THE EVOLUTION OF BLUE-COLLAR WORK

Part One: NEW BLUE

Traditional “blue collar” work has evolved into highly developed technological labor, it is no longer limited to jobs like coal mining, railroad work, or plumbing.

BY KASSIDY ARENA

The Iron Giant brought tears to the public’s eyes. Cars that transform into giant fighting robots are Shia LaBeouf’s best friend. These robots are found in fictional films, but that doesn’t mean robots themselves are fiction, nor are they just a future possibility.

Robots already exist.

 They operate machinery, file taxes and drive cars. Robots, also known as automations or Artificial Intelligence (AI), are changing the American workforce every day, and rather quickly. Studies show the type of labor most at risk with the development of technology is actually unskilled labor, which applies to jobs traditionally known as “white-collar.”

 White-collar jobs consist of most office positions and other non-hands-on employment like secretaries or phone operators.  And it’s jobs like these that can be, and will be, easily replaced by technology.

 According to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ website, a robot is “an autonomous machine capable of sensing its environment, carrying out computations to make decisions, and performing actions in the real world.”

 These systems will and have replaced labor in white-collar areas of work, while increasing the demand for the work to program and maintain automation/AI. But some aspects of the future of automation are still up in the air.

 “There may be some very long-term threats as AI and robotics are blended but it is hard to tell what those are. Just as elevator operators and secretaries were replaced with technology, so too will truck drivers and radiologists,” Noah Cowan, Johns Hopkins University Professor of Mechanical Engineering, said.

 Cowan is not the only scholar aware of the changes brought on by advancing automation. In their report “Artificial Intelligence, Automation and Work,” MIT Economist Daron Acemoglu and Assistant Professor at Boston University Pascual Restrepo, explain how automation has conflicting effects on the U.S. workforce.

 “Automation results in a reduction in employment (or an increase in unemployment). As such, our analysis so far also sheds light on (and clarifies the conditions for) the claims that new automation technologies will reduce employment,” the study found.

 The study goes on to explain how as automation consistently replaces unskilled labor, the demand for those jobs will go down. Hence, an increased unemployment rate for the unskilled white-collar field. However, as new automations are introduced, more people will need the proper training to deal with those programs. This would increase the demand for labor within the trades field, traditionally known as blue-collar work.

 As more people choose to attend a four-year university, which does not usually instruct students on technical work, Acemoglu and Restrepo predict a mismatch on technologies and skills.

 This is where the trouble comes in. As the demand for technology increases, laborers are used for that advancement rather than creating new tasks for those who have been replaced by the technology.

 The study concluded, “to the extent that the recent enthusiasm—or even “frenzy” —about deep learning and some aspects of AI can be viewed as such a redirection, our framework pinpoints a potential powerful mechanism for slower productivity growth in the face of rapid automation.”

 State Tech, one of the biggest trade schools in Missouri, trains its students on a variety of different automation techniques. The students almost always graduate the two-year institution with competing job offers.

 Shawn Berhorst, the lead instructor for Networking Systems Technology at State Tech, said almost every industry in the nation is in need for people who are skilled in application development, network administration and advanced computer skills.

 “In recent history, people have kind of evolved and started moving more into industrial applications. We have people that are going to factories as they set up more and more automated equipment, factories need computer people that could set up those networks and maintain that equipment. So factories, hospitals and state government are probably our biggest employers,” Berhorst said.

 The development of the trades Berhorst described lends itself to creating more employment opportunities for those lost to automation. The future, therefore, could mostly revolve around trade skills, rather than office jobs.

Part Two: STIGMA

Despite the evolving environment of blue-collar work and how vital it is to society, stereotypes and stigmas still plague the workforce.

BY JORDAN MEIER

VOICED, PRODUCED AND EDITED BY JORDAN MEIER, REPORTED, EDITED AND PRODUCED BY KASSIDY ARENA

Where are you going to college?

Most high school students hear this question a million times their senior year and for some, their answer is simple: they’ll go to a four-year school, major in business, premed or English and that’ll be it. But for others, that question is a loaded one that comes with more questions than answers.

There appears to be a societal push toward four-year universities because of a perceived notion that four-year universities are somehow the way to get a job and make money. But this push comes with consequences.

This push toward a college education goes back to World War II when Congress created and passed the GI Bill. The bill gave veterans money to attend college, which made a college education more attainable for greater amount of people. But as this push began, technical schools sunk into the background and were seen as the ‘easy way out’.

Garrett Klenke was one of the people that had more questions about where to go to college instead of answers.  He didn’t really know what to do after high school.

“When I was little, I really didn’t have any aspirations,” Klenke said. “I knew I was good at working with my hands. And I wanted to pursue something along those lines.”

Klenke is from the Columbia, Missouri area and went to Battle High School where he was in the A+ Program, a program that pays for two years of upper-level education, which includes community college, vocational school, technical school. Klenke said he wanted to take “full advantage” of the program, so when Klenke’s cousin told him about his welding program at Tulsa Tech something clicked.

“I just saw the life he was living and I had welded a little bit here and there on the farm. And I decided I really liked it. And I’ve just kind of ran with it ever since then,” Klenke said.

That’s when he set his heart on State Tech, one of the best technical schools in the state of Missouri.

“The best two-year welding school around was here at Tech. So that’s what it boiled down to pretty quick. There weren’t many options. For me, it was just State Tech or nothing,” Klenke said.

Lots of high school students are like Klenke. Meaning a four-year college might not be for them.

“Most people choose this college because they aren’t really geared towards that four-year institution where they sat in a lecture hall all day. They come here, they like to use their hands,” Ben Behorst, the HVAC and Industrial Electricity Department Chair at State Tech, said.

But even though students may not be geared toward a traditional university, they go anyway.

“It implies that the university route is the only one that's sort of valuable, right? And that can have a lot of negative connotations for people who decide that that's not for them,” Bruce Bartholow, a psychology professor at the University of Missouri, said.

“There’s a lot of misconceptions about what it is,” Klenke said. “I tell people that I go to school for welding and they automatically assume, oh, that’s tough, hard work. But it’s a lot of programming, knowing all the electricity and all that how it all works.”

These ‘misconceptions’ have seeped out of technical schools and into the rest of blue-collar work, creating millions of job openings that have increased demand for blue-collar workers. This has led to blue-collar workers making more money than those that go to four-year universities.

“If you're going to Missouri State, or Missouri Southern, or Northwest Missouri State, State Tech graduates 10 years after graduation, will make more money,” State Tech Director of Marketing Brandon McElwain said.

Despite the fact that they could make more money, four-year universities are still considered the primary option for post-high school education.