雅各布·帕尔默在北卡罗来纳距离夏洛特不远的康科德长大，从小就是“别人家的孩子”。“我以前可是个好学生，”他接受《财富》采访时说，“高中时我参加过各种课外活动，担任学生干部，经常公开演讲，朋友也很多。”但他说，疫情改变了一切。“上网课，在Zoom视频通话，学校变得太不一样。我感觉很不自在，”他说自己很快就意识到“在线上大学不适合我，我讨厌这样。”
帕尔默没有读大学，而是尝试了各种工作，在联邦快递仓库几个月，又去弗吉尼亚州农村的祖父母家换了下环境，在工厂里工作了几个月。
后来他回到家想找份工作。当时他的妈妈正在安装按摩浴池，提到负责施工的电工“非常热爱自己的工作”。帕尔默便去找那位大概29岁的电工聊了聊，很喜欢他自己当老板的感觉。“我一直喜欢手工劳动，修理，制作东西，而且在大学先修的物理课学了些电学基础。”不久后，他去夏洛特一家小型承包公司当全职学徒，起薪每小时15美元。
他并不是个例。根据美国国家教育统计中心（NCES）的数据，帕尔默这代年轻人有不少在疫情期间放弃读大学，2010年至2021年间本科生入学率下降15%，其中42%都是帕尔默的同龄人。早在2007年专家就预测会出现“人口断崖式下跌”，即大衰退导致美国人生育率持续下滑，且此后出生率一直未恢复。帕尔默便是这股放弃大学，尝试其他职业道路潮流中的一员。
“最初的几年里，我整天和那些乱七八糟的电线打交道，做苦力活，”帕尔默说，一边积累工作时长准备考电工执照。虽然没上大学，但他为了在2024年1月通过执照考试仍然需要努力学习。仅仅一个月后，21岁的他创办了自己的公司帕尔默电气（Palmer Electrical）。《财富》查阅的损益表显示，到2024年年底他的总收入接近9万美元。2025年年初至今，收入已经超过了去年全年。
“我是一人一车的经营模式，”他解释道，最初只接朋友、家人和“邻里街坊”的活。很快口碑传播带来越来越多客户。截至2025年9月初，他的订单已经排到了一个月后。更值得一提的是，他今年才23岁，不仅没有债务还实现了完全独立。“我不欠任何人钱，”他说，相比背负助学贷款，面临就业不确定性的同龄大学生，自己处境要好得多。
大趋势：蓝领野心崛起
亚利桑那州梅萨公立学区（Mesa Public Schools）职业与技术教育及创新合作主任马洛·洛里亚表示，帕尔默的故事并非偶然，而该地区正逐渐扭转人们对技术行业的看法。“在我们学区，对技术行业感兴趣的学生数量可能比全美统计数据要多得多，”洛里亚解释道。虽然大学仍然是重点方向，但她发现了明显的转变：“最大的问题在于，所有人都认为上大学就意味着拿学士学位，对吧？”洛里亚问道，“但实际上，大学只是获取职业所需培训和技能的一种途径，过程可能需要一年，可能花六周，也可能需要四年。”
Jobber是成立已14年的软件提供商，已帮助超过30万人创办、发展和扩大家政业务，该公司每年发布一份《蓝领行业报告》（Blue Collar Report）。2025年版报告强调，对于像帕尔默之类创业者来说，蓝领职业完全可以成为大学教育之外的可行选择。Jobber对1000多名18至20岁的Z世代年轻人以及1300多名有高中生和大学生子女的父母展开了调查，发现随着大学费用上涨、人工智能带来的行业变革以及就业不稳定等问题凸显，技术行业逐渐受到关注，Z世代和父母都在重新考虑上大学这一选择。不过由于社会对蓝领行业存在偏见，学校提供的指导也往往跟不上时代，阻碍了趋势发展。
洛里亚告诉《财富》，她所在的学区以及全美其他学区正采用融合大学教育、技术培训和直接职业路径的学院模式，为学生提供四年制大学之外的更多选择。“现在的年轻人喜欢问为什么。为什么要上大学？为什么要背债务？为什么要做这些事？”她说，过去常听到的答案是“别问那么多，照做就行”，现在已经行不通了。作为教育工作者和管理者，必须理解当下由社交媒体主导的“现实”：“年轻人动动手指就能获取所有信息。”她的策略是用职业当成“诱饵”，引导学生在毕业后选择适合自己的发展方向。
她补充说，帕尔默所在的电工行业尤其受学生关注。“目前电工需求非常大，尤其在亚利桑那州，”她指出，数据中心建设热潮正重塑本地经济，且热潮产生了跨行业的联动效应。“要支持人工智能发展，就需要电工和建筑工人建设数据中心……谷歌、苹果和Meta都在这建设大型综合数据中心，但他们都表示，唯一可能阻碍增长的因素就是建筑工人紧缺。”
Jobber引用了美国劳工统计局（U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics）对技术行业需求的预测，为洛里亚的观点提供了支持。数据显示，从2023年到2033年，技术行业需求的增速将比所有职业4%的平均增速快得多，其中电工（11%）、水管工（6%）和暖通空调（HVAC）技术员（9%）是需求最大也最难招到人的岗位。与此同时，过去30年大学成本涨了两倍，美国大学理事会（CollegeBoard）的数据显示，公立大学里本州学生的学杂费平均每年为11,610美元，州外学生则为30,780美元。职业技术学校的费用各不相同，但培训课程的费用很少超过15,000美元。
蓝领YouTube博主
在南加州，19岁的暖通空调技术员伊茨科瓦特尔·阿吉拉尔仍处于起步阶段。他告诉《财富》，自己在家接受教育，16岁进入技术行业，如今往返于洛杉矶、奥兰治县和因兰恩派尔周边的工地。他补充说，有时一天要工作12个小时。最近，他跳槽到一家新公司，获老板积极指导，他觉得自己当老板还要等一两年。和帕尔默一样，他正一步步投资购买货车和工具，争取尽快考取执照。
他有不少高中同学上了大学，但他认为直接进入劳动力市场更有价值。“如果要先花四年时间学习再去就业，之后还没法保证学位能确保就业稳定……”他说感觉一点也不划算。阿吉拉尔说新工作的薪水还没兑现，所以暂时无法提供收入数据，以前他的收入接近最低工资水平。目前他仍然和母亲还有两个姐妹住在一起（他是八个兄弟姐妹中最小的一个）。他认为住在家里也不错，“因为比较经济，也方便攒钱，而且很明显我能帮忙支付房租和其他账单。”
他还能从七个月前开通的YouTube频道“EwokDoesHVAC”获得额外收入。“其他暖通空调行业频道给了我很大启发，”他说，没想到这类频道数量非常多，自己开始从事暖通空调工作后才发现。“我对自己的工作非常专注，做了很多研究……很多都是在YouTube上查的。”他说频道粉丝已增长到近3万人，但播放量最高的一直是第一条视频，标题中自称“18岁的暖通空调技术员”。他估计该视频播放量约45万次（报道发表时播放量约为40.7万次）。近期他的视频平均每条播放量约为1万次。
阿吉拉尔补充说，“一直想当YouTube视频博主”。他回忆起小学和初中时拍的视频，“ 当时就在车里拍，吃个松饼，随便聊天，说说学校里的事，比如有人从楼梯上摔下来。”他说“关注了不少YouTube博主，所以想仿效。”毕竟，他出生于2005年，跟YouTube是同一年。被问及同时做两份工作，也就是暖通空调技术员和视频博主会不会觉得累时，他说传统的销售工作“非常耗神”。跟真人沟通完成销售比拍视频难得多，“因为对着镜头，不想录了就可以关掉。”
自己当老板
洛里亚观察到，在她指导过的Z世代当中，社交媒体极大激发了他们对非传统职业路径的兴趣。“他们在社交媒体上看到一些内容，例如网红赚到很多钱，就会想‘我也要这样。’”比较受欢迎的蓝领网红包括“专家水管工”并非Z世代的罗杰·韦克菲尔德，还有肯定是Z世代的莱克西亚·“电工莱克斯”·丘马克-阿布雷乌（译者注：YouTube网红）。
洛里亚说，她会利用年轻人对社交媒体的兴趣描绘创业愿景，建议学生“先学一门技能、一个手艺，考取执照，也要修一些商业管理课程，因为没准哪天会想开一家电气公司或水管修理公司。”她说，社区里人们常谈论起“蓝领亿万富翁”，都说那群人有豪华游艇，还有三套房。她实事求是地补充道，蓝领并非真那么有钱，不过都是励志的榜样。瑞士投行瑞银（UBS）称这类人为“普通人中的百万富翁”，还指出蓝领百万富翁的增速令人瞩目。
帕尔默告诉《财富》，早期的大部分职业目标都已实现，包括自己当老板，而且2025年6月母亲搬到佛罗里达后，他跟女友住在了一起。他说近来YouTube占据的精力越来越多。“今后发展要看明年帕尔默电气在YouTube上的情况，未来内容创作可能变成重要的工作。”他补充说，“我讨厌‘网红’这个说法，但是，电气网红？好像还不错”
他澄清说，这并非为了虚荣，而是为了增加收入来源。据他估算，刚开始通过YouTube视频广告每月能赚约450美元，而2025年8月收入已达1300美元。“如果是读中学的我，能赚这么多肯定会疯掉，”他补充道，“根本不知道怎么应对。”帕尔默的YouTube频道发展轨迹与阿吉拉尔相反，他的第一条视频播放量不到1000次，但到2025年夏天一条热门视频播放量已涨到8.8万次。
像阿吉拉尔一样，帕尔默也预见以后YouTube和内容创作将在收入和时间上占更大比重，这也能缓解工作强度过大的问题。过去一年中，他只真正休了一周假期。现在他充分利用周末放松，例如去海滩，或者利用工作机会参加州内各地的会议。帕尔默提到，自己是北卡罗来纳州电气检查员协会成员。他补充说，自己当老板也有缺点：“如果停下来不工作，就别想有收入了。”（*）
译者：梁宇
审校：夏林
雅各布·帕尔默在北卡罗来纳距离夏洛特不远的康科德长大，从小就是“别人家的孩子”。“我以前可是个好学生，”他接受《财富》采访时说，“高中时我参加过各种课外活动，担任学生干部，经常公开演讲，朋友也很多。”但他说，疫情改变了一切。“上网课，在Zoom视频通话，学校变得太不一样。我感觉很不自在，”他说自己很快就意识到“在线上大学不适合我，我讨厌这样。”
帕尔默没有读大学，而是尝试了各种工作，在联邦快递仓库几个月，又去弗吉尼亚州农村的祖父母家换了下环境，在工厂里工作了几个月。
后来他回到家想找份工作。当时他的妈妈正在安装按摩浴池，提到负责施工的电工“非常热爱自己的工作”。帕尔默便去找那位大概29岁的电工聊了聊，很喜欢他自己当老板的感觉。“我一直喜欢手工劳动，修理，制作东西，而且在大学先修的物理课学了些电学基础。”不久后，他去夏洛特一家小型承包公司当全职学徒，起薪每小时15美元。
他并不是个例。根据美国国家教育统计中心（NCES）的数据，帕尔默这代年轻人有不少在疫情期间放弃读大学，2010年至2021年间本科生入学率下降15%，其中42%都是帕尔默的同龄人。早在2007年专家就预测会出现“人口断崖式下跌”，即大衰退导致美国人生育率持续下滑，且此后出生率一直未恢复。帕尔默便是这股放弃大学，尝试其他职业道路潮流中的一员。
“最初的几年里，我整天和那些乱七八糟的电线打交道，做苦力活，”帕尔默说，一边积累工作时长准备考电工执照。虽然没上大学，但他为了在2024年1月通过执照考试仍然需要努力学习。仅仅一个月后，21岁的他创办了自己的公司帕尔默电气（Palmer Electrical）。《财富》查阅的损益表显示，到2024年年底他的总收入接近9万美元。2025年年初至今，收入已经超过了去年全年。
“我是一人一车的经营模式，”他解释道，最初只接朋友、家人和“邻里街坊”的活。很快口碑传播带来越来越多客户。截至2025年9月初，他的订单已经排到了一个月后。更值得一提的是，他今年才23岁，不仅没有债务还实现了完全独立。“我不欠任何人钱，”他说，相比背负助学贷款，面临就业不确定性的同龄大学生，自己处境要好得多。
大趋势：蓝领野心崛起
亚利桑那州梅萨公立学区（Mesa Public Schools）职业与技术教育及创新合作主任马洛·洛里亚表示，帕尔默的故事并非偶然，而该地区正逐渐扭转人们对技术行业的看法。“在我们学区，对技术行业感兴趣的学生数量可能比全美统计数据要多得多，”洛里亚解释道。虽然大学仍然是重点方向，但她发现了明显的转变：“最大的问题在于，所有人都认为上大学就意味着拿学士学位，对吧？”洛里亚问道，“但实际上，大学只是获取职业所需培训和技能的一种途径，过程可能需要一年，可能花六周，也可能需要四年。”
Jobber是成立已14年的软件提供商，已帮助超过30万人创办、发展和扩大家政业务，该公司每年发布一份《蓝领行业报告》（Blue Collar Report）。2025年版报告强调，对于像帕尔默之类创业者来说，蓝领职业完全可以成为大学教育之外的可行选择。Jobber对1000多名18至20岁的Z世代年轻人以及1300多名有高中生和大学生子女的父母展开了调查，发现随着大学费用上涨、人工智能带来的行业变革以及就业不稳定等问题凸显，技术行业逐渐受到关注，Z世代和父母都在重新考虑上大学这一选择。不过由于社会对蓝领行业存在偏见，学校提供的指导也往往跟不上时代，阻碍了趋势发展。
洛里亚告诉《财富》，她所在的学区以及全美其他学区正采用融合大学教育、技术培训和直接职业路径的学院模式，为学生提供四年制大学之外的更多选择。“现在的年轻人喜欢问为什么。为什么要上大学？为什么要背债务？为什么要做这些事？”她说，过去常听到的答案是“别问那么多，照做就行”，现在已经行不通了。作为教育工作者和管理者，必须理解当下由社交媒体主导的“现实”：“年轻人动动手指就能获取所有信息。”她的策略是用职业当成“诱饵”，引导学生在毕业后选择适合自己的发展方向。
她补充说，帕尔默所在的电工行业尤其受学生关注。“目前电工需求非常大，尤其在亚利桑那州，”她指出，数据中心建设热潮正重塑本地经济，且热潮产生了跨行业的联动效应。“要支持人工智能发展，就需要电工和建筑工人建设数据中心……谷歌、苹果和Meta都在这建设大型综合数据中心，但他们都表示，唯一可能阻碍增长的因素就是建筑工人紧缺。”
Jobber引用了美国劳工统计局（U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics）对技术行业需求的预测，为洛里亚的观点提供了支持。数据显示，从2023年到2033年，技术行业需求的增速将比所有职业4%的平均增速快得多，其中电工（11%）、水管工（6%）和暖通空调（HVAC）技术员（9%）是需求最大也最难招到人的岗位。与此同时，过去30年大学成本涨了两倍，美国大学理事会（CollegeBoard）的数据显示，公立大学里本州学生的学杂费平均每年为11,610美元，州外学生则为30,780美元。职业技术学校的费用各不相同，但培训课程的费用很少超过15,000美元。
蓝领YouTube博主
在南加州，19岁的暖通空调技术员伊茨科瓦特尔·阿吉拉尔仍处于起步阶段。他告诉《财富》，自己在家接受教育，16岁进入技术行业，如今往返于洛杉矶、奥兰治县和因兰恩派尔周边的工地。他补充说，有时一天要工作12个小时。最近，他跳槽到一家新公司，获老板积极指导，他觉得自己当老板还要等一两年。和帕尔默一样，他正一步步投资购买货车和工具，争取尽快考取执照。
他有不少高中同学上了大学，但他认为直接进入劳动力市场更有价值。“如果要先花四年时间学习再去就业，之后还没法保证学位能确保就业稳定……”他说感觉一点也不划算。阿吉拉尔说新工作的薪水还没兑现，所以暂时无法提供收入数据，以前他的收入接近最低工资水平。目前他仍然和母亲还有两个姐妹住在一起（他是八个兄弟姐妹中最小的一个）。他认为住在家里也不错，“因为比较经济，也方便攒钱，而且很明显我能帮忙支付房租和其他账单。”
他还能从七个月前开通的YouTube频道“EwokDoesHVAC”获得额外收入。“其他暖通空调行业频道给了我很大启发，”他说，没想到这类频道数量非常多，自己开始从事暖通空调工作后才发现。“我对自己的工作非常专注，做了很多研究……很多都是在YouTube上查的。”他说频道粉丝已增长到近3万人，但播放量最高的一直是第一条视频，标题中自称“18岁的暖通空调技术员”。他估计该视频播放量约45万次（报道发表时播放量约为40.7万次）。近期他的视频平均每条播放量约为1万次。
阿吉拉尔补充说，“一直想当YouTube视频博主”。他回忆起小学和初中时拍的视频，“ 当时就在车里拍，吃个松饼，随便聊天，说说学校里的事，比如有人从楼梯上摔下来。”他说“关注了不少YouTube博主，所以想仿效。”毕竟，他出生于2005年，跟YouTube是同一年。被问及同时做两份工作，也就是暖通空调技术员和视频博主会不会觉得累时，他说传统的销售工作“非常耗神”。跟真人沟通完成销售比拍视频难得多，“因为对着镜头，不想录了就可以关掉。”
自己当老板
洛里亚观察到，在她指导过的Z世代当中，社交媒体极大激发了他们对非传统职业路径的兴趣。“他们在社交媒体上看到一些内容，例如网红赚到很多钱，就会想‘我也要这样。’”比较受欢迎的蓝领网红包括“专家水管工”并非Z世代的罗杰·韦克菲尔德，还有肯定是Z世代的莱克西亚·“电工莱克斯”·丘马克-阿布雷乌（译者注：YouTube网红）。
洛里亚说，她会利用年轻人对社交媒体的兴趣描绘创业愿景，建议学生“先学一门技能、一个手艺，考取执照，也要修一些商业管理课程，因为没准哪天会想开一家电气公司或水管修理公司。”她说，社区里人们常谈论起“蓝领亿万富翁”，都说那群人有豪华游艇，还有三套房。她实事求是地补充道，蓝领并非真那么有钱，不过都是励志的榜样。瑞士投行瑞银（UBS）称这类人为“普通人中的百万富翁”，还指出蓝领百万富翁的增速令人瞩目。
帕尔默告诉《财富》，早期的大部分职业目标都已实现，包括自己当老板，而且2025年6月母亲搬到佛罗里达后，他跟女友住在了一起。他说近来YouTube占据的精力越来越多。“今后发展要看明年帕尔默电气在YouTube上的情况，未来内容创作可能变成重要的工作。”他补充说，“我讨厌‘网红’这个说法，但是，电气网红？好像还不错”
他澄清说，这并非为了虚荣，而是为了增加收入来源。据他估算，刚开始通过YouTube视频广告每月能赚约450美元，而2025年8月收入已达1300美元。“如果是读中学的我，能赚这么多肯定会疯掉，”他补充道，“根本不知道怎么应对。”帕尔默的YouTube频道发展轨迹与阿吉拉尔相反，他的第一条视频播放量不到1000次，但到2025年夏天一条热门视频播放量已涨到8.8万次。
像阿吉拉尔一样，帕尔默也预见以后YouTube和内容创作将在收入和时间上占更大比重，这也能缓解工作强度过大的问题。过去一年中，他只真正休了一周假期。现在他充分利用周末放松，例如去海滩，或者利用工作机会参加州内各地的会议。帕尔默提到，自己是北卡罗来纳州电气检查员协会成员。他补充说，自己当老板也有缺点：“如果停下来不工作，就别想有收入了。”（*）
译者：梁宇
审校：夏林
Growing up in Concord, North Carolina, just outside Charlotte, Jacob Palmer was a classic academic achiever. “I was a good student,” he says in an interview with Fortune. “In high school, I participated in all types of extracurriculars, student leadership, I did a lot of public speaking. I had all sorts of friends.” But he said something changed during the pandemic. “School looked drastically different doing online classes and Zoom calls. It felt very intangible.” He says he figured out pretty quickly that online college “didn’t work for me. I hated it.”
Palmer said that instead of sticking with college, he tried things out, including a stint at a FedEx warehouse for several months, and a change of scenery at his grandparents in rural Virginia, where he worked at a factory for a few months.
When he returned home, in need of a job, his mom was putting in a hot tub and she mentioned the electrician working on it was “super passionate and loved his job.” Palmer said he sounded him out, estimating that the electrician was about 29 at the time, and Palmer liked that he worked for himself. “I had a general interest in working with my hands, fixing and making things, as well as a basic understanding of electrical theory from my time in AP Physics class.” Soon afterward, he started as a full-time apprentice at a small, Charlotte-based contracting firm, earning $15 an hour at first and working his way up the ladder.
He was far from alone. Palmer’s micro-generation abandoned college in droves during the pandemic, driving 42% of an overall 15% decline in undergraduate enrollment between fall 2010 and fall 2021, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Overall, college may have peaked, as experts have predicted a “demographic cliff” ever since 2007, when Americans started having fewer children with the coming of the Great Recession, and birthrates have not recovered since, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Palmer was part of a movement deciding to try something else instead of college.
“I spent a few years just untangling the extension cords and doing the grunt work,” he said, earning hours en route to sitting for an electrical license. But even though he didn’t become a college student, he still found himself studying hard, because he had to pass his licensing exam, in January 2024. Just a month later, at 21, he opened his own business, Palmer Electrical. By the end of that year, according to profit and loss statements reviewed by Fortune, he grossed nearly $90,000. Year-to-date in 2025, he’s already exceeded that.
“I’m a one-man, one-truck operation,” he explains, adding that he started just doing work for friends, family, and “around the neighborhood.” Soon, word-of-mouth referrals began to flow. As of early September 2025, he’s booked out a month in advance. But the real kicker? He’s 23, debt-free, and fully independent. “I don’t owe anybody anything,” he says, contrasting his position with college-bound peers saddled by loans and job uncertainties.
A broader trend: the rise of blue-collar ambition
Palmer’s story is not a fluke, says Marlo Loria, Director of Career and Technical Education and Innovative Partnerships at Mesa Public Schools in Arizona—a district at the forefront of changing perceptions about the trades. “In my school district, we have students that are a lot more interested in the trades as compared to, maybe, what some national statistics are looking at,” Loria explains. While college is still a focus, she sees a distinct shift: “The hardest thing is everyone thinks college is a bachelor’s degree, right?” Loria asks. “College is just a vehicle for getting training and skills for whatever career you want, and that might take you a year, it could take you six weeks, it could take you four years.”
Jobber, a 14-year-old software provider that has helped over 300,000 people start, build, and scale home-services business, produces an annual “Blue Collar Report.” Its 2025 edition highlighted how a blue-collar career can be a more than viable alternative to college for entrepreneurs such as Palmer. It polled over 1,000 Gen Zers from age 18 to 20 and over 1,300 parents with high school and college-age kids, and found that Gen Z and their parents alike are at least rethinking college as rising costs, AI disruption, and job insecurity push the skilled trades into the spotlight, but stigma and outdated guidance from schools represent a roadblock.
Loria told Fortune that her district and others nationwide are adopting academy models that blend college, trades, and direct career pathways, giving students options beyond the four-year university pipeline. “Our youth want to know why. Why do I need to go to college? Why do I want to get in debt? Why do I want to do these things?” She said the answer that she used to hear—because I told you so—isn’t cutting it anymore, and as an educator and administrator, she has to come to understand “the reality” of social media’s dominance: “they have access to all of the information at their fingertips.” She says her approach to use a career as the “carrot” to shepherd students into their post-secondary options.
And Palmer’s field is of especial interest to Loria’s students, she added. “Electricians are really super huge right now, especially in Arizona,” she said, citing the surge in data-center building that is reshaping the regional economy. She said the boom is having a kind of “cross-cutting” effect across sectors. “To support AI, you’ve got to have electricians and you’ve got to have construction workers to build the data centers … We have Google and Apple and Meta building major multifaceted data centers here, but they say the only thing that’s going to hold back that growth will be our lack of access to construction workers.”
Jobber cites projections for skilled trades demand from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics that supports Loria’s argument. From 2023 to 2033, it sees demand for the trades rising much faster than the 4% average for all occupations, with electricians (11%), plumbers (6%), and HVAC technicians (9%) representing some of the most in-demand and hardest-to-fill roles. The cost of college, meanwhile, has tripled over the last 30 years, with CollegeBoard data showing that tuition and fees costs $11,610 per year on average at public, in-state schools, and $30,780 for undergraduates from out of state. The costs of trade schools vary, but rarely surpass $15,000 for an entire program.
Blue-collar YouTuber
In Southern California, 19-year-old HVAC technician Itzcoatl Aguilar is still on the launch pad. Home-schooled, he started working in the trades at 16 and now commutes to job sites around Los Angeles, Orange County and the Inland Empire, he tells Fortune. Sometimes he works up to 12 hours a day, he added. Recently, he switched to a new company where his boss is actively mentoring him, and he sees another one or two years before he can become his own boss. Just like Palmer, he’s methodically investing in a work van and tools and prioritizing getting his own license.
While some of his high school peers enrolled in college, he saw more value in entering the workforce directly. “Having to be in a career that I would personally need to spend time away for four years, and then not even having a surety that my degree is going to … get me job security.” That was something that he just didn’t want to do, he says. Aguilar said he hasn’t even cashed a paycheck yet at his new job, so he can’t give revenue figures, and he was making something like minimum wage before, but he’s still living with his mother and two sisters (he’s the youngest of eight siblings). He’s comfortable living at home “because it really gives me an edge on financials and saving, and obviously I help out with the rent and [other bills].”
He’s also drawing additional revenue from his YouTube channel, “EwokDoesHVAC,” which he started seven months before. “I was very inspired by other HVAC channels,” he says, adding there’s a surprisingly large number of them. He discovered them after he started doing HVAC work himself. “I was very devoted to HVAC, so I did a lot of research … I did a lot of research on YouTube.” He’s grown to nearly 30,000 subscribers, he says, but he’s never had more long-form views than his first video, which identified him in the title as an “18-year-old HVAC technician.” He estimates he got 450,000 views from it (close: it was 407,000 views at time of publication). His more recent videos average roughly 10,000 views apiece.
Aguilar adds that he “always wanted to be a YouTuber,” recalling videos from elementary and middle school, “literally in the car recording, just eating a muffin, chatting, talking about what happened at school, like someone fell down a stairway. ” He said he was “seeing all the YouTubers, so I kind of wanted that.” After all, he was born in 2005, the same year YouTube was created. When asked if it’s exhausting working two jobs—HVAC and his side hustle—he says that old-fashioned sales is “very draining.” Trying to make a sale with a real person is much harder than putting himself on camera, he says, “because on the camera, you can turn it off.”
Being your own boss
Social media, Loria observes, has turbocharged interest in alternative career paths among the Gen Zers that she’s advised. “They see things on social media, influencers, for example, that are making all this money, and they think, ‘Well, that’s what I want.’” Popular blue-collar influencers include “The Expert Plumber” Roger Wakefield, who is not a Gen Zer, and Lexia “Lex the Electrician” Czumak-Abreu, who definitely is.
Loria says she taps into this social-media appetite to pitch a vision of entrepreneurship, advising students to “go learn a skill, a trade, go get your license, but also take some classes on how to be a business owner, because maybe one day you would want to run your own electrical company or your plumbing company.” She says they talk in her community about “blue-collar billionaires. They’re the ones that have the nice boats and the three houses.” Realistically, she adds, these people are not truly that wealthy, but they’re an aspirational example. Swiss investment bank UBS calls these the “everyday millionaires,” commenting on how remarkable growth is in the seven-digit wealth bracket.
Palmer tells Fortune that he’s already achieved most of his early professional goals, including being his own boss, and after his mother moved to Florida in June 2025, he moved in with his girlfriend. Up next, he said, YouTube has been taking up more of his attention recently. “Depending on how next year goes on YouTube for Palmer Electrical, that could be a big part of my future, content creation.” He adds, “I hate the word ‘influencer,’ but, you know, electrical influencer?”
It’s not about vanity, he clarifies: it’s another revenue stream. He estimates that he started out generating around $450 per month from YouTube advertising on his videos, and his most recent was $1,300 for August 2025. “Middle-school Jacob would be going crazy right now,” he adds. “He wouldn’t know what to do with himself.” Palmer’s YouTube page shows something like the opposite trajectory of Aguilar’s, as he started with less than 1,000 views for his first video but grew to 88,000 for a hit video in the summer of 2025.
Palmer can foresee a time where, like Aguilar, YouTube and content creation takes up a bigger portion of his income and his time, and that will help with the inconvenient fact of just how hard he’s working. He only took one week of “true vacation” over the last year. He is maximizing his weekends, for instance going to a beach on the weekend or work trips attending conferences in different parts of the state. Palmer notes that he’s a member of the North Carolina Electrical Inspectors Association. That’s the downside of being your own boss, he adds: “If I stop, the checks go to zero.”