The value of the once vaunted college degree has come under increased scrutiny in recent years as critics question the ridiculous cost of most four-year institutions, the fact that huge percentages of them have been leftist indoctrination camps that don’t teach the students any real professional skills that will be useful unless they want to work in the DEI department or become yet another far-left professor, and that many young people are going deep in debt only to find it's tough just to get a barista gig at Starbucks.
All but the most affluent families have to beg for financial aid as many tuition bills are closing in on $100,000. To get any help, you have to bend the knee to what I call a financial proctology exam, the FAFSA, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, which has gotten slightly less awful in recent years but is still a painful experience.
Television host and skilled-trades advocate Mike Rowe has long been touting the trades and the lucrative careers they can provide, and on Thursday, Vice President JD Vance gave him a shout-out as he launched the Foundry School, the Trump administration’s national workforce program designed to train entrepreneurs, engineers, technicians, and industrial leaders to rebuild our manufacturing base.
Turns out Trump, Vance, and Rowe are onto something. New numbers spell good news for workers without college degrees, but not so much for those who stayed in school:
For most U.S. workers—those without college degrees, that is—it is one of the best job markets in decades.
In fact, the unemployment rate for workers ages 22 to 34 who never graduated from college has rarely been lower in the past two decades, according to a new analysis by labor-market think tank Burning Glass Institute.
WSJ: “Unemployment among younger workers who didn’t go to college has rarely been lower in recent decades. It is the opposite story for college grads … much of it boils down to supply and demand: There aren’t enough skilled tradespeople to go around” pic.twitter.com/ea0eREoA05
— Marc Porter Magee 🎓 (@marcportermagee) September 7, 2026
As Rowe has been preaching for years, there’s a shortage of skilled tradespeople, so the ones that are on the market can command solid salaries and wages. Meanwhile, with President Trump’s crackdown on immigration and the Boomer generation retiring, there are fewer bodies to fill the growing void.
For degree-holders, the opposite is true: there are more and more every year, and the field is flooded. Add artificial intelligence to the list of issues, and young people fresh out of school face even more barriers as AI increasingly has taken over the tasks of what would have been starter jobs.
“There’s a rapidly growing supply of people with a bachelor’s degree, and you have a rapid decline of people who don’t,” Gad Levanon, chief economist at Burning Glass, the outfit that produced the analysis. “I don’t think it’s a temporary thing.”
It’s important to note, however, that these numbers are relative to those seen in the past; those with college degrees still have a lower unemployment rate overall.
The good news: the August jobs report came in with much better numbers than economists had expected, with 162,000 jobs added for the month.
President Trump is delivering for America’s workers. pic.twitter.com/RFtX2t3u0c
— Brendan Carr (@BrendanCarrFCC) September 7, 2026
In many ways, it’s a tough time to be a young person in this day and age, something I know full well since I am parent to four of them. They’ll work it out, but if I had to do it all over again, maybe I’d send them to plumbing school.
Editor's Note: President Trump is leading America into the "Golden Age" as Democrats desperately try to stop it.
Help us continue to report on President Trump's successes and combat Democrats' lies. Join RedState VIP and use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.
Join the Conversation
VIP members get the ability to comment on articles.