Not true. Plumbers work reasonable hours, are paid overtime, don't have to deal with ageism, their skills stay relevant regardless of fashion trends, and their jobs will never be offshored.
> Plumbers work reasonable hours, are paid overtime,
Indeed, over here many I talked to refused to do more than 8 hours a day. I didn't understand until... -- ever tried to do a hard physical work several days in a row? How about the entire life?
> don't have to deal with ageism
But have to deal with knee joints and back pains. Don't underestimate the joy of physical work at an advanced age.
> their skills stay relevant regardless of fashion trends
Old ones refuse to service modern equipment, say "I am a plumber, not an electrician". Admittedly, probably because they have got enough pure-plumbing work to do as it is.
A plumber we had in recently said electrical work is boring and it's no wonder electricians are miserable all the time, whereas plumbing is actually fun :-)
As we are sharing anecdotes: A plumber we had here a couple of years ago, changing thermostats on the radiators in the 40+ houses in our small townhouse community, caused serious water damages in 10+ of the houses. As he came by to fix the leaks, it didn't look like he had much fun plumbing..
Don't know about the US, but in much of Europe plumbing has definitely been 'offshored' in the sense that much of the work is done by non-locals brought in short term.
Everyone "learning to code" instead is probably why! If I were giving career advice to any young person now, I would definitely tell them plumbing or a similar trade. As we say in Yorkshire "where there's muck there's brass".
Not really. Most programmers I know design systems, not just mechanically program them according to the specs. Plumbers do not design - they just execute designs created by plumbing engineers. And plumbing or mechanical engineers are paid much, much higher (in this region where I live probably not as much as programmers, but close enough).
