Most “unskilled labor” is heavily skill dependant. You wouldn’t want a chef, builder or plumber who didn’t know what they were doing. And for production: machinists, mechanics and foremen make or break profit with their skills.

So what’s a better name for these jobs?

  • AnAustralianPhotographer@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    3 months ago

    I’ve heard the name blue collar jobs used for trades and people who work more hands on compared to white collar jobs of people who work in the office.

      • Brainsploosh@lemmy.worldOP
        0·
        3 months ago

        Agreed.

        Searching through my text books, unskilled labor sometimes is defined as requiring <30 days of training. US plumber’s take more, and as such I’ve changed the example to painter, which doesn’t. I believe all of the examples now can be attained in less than 30 days of training, although longer training is available for each, feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.

        In other contexts it’s defined as any low-profit labor, and more updated discourse have changed the division to low vs high wage, although with slightly different boundaries for each respective perspective.