[sudosteph]

Yes, and this is something that is routinely overlooked. Work identities run deep, and they are not easily changed.

Andrew Yang actually made a strong point when he was talking about automation-driven job losses way back in 2019. He said you can offer the best and most expensive retraining programs imaginable to help people displaced from their jobs move to fields like healthcare - but most truck drivers, even if out of work, will never even consider retaining to work as a nurse. Identities are not as malleable to the whims of supply and demand as some might want to believe.

[watwut]

Truck driver to nurse is special kind of issue, because nursing is feminine coded occupation and trucking attracts men who want to prove own masculinity. But they will take jobs that are not that much feminine.

And nursing also require a lot more study then people assume, 40 years old trucker will have hard time spending that much time in school even if it was his lifelong dream.

[amanaplanacanal]

Without throwing the gender stuff into it... There are plenty of occupations I have no interest in and can't picture myself ever doing. People spend their childhood and young adulthood figuring out what they are good at and what they enjoy, and you can't expect them to suddenly move to something completely different.

[ornornor]

> nursing is feminine coded occupation and trucking attracts men who want to prove own masculinity

In your head maybe?

[throwuxiytayq]

Some stereotypes are a useful description of reality. You’ve gotta pick your battles.

In the US, 87.3% of nurses are female and 92.3% of truckers are male.

[ornornor]

Maybe this nomenclature of yours doesn’t help.

A “computer” used to be a job mostly done by female. Now it’s the opposite.

[throwuxiytayq]

I'm not going to hold back my description of reality out of fear that it's somehow magically shaping it. Stating most nurses are female is the mildest observation possible, and doesn't sneak in any opinion whether that's good or bad, unlike your comment.

[emodendroket]

The profession is in reality overwhelmingly female, and it is associated with women in basically the entire world. Even from a linguistic perspective, the origins of the English word is gendered (the association with wet nurses is unmistakably feminine), and similar phenomenon happen in other languages. It's no longer considered the polite word to use, but if you read moderately old Japanese texts you'll find nurses referred to as "kangohu," no longer preferred because the "hu" part specifically means "woman." I'm sure if we did a survey of more world languages we'd find other hints. Even high-minded economic writing will describe it as "pink-collar" work. You could quite sensibly argue that it should be otherwise but the world is not as we might wish it were.

[rdtsc]

> In your head maybe?

How do you mean? Trucking doesn’t mostly attract men and gp made it up?