General Construction Trades

Types of Degrees General Construction Trades Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many general construction trades graduations there were in 2021-2022 for each degree level.

Education Level	Number of Grads
Basic Certificate	1,109
Associate Degree	359
Undergraduate Certificate	345

What General Construction Trades Majors Need to Know

People with careers related to general construction trades were asked what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important for their jobs. They weighted these areas on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the highest.

Knowledge Areas for General Construction Trades Majors

According to O*NET survey takers, a major in general construction trades should prepare you for careers in which you will need to be knowledgeable in the following areas:

• Production and Processing - Knowledge of raw materials, production processes, quality control, costs, and other techniques for maximizing the effective manufacture and distribution of goods.
• Building and Construction - Knowledge of materials, methods, and the tools involved in the construction or repair of houses, buildings, or other structures such as highways and roads.
• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
• Public Safety and Security - Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.

Skills for General Construction Trades Majors

When studying general construction trades, you’ll learn many skills that will help you be successful in a wide range of jobs - even those that do not require a degree in the field. The following is a list of some of the most common skills needed for careers associated with this major:

• Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
• Coordination - Adjusting actions in relation to others’ actions.
• Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
• Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
• Time Management - Managing one’s own time and the time of others.

Abilities for General Construction Trades Majors

Some of the most crucial abilities to master while a general construction trades student include the following:

• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
• Information Ordering - The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
• Near Vision - The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).

What Can You Do With a General Construction Trades Major?

People with a general construction trades degree often go into the following careers:

Job Title	Job Growth Rate	Median Salary
First-Line Supervisors of Construction Trades and Extraction Workers	12.6%	$65,230

Who Is Getting an Associate’s Degree in General Construction Trades?

This major tends to be male dominated. About 85% of recent graduates are men.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

At the countrywide level, the racial-ethnic distribution of general construction trades majors is as follows:

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	57
Black or African American	10
Hispanic or Latino	43
White	138
International Students	2
Other Races/Ethnicities	109

Geographic Diversity

Students from other countries are interested in General Construction Trades, too. About 0.6% of those with this major are international students.

How Much Do General Construction Trades Majors Make?

Salaries According to BLS

General Construction Trades majors often go into careers with median salaries of $70,540. This median refers to all degree levels, so the salary for a person with just a bachelor’s degree may be a little less and the one for a person with an advanced degree may be a little more.

To put that into context, according to BLS data from the first quarter of 2020, the typical high school graduate makes between $30,000 and $57,900 a year (25th through 75th percentile). The average person with a bachelor’s degree (any field) makes between $45,600 and $99,000. Advanced degree holders make the most with salaries between $55,600 and $125,400.

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to General Construction Trades

Some careers associated with general construction trades require an advanced degree while some may not even require a bachelor’s. In general, the more advanced your degree the more career options will open up to you. However, there is significant time and money that needs to be invested into your education so weigh the pros and cons.

How much schooling do you really need to compete in today’s job market? People currently working in careers related to general construction trades have obtained the following education levels.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
Less than a High School Diploma	6.3%
High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED)	39.3%
Post-Secondary Certificate - awarded for training completed after high school (for example, in agriculture or natural resources, computer services, personal or culinary services, engineering technologies, healthcare, construction trades, mechanic and repair technologies, or precision production)	21.3%
Some College Courses	32.9%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	0.8%

Online General Construction Trades Programs

The following table lists the number of programs by degree level, along with how many schools offered online courses in the field.

Degree Level	Colleges Offering Programs	Colleges Offering Online Classes
Certificate (Less Than 1 Year)	0	0
Certificate (1-2 years)	53	0
Certificate (2-4 Years)	2	0
Associate’s Degree	63	7
Bachelor’s Degree	0	0
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	0	0
Post-Master’s	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	0	0

Is a Degree in General Construction Trades Worth It?

The median salary for a general construction trades grad is $70,540 per year. This is based on the weighted average of the most common careers associated with the major.

This is 77% more than the average salary for an individual holding a high school degree. This adds up to a gain of about $612,800 after 20 years!

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• College Scorecard
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers First Quarter 2020
• Image Credit: By {} under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.