‘There’s more risk involved with going to college’: How companies are attracting Gen Z to trades jobs

To fill a need for plumbers, electricians, and other roles, businesses are getting creative with their recruiting—and offering a stable career path for those without a 4-year college degree.

Ted Glaser hadn’t intended to start a lawn care company. For him, mowing lawns was a way to pay for college and have some spending money. “At one point, I realized I was making more than my teachers,” he says. It occurred to him he’d been “building something that could provide me a level of freedom with time and money that none of my friends or teachers had.”