In 1970, 31.2% of employment, in the United States, was a blue collar job and it has declined to 13.6% in 2016 and continues to decline. We would not be able to function in everyday life without tradesmen. They are essential to our everyday lives and help the world function the way it does. Skilled trades are undervalued in America and are viewed as dirty and unprofessional.

In the past ten years, schools have steered away from vocational training and instead use standardized tests for college readiness now. This has increased the scores for the state, but have declined the amount of skills kids have after high school and college. Schools are only teaching kids how to pass a test and memorize information in each class and are not teaching the skills of jobs that are in demand. However, This focus on tests is not meeting the needs of students who would enjoy and have more success with vocational training.

The No Child Left Behind Act passed in 2002 by president George W. Bush increased the federal role to hold schools accountable for the academic progress they make in each student. It pushes schools to make sure every student is learning the same information

There was a peak in 2003 and a low in 2009 because of the recession. It made the construction industry fall and still has not recovered to this day (Constructions Labor Shortage, 2018). There were many people who lost their jobs and had nothing to turn to and because there were so many people without a job, all trades downsized or disappeared (Heilman, 2014). There were about 143 thousand jobs that need to be filled with laborers and 69 percent of companies have experienced setbacks because of the lack of workers. The industry lost 2.3 million jobs from 2006 to 2011