--- title: "Degrees of separation: As college enrollment drops, trade school sign-ups rise - The Hustle" description: Six figures of debt and no job? Minimal debt and a job with an above-median salary? The latter’s appeal is growing. image: https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/869946443-19-News-Brief_2023-04-24T001028.648Z.webp --- # Degrees of separation: As college enrollment drops, trade school sign-ups rise ![Ben Berkley](https://53.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/53/assets/hubspot.com/web-team/WBZ/HubSpot%20Media/Blog%202021/Images/Nav/Optimized/TheHustle_Icon_Dark.svg) [Ben Berkley](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/author/ben-berkley) Published: April 24, 2023 Updated: October 11, 2023 Those “America is short on skilled labor” alarm bells have been going off for years now. ![increase in skilled trade program enrollment](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hs-fs/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/869946443-19-News-Brief_2023-04-24T001028.648Z.webp?width=595&height=400&name=869946443-19-News-Brief_2023-04-24T001028.648Z.webp) There are active shortages of [~500k](https://www.constructiondive.com/news/round-table-do-people-not-want-to-work-construction-anymore/636271/) construction workers, [600k+](https://www.autoserviceprofessional.com/site-placement/latest-news/article/11460774/industry-needs-more-than-600000-technicians-by-2026) auto technicians, and [~800k](https://www.uschamber.com/workforce/understanding-americas-labor-shortage-the-most-impacted-industries) manufacturing jobs. (Plus, there’s a scarcity of [carpenters](https://thehustle.co/why-america-has-so-few-carpenters/).) But we’re now seeing an encouraging sign that those bells may be answered — and then perhaps tuned up and served some dinner. Recent [enrollment data](https://nscresearchcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/CTEE_Report_Spring_2022.pdf) from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center shows trade school interest is on the up-and-up, with double-digit increases in many vocational programs, including mechanic, repair, construction, and culinary courses. - That’s quite unlike two- and four-year college enrollment, which is on the down-and-down (7.8% and 3.4%, respectively, for public programs). #### **Mindsets are shifting** These numbers partially represent a pandemic rebound — as hands-on fields strained to offer hands-on training, enrollment in the trades [dropped](https://hechingerreport.org/students-enrolled-in-job-focused-degree-programs-dropping/) — but that’s not the entire story here. Young people are choosing trade schools over degree programs because, well, it’s just more financially practical at this point, [according](https://hechingerreport.org/trade-programs-unlike-other-areas-of-higher-education-are-in-hot-demand/) to *The Hechinger Report*. - The Washington state auditor [found](https://portal.sao.wa.gov/ReportSearch/Home/ViewReportFile?arn=1020510&isFinding=false&sp=false) public universities ~2x, and private colleges 10x, more expensive than a technical education. But mostly, it’s about what happens after: The promise of *actually having a job*. - Federal [data](https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/ctes/figures/fig_2016107-2.asp) shows trade school students are more likely to be employed after school than their high-spending university counterparts — and much more likely to work in their fields of study, too. Those trade jobs are hardly paying beans. Per Georgetown University’s [Good Jobs Project](https://goodjobsdata.org/), many are among the 30m jobs paying $55k+ per year that don’t require a four-year degree. **BTW: **Need more job perks? We assume the [50k workers](https://fortune.com/2023/01/04/labor-shortage-manufacturing-jobs-machines/) the US Navy is currently seeking to build its nuclear submarines will all be hired as consultants on a future Michael Bay film. Topics: [Economy](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/tag/economy) [Education](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/tag/education) ## Follow us on social media prev next - ![Student loan repayments are back and more confusing than ever](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1645811006-httpsthdaily.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.comfinal_size-StudentLoans_20230831230545.webp) ### Student loan repayments are back and more confusing than ever - ![Looking for an edge in attracting talent? 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Signup for a free account Close modal ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Ben Berkley", "url" : "https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/news/author/ben-berkley" }, "datePublished" : "2023-04-24T07:36:58.000Z", "headline" : "Degrees of separation: As college enrollment drops, trade school sign-ups rise", "image" : [ "https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/869946443-19-News-Brief_2023-04-24T001028.648Z.webp" ], "mainEntityOfPage" : { "@id" : "https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/news/04242023-trade-school-enrollment", "@type" : "WebPage" }, "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject" } } } ``` ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@id" : "#article", "@type" : "NewsArticle", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Ben Berkley", "url" : "https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/author/ben-berkley" }, "dateModified" : "2023-10-11T19:25:57+0000", "datePublished" : "2023-04-24T07:36:58+0000", "headline" : "Degrees of separation: As college enrollment drops, trade school sign-ups rise", "image" : [ "https://7355427.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/7355427/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/869946443-19-News-Brief_2023-04-24T001028.648Z.webp" ], "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "height" : 112, "url" : "https://fs.hubspotusercontent00.net/hubfs/53/assets/hubspot.com/web-team/WBZ/Blog%202021/Images/Logos/HubSpot%20Logo%20112X112.svg", "width" : 112 }, "name" : "HubSpot", "sameAs" : [ "https://www.facebook.com/hubspot", "https://twitter.com/hubspot" ], "url" : "https://www.hubspot.com" }, "speakable" : { "@type" : "SpeakableSpecification", "xPath" : [ "//title", "/html/head/meta[@name='description']/@content" ] } } ```