Texas — 26, says he earns up to $100,000 a year welding, choosing a hands-on career he believes is harder for AI to replace than many office roles. His path is one example of why skilled trades are gaining new attention as tuition costs stay high and employers test automation across white-collar work, Feb. 1, 2026.
In a profile, Paredes said he skipped college after coming up short on scholarship money and not wanting to shoulder steep costs. He previously worked as an electrician that kept him traveling most of the week, then switched to welding for more time at home. “I gave it a try, and I was pretty good at it,” he said.
Skilled trades payback can be quick
Paredes’ paycheck is not the norm for every worker. But it shows how skilled trades can scale: overtime, specialty work, and hard-to-fill shifts can push earnings far above the median. The occupational outlook for welders lists a $51,000 median annual wage in May 2024, and notes that many welders work full time and some work more than 40 hours a week.
Demand is the other side of the equation. In a 2024 look at trade skills, the firm describes a hiring crunch in manufacturing and construction roles, including welders, and says average wages in those sectors rose more than 20% from early 2020 as retirements and turnover strained the pipeline.
AI squeeze gives skilled trades a new edge
The bigger shift is what’s happening in offices. A January 2026 analysis argues that some companies are already slowing hiring or cutting positions partly because they expect generative AI to change how much entry-level work they need, even as results vary by industry.
At the same time, researchers caution that broad job displacement is hard to pin down in real time. The October 2025 review found no clear, economy-wide disruption in employment since ChatGPT’s 2022 debut, and said better data is needed to separate hype from measurable effects.
For many young workers, that uncertainty is reason enough to hedge toward skilled trades that require work on real sites with real materials. Paredes told Reuters that even where automation exists, “We have robots here, but we still need a physical person, a human, to make those robots work.”
Skilled trades didn’t become urgent overnight
Today’s surge builds on warnings that long predate the AI boom. The 2011 Pathways to Prosperity report argued that an overemphasis on a four-year college track left too many students without strong routes into “middle-skill” careers. A 2016 piece on apprenticeships called for more “earn and learn” programs, and a 2017 story described millions of unfilled jobs and a skills gap that already included welders.
In 2026, the question for many graduates is no longer whether skilled trades can pay, but whether they can offer stability and a clearer return on training. For Paredes, the answer was a welding hood, a five-day workweek, and a six-figure ceiling that—at least for now—feels less exposed to the churn hitting some white-collar careers.
