Many millennials with their college degrees are pursuing these surprising jobs instead

The younger generation is finding meaning outside of technology in a unique new trend: jobs that involve crafting something tangible. Is the rise of manual labor jobs a reaction to the digital era?

Sociology professor and author Richard E. Ocejo joined “The Morning Blaze with Doc Thompson” to talk about a movement among millennials and younger Gen X-ers who want work where they make something real, whether it’s a job as a butcher, a bartender or a craftsman. Ocejo wrote about the trend in his new book, “Masters of Craft: Old Jobs in the New Urban Economy.”

“What appeals to them about it is the nature of the work itself,” Ocejo said.

Millennials are working in jobs that were previously thought of as low status manual labor, choosing to earn their money in a distillery or barbershop instead of in IT or other jobs in the technology industry that “don’t necessarily have a human touch to them,” Ocejo explained. Jobs that had nearly been phased out of the economy are becoming gentrified as artisanal niche skills.

College graduates often find that they are buried in debt and working in jobs they don’t love, so they start looking for something they feel passionate about instead.

“They find it in these more tangible, material-based jobs where they’re doing a craft,” Ocejo said.

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