The National Association of Home Builders recently surveyed adults ages 18 to 25 to gauge how this age group feels about a career in the trades. Although the majority of young adults (74 percent) say they know the field in which they want to have a career, only 3 percent are interested in the construction trades.

The trades didn’t even rank high among the 26 percent of respondents who said they had no career path. These respondents were asked a follow-up question that asked them to rank the possibilities for picking construction as well as a number of other fields.

Using a scale from 1 to 5, where 1 meant ‘no chance no matter the pay’ and 5 meant ‘very good chance if the pay is high,’ construction trades got an average rating of 2.1. The majority (63 percent) rated it 1 or 2 (no or little chance regardless of pay) and 18 percent gave it a 4 or 5 (good to very good chance if pay is high).

For reasons why the undecided young adults gave for not choosing the trades, click here.

Source: The National Association of Home Builders