It’s that time of year again when recent high school graduates are heading off to college. They’re packing their cars with the necessities of dorm life, maybe asking Mom and Dad for some extra spending money, and leaving with the hope that a college degree will lead to independence and financial prosperity.

Unfortunately, in just four years, many of these soon-to-be graduates will be back home, wondering why they can’t land a good-paying job in their field and struggling to stay solvent in a low-wage job.

We can’t blame our young people. Society has conditioned them into thinking a college degree is the only path to a fulfilling career and wealth. Each fall, millions of first-year college students sign off on government loans, sit in lecture halls and classrooms taught by politically motivated professors, and take courses in which they have no interest. Many choose college because their friends are going or they’ve bought into the notion that a degree in social justice, climate change studies, or even puppetry will produce the job of their dreams.

Mike Rowe, popular host of the TV show “Dirty Jobs,” recently opined on one of his frequent subjects at the Pennsylvania Energy & Innovation Summit. “We’ve been telling kids for 15 years to code. ‘Learn to code,’” he said. “Yeah, well, AI is coming for the coder. They’re not coming for the welders. They’re not coming for the plumbers. They’re not coming for the steam fitters or the pipe fitters or the HVAC. They’re not coming for the electricians.”

Meanwhile, their friends who left high school and learned a trade are working jobs vital to the communities in which they live while earning a regular paycheck. And that check is often larger than what their college friends will earn if and when they graduate with a degree. In fact, the U.S. Department of Labor noted this week, “On average, recent graduates of Registered Apprenticeships make roughly $11,000 more than recent college graduates.”

Another huge benefit for trade workers is that they don’t carry the crushing burden of college debt. “The average college tuition fee has more than doubled in the 21st century, now costing more than $38,000 per year,” reports the Washington Examiner. “Graduation no longer guarantees a cushy job — in addition to unemployment, student debt, and inflation, many Gen Zers (roughly aged 13-29) contend with traditional entry-level positions disappearing due to automation.”

Recent data demonstrates that young people are gravitating toward blue-collar jobs. A study conducted by Gusto found, “On average, the share of new hires aged 18-25 in the housing construction industry has increased by nearly 4% annually since 2019. Housing and commercial construction, electrical contractors, and residential remodeling have all seen significant gains in Gen Z hires over the last 5 years.”

These are dependable jobs with decent paychecks that often outpace the rate of inflation, making a trade even more appealing than gambling on going into debt for a degree in gender studies. Gusto adds, “One reason skilled trades are an attractive career choice is because wages have increased due to increased demand for both employees and for the services that skilled workers can provide. 18-25 year olds have particularly benefited with the average hourly wage for a worker in a trade industry exceeding inflation by 16%.”

But it’s not all about earnings. Increasingly, it’s hard for college graduates to find employment at all.

As Fortune informs, “Gen Z is increasingly slamming their degrees as useless, and new research indicates there may be some truth when it comes to the job hunt. In fact, the unemployment rate of males ages 22 to 27 is roughly the same, whether or not they hold a degree. It comes as employers drop degree requirements and young men ditch corporate jobs for skilled trades.” Fortune adds, “Although it remains lower than the 6.9% rate among all young workers between 22 and 27 years old, men with a college degree now have roughly the same unemployment rate as young men who didn’t go to college, according to an analysis of U.S. Current Population Survey data by the Financial Times.”

Men are taking note of the situation in our colleges and universities. Recent trends also indicate that they’re more likely to take advantage of skilled trades or on-the-job training provided by employers.

Pew Research found, “Today, only 39% of young men who have completed high school are enrolled in college, down from 47% in 2011. The rate at which young female high school graduates enroll has also fallen, but not by nearly as much (from 52% to 48%).”

Increasingly, young men and women no longer view college as the best option.

A survey conducted by Resume Genius found, “For many Gen Z workers, higher education hasn’t delivered the value they hoped for. When asked what they’d choose if they could redo their studies, nearly 1in 4 Gen Z workers (23%) said they regret going to college altogether — a signal that traditional higher education hasn’t lived up to its promise for a significant share of this generation.” The survey also revealed that if young people could do it over again, 22% of Gen Z would have chosen a different degree path leading to higher career salaries, 13% would have learned a skilled trade, and 10% would have become entrepreneurs.

None of this suggests that college isn’t the right choice for some people. We need doctors, lawyers, teachers, and loads of other white-collar workers. But the current system of higher education is one that entices far too many young people into taking out loans for careers that don’t pay enough to cover those loan payments. Considering the cost of education, the worthless degrees, and the threat of AI in the coming years, more young people will continue to realize that giving it “the old college try” isn’t worth the ink on a college diploma.