don’t believe us? A recent report showed that 83% of tradespeople are highly satisfied in their choice of work!
What is it about the construction trades careers that is so appealing to hundreds of thousands of U.S. workers? Here are just a few of the reasons why a career in the construction trades is such a great choice:
There are a myriad of misconceptions and myths about work in the construction trades: that it’s grueling work, it’s dangerous, and, maybe the most common misconception, that it doesn’t pay well.
But the truth is the building trades don’t just offer good pay, they offer great pay. Did you know that some tradespeople earn high five-figure salaries, and can even make north of six figures as they progress in their career? The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook shows some impressive numbers for 2021 median pay in the trades:
During Black History Month, we pay tribute to the hundreds of thousands of Africans and African Americans who built, and continue to build, the United States.
The National Black Chamber of Commerce tells us that “African slaves were brought to this continent in the early 1500’s to build New York (New Amsterdam at the time), Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, DC and the entire Southeastern territories. The craftsmanship that was learned through this action gave freed slaves an advantage as we slowly approached the Industrial Revolution. America relied on the crafts learned by Blacks during slavery and passed along to offspring from generation to generation.”
Unfortunately, the history of Black people and construction has not always been positive. Forced to build this great nation as enslaved people, and then later systematically blocked from joining guilds and labor unions, Black craftspeople have nevertheless honed their skills and thrived in the building trades. Read this blog post by AGC of California about Black inventors who helped shape the construction industry. For example, in 1887, Alexander Miles, inventor and businessman, patented an innovative electric mechanism to open and close elevator doors, vastly improving their safety.
The history of Black workers and the labor movement is even more compelling. In 2016, the Center for Economic and Policy Research published a report on Black workers, unions, and inequality. The report finds that “(u)nionization rates have been in decline across the board for decades. Despite fact, Black workers are still more likely than workers of any other race or ethnicity to be unionized. In 2015, 14.2 percent of Black workers and 12.3 percent of the entire workforce were represented by unions, down from 31.7 percent and 23.3 percent, respectively, in 1983.”
Why is this significant? The report finds that “(B)lack union workers… enjoy higher wages, and better access to health insurance and retirement benefits than their non-union peers. These benefits persist even after controlling for systematic differences between the union and non-union workforce. Specifically, Black union workers on average earn 16.4 percent higher wages than non-union Black workers. Black union workers are also 17.4 percentage points more likely than non-union Blacks to have employer-provided health insurance, and 18.3 percentage points more likely to have an employer-sponsored retirement plan.”
During Black History Month, we salute the Black men and women who are members of the construction trades. We thank them for their service, their loyalty, and their hard work. We know we’ve got work to do to make our Black members feel genuinely a part of our community. Which is why we join with NABTU (North America’s Building Trades Unions) when they say, “(i)n the Building Trades, we understand the importance of creating economic opportunity and equality for all. That is why we maintain our ongoing commitment to strengthening our grassroots recruitment and retention efforts to foster a more diverse workforce; particularly one that is more inclusive of people of color, women, veterans, and the justice-involved. NABTU will continue doing whatever it takes to dismantle pervasive racism, uplift historically-marginalized communities, and expand middle class workforce opportunities for all backgrounds.”
During the “Great Resignation” of 2021, millions of U.S. workers left their jobs. According to data recently released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a record 4.5 million workers in America quit in November 2021 alone. What’s more, 74% of full-time workers say they’re planning on quitting their jobs in 2022. The reason? U.S. workers are citing dissatisfaction with pay and benefits, work life balance, and career advancement, but that’s only part of the story. After 2 years of pandemic life, stress levels are at an all-time high, employee engagement is extremely low (34%), and much of the American workforce is feeling undervalued, overworked, and struggling to find meaning and purpose in their jobs and careers.
The million-dollar question being asked by these millions of people: what jobs do the 34% of engaged, satisfied employees have, and how do I get that job, too?
We’ve got the answer: many of them work in the building trades. A recent report showed that 83% of tradespeople are still highly satisfied in their choice of work, despite all of the hurdles and hardships that the pandemic has imposed on all of us.
