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Major · Construction Trades

Build, manage, or specialize — the broad construction-trades credential

This major is the catchall associate’s for students who want construction work without committing to a single trade yet. About 519 credentials are awarded each year across 62 colleges, almost entirely at the associate’s level. Graduates either specialize on the job, climb into supervision, or move toward construction management.

Schools offering
62
Annual completions
519
Typical degree level
Associate's
Median earnings (5yr)
$95k

About this major

Construction Trades, General is the broadest catchall credential in the 46.xxxx CIP family — a survey program that introduces students to building, inspecting, and maintaining structures across multiple trades rather than specializing in any one. Coursework typically spans masonry, carpentry, electrical and power-transmission installation, building and construction finishing, blueprint reading, building codes, OSHA safety, basic estimation, and an introduction to construction management. Shop and lab time is heavy — students rotate through framing exercises, conduit and wiring fundamentals, basic plumbing rough-ins, and finish work. Most programs structure the second year around an emerging specialty, often paired with a part-time apprenticeship or co-op.

This credential typically fits students who know they want construction but do not yet know which trade. The mindset rewarded is procedural and physically engaged: comfort with hand and power tools, mechanical reasoning, blueprint and schematic literacy, and tolerance for outdoor and variable-condition work. Math through trade-applied geometry and trigonometry helps. Students who already know they want overhead linework, residential wiring, or stonemasonry are usually better served by the focused sibling CIPs (46.0303 Lineworker, 46.0302 Electrician, 46.0101 Mason/Masonry) where the program structure goes deeper into one trade.

About 519 credentials are awarded annually across 62 colleges, almost entirely at the associate’s level. The headline career destination from the data is first-line supervisor of construction trades and extraction workers, with a $78,690 BLS median wage and 5.3% projected growth — a mid-career role rather than entry-level. Five-year median earnings for completers run about $95,028, which is unusually high for a generalist credential and reflects graduates who specialized into licensed trades or moved into supervision. The relatively small 519-completion footprint partly reflects how universities roll many of these students into broader trade or technology categories or into the focused sibling CIPs rather than scarcity of construction hiring demand.

Section 3 · Careers

Where this major leads

Occupations most often associated with this major, from the federal BLS+O*NET crosswalk. Job-growth projections and median wages are national.

Occupation Median wage Job growth Typical education
First-line supervisors of construction trades and extraction workers $79k +5.3% High school diploma or equivalent
Section 4 · Earnings

Earnings at a glance

Median graduate earnings from the federal College Scorecard, 5 and 10 years out.

Median 5-year earnings

$95k

Who this major is for

You may thrive here if you want a construction career but have not committed to a single trade and want a structured year to sample masonry, electrical, carpentry, and finishing before specializing, you respond well to procedural discipline around codes and safety and are physically capable of variable-condition work, you are interested in eventually moving into supervision and the $78,690 first-line supervisor track or the $104K construction-management ladder, you want an associate’s-level entry that articulates into a Department of Labor Registered Apprenticeship rather than a four-year academic route, and you are comfortable with employers that range from union contractors to nonunion regional builders to small specialty shops.

Think twice if you already know which trade you want — the focused sibling CIPs (Carpentry 46.0201, Electrician 46.0302, Lineworker 46.0303, Plumbing 46.0503, Mason/Masonry 46.0101) go deeper into a single specialty and produce cleaner journeyman pipelines. Think twice also if your real interest is the office and project-management side — Construction Management (CIP 52.2001, 3,428 annual completions) is the bachelor’s credential built for estimator, scheduler, and project-manager roles. The 519-completion footprint is small partly because programs at this CIP overlap heavily with both the trade-specific siblings and the CM bachelor’s, so picking the right CIP for your actual target work matters more than the credential title.

Section 6 · Where to study

Top colleges for Construction Trades, General

Ranked by annual completions at the associate's or bachelor's level — a proxy for program scale.

College Location Assoc. Bach. Total
Honolulu Community College Honolulu, HI 144 0 144
Mt Hood Community College Gresham, OR 82 0 82
Truckee Meadows Community College Reno, NV 38 0 38
State Technical College of Missouri Linn, MO 37 0 37
Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology Okmulgee, OK 28 0 28
Northern Virginia Community College Annandale, VA 27 0 27
Charter College Anchorage, AK 20 0 20
Triton College River Grove, IL 18 0 18
Liberty University Lynchburg, VA 13 0 13
Colorado Mesa University Grand Junction, CO 12 0 12
Section 7 · Explore sideways

Related majors to explore

Construction Management, General

3,428 completions/yr

Electrician

3,003 completions/yr

Electrical and Power Transmission Installation/Installer, General

570 completions/yr

Carpentry/Carpenter

530 completions/yr

Lineworker

441 completions/yr

Mason/Masonry

43 completions/yr

Construction Trades, Other

38 completions/yr

Precision Production Trades, General

9 completions/yr
Section 9 · Frequently asked

Common questions

What does Construction Trades, General actually cover compared with the specialized siblings?
The CIP definition is deliberately broad — masonry, carpentry, electrical and power transmission installation, finishing, inspection, and management — taught in survey form rather than to journeyman depth in any one trade. In practice, the 62 colleges hosting it use it as a feeder credential: students sample framing, MEP basics, blueprint reading, codes, and safety, then specialize on the job through an apprenticeship or first employer. Specialized siblings include Carpentry (CIP 46.0201, 530 completions), Electrician (46.0302, 3,003), Lineworker (46.0303, 441), and Mason/Masonry (46.0101, 43). If you already know which trade you want, the focused CIP is the cleaner credential.
Do I need a bachelor’s degree, or is an associate’s enough?
An associate’s is the only tracked degree level in the data, and BLS lists a high school diploma as typical entry education for first-line construction supervisors and most trade roles. Five-year median earnings for completers run about $95,028, which is unusually high for a generalist associate’s and reflects graduates who specialized into licensed trades or moved into supervision. A bachelor’s in this exact CIP is rare; students who want a four-year credential typically transfer into Construction Management (CIP 52.2001), which is where the project-manager and estimator track lives.
What jobs do graduates actually land in?
The packet names first-line supervisor of construction trades and extraction workers as the headline destination, with a $78,690 median wage and 5.3% projected growth. That is a multi-year progression role rather than an entry-level outcome. Realistic early-career destinations include carpenter ($56K range), electrician (entry as an apprentice, $62K BLS median once journeyman), plumber and pipefitter ($61K median, 6% growth), and construction laborer feeding into a specialty. The longer arc reaches construction manager ($104K median) for graduates who pair field experience with a CM bachelor’s or extensive on-site PM time.
How does this compare with Construction Management (CIP 52.2001)?
Construction Management (52.2001, 3,428 annual completions) is the bachelor’s-as-credential sibling — estimating, scheduling, contracts, project controls, and field supervision taught for office and trailer roles rather than tool-belt work. Construction Trades, General (46.0000) is hands-on and feeds the field side of the same job sites. The two credentials often work together: a graduate who completes the AAS, gains field experience, then stacks a CM bachelor’s ends up on the assistant project manager track inside a general contractor. If you want office and ownership roles eventually, the CM degree matters; if you want to install, build, and supervise crews, the trades AAS plus apprenticeship is the path.
How do apprenticeships fit in?
Most graduates who specialize do so through a Department of Labor Registered Apprenticeship — typically four years of paid on-the-job hours plus related classroom instruction. Trade-union joint apprenticeship and training committees (IBEW for electricians, UA for plumbers and pipefitters, SMART for sheet-metal, OPCMIA for cement masons) and nonunion pathways through Associated Builders and Contractors both qualify. NCCER credentials are the multi-trade industry-standard portable certifications and are commonly aligned with coursework. Programs that articulate AAS hours into apprenticeship credit shorten the time to journeyman, which is the gating credential for most state licenses.
Where are the colleges that actually run this program?
The 62-college footprint is dominated by community and technical colleges with regional industry partnerships rather than four-year schools. Honolulu Community College awards the most credentials (144 annually), followed by Mt Hood Community College in Oregon (82) and Truckee Meadows Community College in Reno (38). State Technical College of Missouri (37) and Oklahoma State Institute of Technology (28) round out the top tier. Northern Virginia Community College (27) and Triton College in Illinois (18) reflect metropolitan demand around the Washington and Chicago build markets. Two four-year schools appear — Liberty University (13) and Colorado Mesa University (12) — but they are exceptions, not the norm.
Will AI or automation reduce demand for this work?
Rough framing, MEP installation, finishing, and on-site coordination are physical-labor-bound and resist automation through the 2030s — the labor itself happens in unstructured environments that robots handle poorly. Modular and prefabricated construction is shifting some labor from job site to factory, which changes where the work happens but not the headcount. Project-management software (Procore, Autodesk Construction Cloud) is changing how supervisors and PMs document and coordinate, but adds tasks rather than replacing crews. Durable lanes are licensed trades (state plumbing and electrical), specialty work (high-voltage, fire protection, controls), and the CM and PM career track. The IIJA $1.2T infrastructure law, IRA $369B clean-energy build-out, and CHIPS Act fab construction are all sustained tailwinds for construction labor demand.