The Lost Art Of the Skilled Trades · 2026-07-21 · 52 min
Jason Altmire and Riley Burr, co-authors of Trade Up, break down why the skilled trades pipeline is broken - and the fix isn't just more people, it's better retention. The math doesn't work: the number of Americans over 65 grows 3% every year while the under-18 population shrinks 0.2% annually, and there are already 15% fewer kids in kindergarten than there are high school seniors. That gap keeps widening until at least 2041. At the exact same time, record numbers of college graduates can't find jobs while record numbers of employers can't fill open trades roles - a paradox Jason and Riley unpack in detail, alongside a catch-22 most people never talk about: trade school graduates being locked out of entry-level jobs because employers demand three to five years of experience they have no way to get. Jason Altmire is President and CEO of Career Education Colleges and Universities (CECU), the national trade association for private postsecondary career schools, and a former three-term member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
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