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"Skilled" and "unskilled" work? I reject this Americanism.
There is no such thing as unskilled labor.
Eh. There are definitely jobs that you can grab random guys off the street for and they will be okay enough at them to get started right away or will be able to be trained to do them in an afternoon. Think of any time you've done a volunteering project - you don't get any specialized training to do this type of work, but you can go ahead and get started with maybe like a short explanation of how it works. Sure you won't be as good as a pro, but you could get up to speed quite quickly if it was all you were doing. These types of jobs are becoming less and less common as they get automated, but they do still exist. That is what is meant by "unskilled labor." It's not a dig at the people who do these types of jobs, but rather that you don't need specialized training to do them.
Just because the skills required for a job are very common doesn't mean the labor is unskilled. That is a myth made up by the 1% to divide the working class and pit us against each other.
This is a very optimistic but ultimately baseless “feel-good” take.
I don’t think we should discount the importance of unskilled labor, or even its difficulty, but unskilled labor most certainly does exist.
Work is work, no need for distinction. Capitalists don't work, that's all you need.
No war but class war.
I am a tradesman
I also have a bachelor of science degree
What I do is most definitely skilled labour
The bullshit, classist crap about what is and is not skilled labour is pathetic
I can promise that when the chips are down, the most useless people are the ones who sneer at those of us with calloused hands
Of course it should. I feel it's kinda obvious. Do you think it shouldn't?
By "blue collar work" do you mean that done by mechanics, carpenters, masons, plumbers, electricians, machinists, tool operators and repairmen? because yes I do.
Would you (personally) trust me to build a bridge you cross everyday on your way to work, as someone who has never built anything before (other than software)?
There is both skilled and unskilled people in blue and white collar jobs.
Just tell a master mason that his job is "unskilled". You may keep the black eye for free...
You’re not giving a context.
Yes blue collar work is skilled in that not everyone can do it and some people do it better than others. You as someone not in that field can’t just take it up and be competent. Really there’s only general labor that’s not skilled anymore.
If the context is special work visas, supposedly these are skills that can’t be found domestically. So no, blue collar jobs and most white collar jobs are not skilled. …. And there’s a good argument that the distinction is companies not wanting to pay more
That's probably exclusively American term. I couldn't ever imagine calling a tradesman an "unskilled" labourer. You'll get a quick nosejob that way.
White collar and blue collar is orthogonal to skill. Their are jobs in both categories that a monkey could do, and other jobs that take years and years of skill development to do well.
If you've got a blue collar, you are much more valuable to society than if you have a white one. This is being proven in a very real way lately with how white collar work is literally an easier problem to automate.
That implies there is unskilled labour. What jobs require no skills to perform? Except manglement.
Digging up a septic system requires no skill.
Moving pabel forms for concrete requires no skill - the GC or foreman will direct how it's done.
Lots and lots of stuff requires no particular skill.
I go by...
- Skilled labour: Jobs that require education or extensive training to be able to perform
- Semi-skilled labour: Jobs that require minimal or no education, but require some extent of on-the-job training to be able to perform the basic duties.
- Unskilled labour: Jobs that require no education, and can be effectively performed on day one by a new hire.
I'm sure there's also a "highly skilled labour" category that encompasses jobs that require extensive education, training, and practice, but I'm not really sure where to draw the line.
can be effectively performed on day one by a new hire.
If such a job exists, I've never seen it. A first day worker on ANY job won't be as efficient as someone with experience. Even a ditch digger has skills.
no shit they won't be as efficient. but they can do it without requiring weeks or months or years of training
edit: to clarify, I also don't think that there's a job where somebody can effectively perform it on day one (unless they have already learned the skills in a previous job in a similar role). but I do think that there are jobs where somebody can become a net contributor within a few days. like vacuuming. I used to have a job vacuuming apartment buildings and doing general cleaning maintenance. two days of training and I was good to go for all the buildings in the roster
In the first part of your edit, you explain why there's no such thing as unskilled labor.
I think the confusion here is that you are saying "unskilled" when you mean " skills that have been picked up without education", or "skills I assume can be picked up quickly"
Find me someone from an ancient civilization and see how well they vacuum without any training.
nah, I just think it's dumb to say "but everything is a skill" like it's some gotcha
sweeping is a skill you can learn very quickly. it's not complicated. you don't need special training to do it. the reason you can't be effective on day one is that you need to learn the processes of the job, not because you need to learn the skill. you can be effective at sweeping, but not effective in your role because somebody is expending time and effort to teach you the processes. not because you have to learn how to sweep.
this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2026
5 points (85.7% liked)
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