Year after year, the construction industry continues to face recruitment challenges as retirement rates rise among skilled professionals while the pool of new, incoming talent shrinks. The result? Competition for hiring skilled professionals has intensified, driving up salaries and slowing down project timelines.
As the following insights show, the skilled trades have a marketing problem, as well as a manpower problem, and it’s a storytelling shortage as much as it is a labor shortage:
- According to 2025 research from The Harris Poll, 91 percent of those surveyed said the trades are as important as white-collar jobs. However, nearly all (86 percent) agreed they are poorly understood by the public due to lack of awareness, no promotion in schools, and no visible role models.
- In 2023, Skilled Careers Coalition (SCC) surveyed parents, guidance counselors, and students and found that a lack of knowledge — not a lack of interest — keeps young people from pursuing skilled careers. In fact, 43 percent of students surveyed by SCC said they would consider a skilled career if they had more information and guidance.
- There are more than 65 million youth between the ages of 10 and 24 in the U.S. — it would take just 0.7 percent of them to close the labor gap in the construction sector.
- And let’s not forget there are nearly 7 million men and more than 600,000 women of working age who have dropped out of the labor market. How can we entice them to consider a fulfilling career in the trades?
There’s no doubt the skilled trades are being rediscovered as a worthwhile career by a new generation. The surge in interest by Generation Z — aptly referred to as the Toolbelt Generation — is real as this group considers the benefits of a skilled career path versus a traditional four-year college or the military.
For this group, the skilled trades fulfill the high-pay, high-purpose career opportunities they desire, while putting them on a faster track to a fulfilling future without the burden of student loan debt.
Reports show career choices among Gen Z are being influenced by small business owners-turned-content creators on platforms such as TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. From working plumbers and welders to HVAC specialists, young people are getting a first-hand, raw, unfiltered look into life in the trades via their video storytelling. And it’s working to both change perceptions about skilled careers and inspire more young people and career transitioners to find their future in the trades.
| Your local Takeuchi Mfg Ltd dealer |
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| Nueces Power Equipment |
| Kirby-Smith Machinery |
The solution is clear — the most effective way to reach young people at scale about the trades is to meet them where they are. And that is social media.
While it may be unfamiliar territory, the playbook on how to reach Gen Z via social media is being successfully rewritten.
Consider some of the practices being implemented successfully by companies such as Starbucks and Delta, who face similar recruitment challenges. They found success reaching Gen Z and other key audiences on social media by tapping their baristas and pilots to serve as brand ambassadors on TikTok, YouTube, and other platforms.
It’s a strategy they and others have found to be more effective than career fairs or company websites. Through work-life stories shared by employees, businesses can showcase what a career in the trades is like and why their company is a great place to work, delivering that message more authentically than any traditional recruitment or marketing effort can.
| Your local JCB North America dealer |
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| ASCO Equipment |
| BOSS JCB |
| South Star JCB/Meinecke |
| Monk JCB |
By authoring a new narrative around the skilled trades and implementing a social media strategy based on authentic storytelling, reaching the seemingly elusive Gen Z is not as difficult as people think.
Consider Lena Turek, based in Naperville, Illinois. Lena is a 24-year-old heavy equipment operator for a local heavy construction company and works on major highway projects in the Chicago suburbs of Illinois, including Interstate 294 and the I-290/I-88 interchange.
A proud union apprentice, Turek fast-tracked her way to journeyman status in under three years, running dozers and excavators and paving her path in heavy highway work.
Turek was inspired to show the career pathways as well as the real side of the trades — the wins, the hard days, and everything in between. She found her way to TikTok, and it wasn’t long before her content under the handle @lena_fishing1 found a following.
| Your local Bobcat dealer |
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| Central Texas Equipment |
| Nueces Power Equipment |
With no shop classes in high school and little exposure to the trades, Turek carved her own way into the industry and now shares her journey to help others do the same. She has even had the chance to speak at union events and regularly gets messages from people inspired by her story. She is passionate about her career and helping more people — especially women — find their place in the trades.
So how can the heavy construction and engineering sectors take a page from the new social media playbook to help cultivate career curiosity on platforms like TikTok and YouTube as part of a modern approach to recruitment? Here is a primer to help any construction business — large or small — get started.
1. Commit
Like any strategy, only those that receive a dedicated level of support and are embraced companywide will find success. Map out a plan, allocate the necessary resources and manpower, monitor progress, and adjust as needed.
2. Tap Star Storytellers
Look internally to find company ambassadors who also lean into social media. We recommend identifying peer-to-peers and near-peers who can serve as virtual mentors.
| Your local Trimble Construction Division dealer |
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| SITECH SE Texas |
| SITECH Tejas |
3. Set Guardrails
While your storytellers will be sharing on their own personal channels, it is recommended that guidelines and structure be set for content creation produced on the company’s behalf. Are there any themes or material that is off limits? Will a review process be required prior to content being posted?
4. Update Your Funnel
With all the interest that will be generated, consider updating your current recruitment funnel to one that is social media and mobile-friendly so an employee prospect can easily contact you about career opportunities and how to apply.
5. Tools of the Trade
While employees will use their own phones and social accounts, support your content creators by ensuring they have the tools they need, whether it’s a tripod, microphone, or online classes in basic production and editing.
6. Content Is King
The key to connecting with audiences lies in the content. Encourage your creators to monitor their profile insights and analytics and keep track of what content creates dialogue, gets the most views and comments, and drives prospects to your funnel. Photos and videos of projects in process — and the people and teams behind those projects — make for great real-life, authentic storytelling.
| Your local Astec dealer |
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| Closner Equipment Co Inc |
7. Don’t Forget About Pathways
What often stops someone from pursuing a career in the trades is not knowing where to start. It’s not enough to spark interest. Content should also lean into apprenticeships, unions, mentorships, “earn while you learn,” and all the ways to get on a skilled career path.
For Turek, her role as a social media storyteller was organic before becoming more formalized. With a desire to provide a real-life look at heavy construction from the perspective of a young woman in her 20s, she began filming job sites and projects she thought would be eye-opening for her followers. A local television station spotted her content, which eventually led to a segment and raised her profile even further.
Thanks to social media and creators like Turek, the trades are reaching millions of viewers, opening doors to meaningful work, and inspiring more young people to find their passion and purpose via a career in the trades. As perceptions around blue-collar careers improve, we encourage businesses to embrace social media and its potential to support recruitment by finding skilled trade ambassadors within their ranks.
It’s time to work together to elevate the trades as a vital career path and innovate how we expand access to the next generation of skilled trade professionals. There’s great momentum happening nationwide around the trades. Let’s engage with the next generation on social media to inspire and pass on the tools and access they need to build their future and thrive.
| Your local Bobcat dealer |
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| Bobcat of North Texas |
| Compact Construction Equipment, Inc |
Photos courtesy of Lena Turek, @lena_fishing1.
JJ Owen is Executive Director of the Skilled Careers Coalition, which seeks to bring stakeholders together to author a new narrative around the skilled trades driven by storytelling. At SCC, Owen leads a national effort to reframe skilled trades as high-purpose, high-pay career pathways and connect Gen Z to opportunities in construction, manufacturing, and technical fields. For more information, visit skilledcareers.org or email info@skilledcareers.org.
