If you haven’t already, it’s time to face the facts — AI is coming for our jobs.
But while the rest of us nervously await the inevitable, Gen Z is getting ahead of the curve by ditching the rat race altogether.
Today’s youths are increasingly forgoing high-paying careers in fields like finance, tech, and consulting in favor of blue-collar and skilled trade work, like farming and construction.
According to a survey by Resume Builder, 42% of Gen Zers are either already working in or pursuing blue-collar roles, including 37% of those with college degrees.
You can’t lose a job you never had
Several factors are driving the trend, like an unstable job market and rising education costs, but one of the biggest motivations is AI displacement.
- In 2024, 62% of college seniors familiar with AI tools said they were worried about the tech’s impact on their career prospects, up from 44% in 2023, per a survey by early-career site Handshake.
- A quarter of Gen Zers say trade jobs and blue-collar work are less likely to be replaced by AI.
Their fears aren’t unfounded — many entry-level jobs are disappearing, with the unemployment rate for recent grads hitting 5.8% early this year, up from 4.6% last year, as companies assign such roles to AI agents.
The work — farming, landscaping, carpentry, plumbing, construction, etc. — isn’t glamorous, but it can offer things white-collar jobs can’t, like stability and work-life balance.
Abandoning convention, however…
… isn’t just about doing what’s practical. For some, it’s a moral issue and a matter of doing “meaningful” work.
Several grads of elite colleges, who spoke to Air Mail, cited environmental concerns as a leading motivator behind their decision to pursue work on farms and for sustainability-focused companies.
As Lucinda Carroll, a Vassar College grad who now works at a whole-animal butcher shop, put it: “If there’s no food, there’s no economy. If there’s no Microsoft Teams, there’s still an economy.”
