My prediction with nothing but anecdotes!<p>We have drastically overstated the importance of college the last 20 years, sending far too many people deeper into the education system as opposed to encouraging more trade craft. We are going to end up with a shortage of qualified tradespeople in traditionally blue collar industries such as plumbing, welding, and electrical work here in the near future, especially because "people with college degrees don't do those jobs" (which is a tragic way to view such qualified craft.<p>There are massive numbers of older folks in various trades who are getting set to retire, and there is a clear shortage of people ready to replace them. In other words, it's going to be very, very expensive to hire an electrician here in the near future.<p>We just had our house rewired (old 1940s knob and tube), was chatting with our electrician a bit after the job, and he was talking about how absolutely insane it's been for him the past 3-4 years. He's a younger guy and he said there is already a huge shortage of folks trained and certified to handle a lot of the work needed in the city, causing prices to increase sharply. The boom economy (Seattle) certainly has a lot to do with it, but even in general, he commented about how he just doesn't know that many electricians his age.