When it comes to the field of specialized labor, things are extremely different today than they were in the past. The case in point for this article will be roofers, and how they have evolved in how they do business over the past decades. We use roofers as the focus of this study into the changes undergone surrounding specialized labor simply because roofing is such a common  area of labor, and one which almost all homeowners have had to deal with in the past, or which they will deal with at some point during their homeownership.

The first major change we shall look at is the way in which roofers have changed from working mostly by themselves to working as part of a larger group of roofers. In the past most roofers learned their trade working for a year or so under a master roofer, without pay, and in some very competitive markets the apprentice roofer would even have to pay the master roofer for the training he would receive. After the young roofer received his training he would branch out on his own and work for himself. Roofers rarely worked in groups of more than three or four, if they worked with other roofers at all. One on the main reasons as to why roofers made the switch from working individually to working in groups probably has to do with the fact that as time marched on, there were a wider range of different types of roofs on the market, meaning that a broader knowledge of different types of roofing was advantageous to the roofer. Roofers began to ban together so that they could combine their different roofing knowledge in order to take on the different types of roofing there were appearing on the market. Today, companies like,, are composed of teams of dozens of roofers all working under one general contractor. The fact that roofers who specialize in different types of roofing all work within a single company means that customers can be sure they will receive the proper roofer they require, as well as making it easier to find more business for the roofing contractors who can offer a wider array of help to their clients.

Another way in which the roofing industry has changed a great deal over the last three decades has been in the tools that they use for the job. Most handymen in the past would only work with a few key tools that they would use for all sorts of different jobs. The modern repairman and especially the modern roofer have a huge variety of different tools for different jobs. Roofers have a wider range of tools they use on the job today because they need to be able to get the repair done fast and get to the next job in order to keep up with the high level of competition that exists today. Specific tools are also much cheaper than they were in the past when a simple hammer could cost a repairman his entire month’s salary.