Labor Day 2025

 Labor Day 2025

We are in the final days of August, and Americans will celebrate Labor Day 2025 on Monday. Labor Day represents the "unofficial" end of Summer. Schools and colleges have started their Fall terms. Farms, construction sites, and tourist destinations look to finish out their seasons before the first frost and snow falls. Here in Virginia, state elections and local politics will dominate the headlines for the next few months.

Most Americans have little knowledge or understanding of the original meaning of the Labor Day Holiday. In the 20th Century, as the U.S. Economy transitioned from an agrarian-based economy to a manufacturing-based economy, there was a great deal of tension and conflict between laborers and management. As farm science and technology improved over the 20th century fewer farmers were needed to produce agricultural products. In some instances, farmers left their farms to work in factories that produced tractors and other farming equipment that actually contributed to their departure from the farms. During this period, the automobile reigned supreme as the top manufactured product and set the standard for most other factories and manufactured products. Labor Day represent the hard-won safety rules, negotiated wages, and other standards set forth, primarily, by labor unions in the 20th century.

I hold a B.S. Business Economics and a B.A. Philosophy, both from Virginia Tech. I believe in the rights of union workers to collectively bargain for wages and others safety standards. However, except in instances of National Security, the free-market should determine wages, benefits and other working standards. At the start of the 21st Century, the American Labour Force was 31.1% managers and professionals, 28.6% in technical, sales and administrative support, 23.7% in manufacturing, mining, transportation, and crafts, 14.1% in services, and 2.5% in farming, forestry, and fishing. Farming and manufacturing continue to be an ever-smaller percentage of the American Work Force, while professional services and management become a larger part of the economy and labour force.

Today, online college degree programs can address the needs and demands of a service-based economy that depends on professional skills. Many professions: teaching, financial services, insurance, legal services, real estate, military officer, and healthcare all require some college or specific college diplomas to work in that respective profession. Additionally, online degree programs can assist those with other trade-skills, such as electrician, plumbing, carpentry or auto-mechanic. As a Microsoft Certified Windows Programmer, myself, I pay very close attention to the home office needs of small and medium-sized businesses. At the present moment, I am trying to find tuition funding to continue my economics training with my alma mater, Virginia Tech's online Master Agricultural Economics degree program. 

To conclude, most Americans will celebrate the Labor Day 2025 weekend and holiday with very little knowledge of the holiday's origins in the 20th century. However, labor-related issues have long been a part of the Judeo-Christian Faith tradition of the Holy Bible, and Plato wrote at length about divisions of labor and society in his book, The Republic. Today, online degree programs can help re-vitalize the middle class in a service-based economy that depends on various kinds of professional services.

I hope and pray everyone has a fun, safe, and productive Labor Day 2025 Weekend and Holiday!