Blue-collar wages are surging. Can it last?
Data Scientist at major company here that was pounding nails in construction circa 2005.  This to me is no surprise.  At the time I was early 20s and needed that job that would be sort of an apprenticeship.  The problem was, these jobs just didn&#x27;t exist.  The young guys (me) got laid of every winter to keep on as many senior crew members as possible and every spring the jobs were less skilled and more labor (think demolition vs. the skills needed for finish work).  Young workers need a solid 5-7 years to develop those skills, but from the years 2005 (yea, that early things started slowing down in construction) to 2015 we didn&#x27;t really train anyone new.  My story was a common one; unable to find work in the trades, I eventually gave up and looked for work elsewhere.  So there is a gap in the training of skilled labor. How long will it take to recover? Easy, the same 5-10 years we took a break from training new labor.