Vernelle Brooks Jones and Charles Brooks - Young People Going into Construction Today (clip)
Interviewed by Kathryn Wall on March 11, 2023
Charles Brooks: As far as young people getting into this right now. You don’t really see a lot of people going into the trades, like becoming plumbers, carpenters. For one thing the pay scale, I mean everything, it’s like everyone wants to do IT work, sit at home, got your computer, making a lot of money. Whereas in construction, you’re gonna have to get your hands dirty, back breaking work and the pay has not always been that great. I know I was out of work back in the, I guess it was in 2010-2011 and I was looking for work for carpenters, carpenters’ helpers, plumbers, they were gonna pay you like twelve dollars an hour and I was like I could go to McDonalds and make like ten you know? So I can understand a lot of the young people don’t want to go into this working when it doesn’t pay. But if you get your own company and can get a reputation where you can go and get multiple jobs where you get things going, it can be a lucrative field to go into. But it is gonna take some hard work.
