I’m not doing that: Why we don't have enough school bus drivers and workers for other lackluster but essential positions
Key Insights from Recent Articles
1. Unskilled Labor Shortages in Millions of Jobs
- As of September 2023, there were 9.5 million job openings in the U.S., while only 6.5 million workers were unemployed, leaving a gap of 3 million unfilled positions—many in sectors like hospitality, retail, construction, and manufacturing .
- A combination of pandemic effects, declines in immigration, and workers reevaluating job preferences due to health, childcare, or retirement have contributed to fewer available workers for these roles.
2. Manufacturing and Skilled Trade Shortages
- The manufacturing sector alone faces approximately 400,000 unfilled positions. Skilled trades such as welding, machining, and maintenance are especially hard-hit, due in part to retiring workers and a lack of new entrants .
- In skilled trades, helper and apprentice-level roles—plumbers, roofers, carpenters, electricians—remain unfilled for long periods (averaging 27–39 days), despite apprenticeship training and decent pay .
3. Mismatch in Skills, Awareness, and Training
- Among 6.2 million job openings in 2024 requiring less than an associate degree, 72% were in occupations facing labor shortages like radiation therapy, nuclear tech, and air-traffic control .
- A key issue is that many people simply don’t know these jobs exist or how to get into them. That information gap, paired with fragmented career guidance, creates large swaths of unfilled “middle-skill” roles .
- Additionally, some jobs remain unfilled not only because of skill mismatches, but also because of outdated hiring practices—such as requiring degrees and years of experience for entry-level roles, making them effectively unreachable for many applicants Perspectives from Workers (Reddit Highlights)
From users in the construction and skilled trades industries:
“Applicants range from people who can’t pass a background check, to people with zero experience (who want the lead jobs, not the helper jobs)… We have hired exactly 1 lead Carpenter in the last 2 years… we need 4!”
“It’s an age thing too… I’m 52. … Zero advertising.”
These comments underscore issues of declining interest from younger workers, unREALISTIC expectations of new hires, and the retirement of experienced staff with no sufficient replacements.
Summary Table
|
Main Factor |
Impact on Unskilled Jobs |
|
Skills & Awareness Gap |
Jobs exist but people don’t know how to access them |
|
Worker Preferences & Conditions |
Low pay, low prestige, inconsistent hours—jobs are unattractive |
|
Demographic Shifts & Immigration |
Fewer younger and immigrant workers; retirements; declining labor force participation |
|
Hiring Practices & Over-Spec’ing |
Entry-level jobs demand too much, discouraging many applicants |
|
Manufacturing & Trade Gaps |
Even trades with training pipelines remain understaffed and unfilled |
Many “unskilled” jobs require incredible skill (think: plumbing, caregiving, line cooking at speed, farm work) and are the backbone of our economy. The stigma is less about the work itself and more about decades of messaging that certain paths make you “somebody” while others make you “replaceable.”
it’s a mix of social status beliefs, economic shifts, and changing values over time.
White-collar ideal: In the U.S., “success” has long been tied to college degrees, office jobs, and upward mobility—a mindset that intensified after WWII when the G.I. Bill encouraged millions to pursue higher education.
Schools often push “college for all” messaging, unintentionally stigmatizing vocational training and apprenticeships.
Trades and service roles came to be seen as “less prestigious” because they’re physical, hands-on, or customer-facing, while jobs behind a desk became symbols of “making it.”
Trade unions are picyune however. Guidance counselors and parents may frame trades as “backup plans” rather than valid first choices, when actually they are on an inaccessible path to many students. You have to know someone, in other words and as an apprentice, you have to have the ability to listen, follow orders and really work hard at being the best at what you do.
And that isn't a thing these days in American culture. We are working against our own best interests.
Still, trades and service roles are pigeonholed as “less prestigious” because they’re physical, hands-on, or customer-facing, while jobs behind a desk became symbols of “making it.” So even those who have relatives in the trades won't follow in the family business footsteps.
Advertising sells the idea that success is luxury and status, which makes “blue-collar” or “unskilled” jobs look like something to “escape.”
Industries like agriculture, hospitality, janitorial, and caregiving rely heavily on immigrant labor. Over time, this has created a social hierarchy around labor, with Americans often internalizing the idea that those jobs are “for someone else.”
The reality is that college teaches the student much about how to think and operate in the world properly. College grads want to become a part of proper society. That is what trade schools leave on the cutting room floor. So many don't understand what to do with all of the extra disposable income. It goes toward an improper lifestyle in many instances. (Ask people who live near large urban centers. It's a crapshoot who may help you and do their job and those who will take advantage. i.e. Holmes vs Holmes on HGTV.) The exceptions are those who overarchingly have a strong moral base. They succeed.
We like to think of ourselves as a “middle-class nation,” but we often overestimate our own class position, looking “up” rather than recognizing shared struggles. Our culture deeply equates worth with job titles, income, and education, which fuels disdain for essential but low-paid work—even though these jobs literally keep society running.
