This article contains the most recent salary data from the BLS for the highest paying skilled trade jobs. Careers in the building, construction, and the mechanics fields are included. Many of the most popular programs in the “skilled trades” will take less than 2 years to complete.
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List of the Highest Paying Skilled Trades
These are some of the highest paying jobs that are commonly considered skilled trades or construction related. The salary listed is either the average or mean pay a worker earned in 2023, entry level pay will be less and those with a lot of experience will make more. The salaries listed here were updated with the newest BLS information posted in April of 2024.
- Construction Managers: $112,900 per year
- Pile Driver Operators: $77,060 per year
- Aircraft Mechanics and Service Technicians: $80,590 per year
- Construction and Building Inspectors: $71,960 per year
- Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters: $63,350 per year
- Brickmasons and Blockmasons: $62,380 per year
- Electricians: $63,310 per year
- Carpenters: $58,400 per year
- Sheet Metal Workers: $62,280 per year
- Truck Drivers (Heavy and Tractor-Trailer): $53,090 per year
- HVAC Technicians: $60,780 per year
- Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers: $51,700 per year
- Automotive Service Technicians and Mechanics: $53,360 per year
There are fast trade school programs for some of these high paying skilled trade careers. Examples of the fastest programs to graduate include CDL truck driver, hvac technician, and automotive technology.
15 More Top Paying Trade School Careers
Here’s some salary data for other careers you can train for at a trade school or technical college. These include careers in the information technology, business, and medical career fields. Programs for some of these high paying technical and medical jobs can take 2-4 years to complete.
- Mechanical Engineering Technician: $64,530
- Dental Hygienist: $84,860
- Computer Systems Analyst: $107,530
- Computer Programmer: $102,790
- Radiation Therapist: $98,340
- RN Nurse: $89,010
- Accountant: $86,740
- Health Service Manager: $127,980
A few of these careers may pay even more than current government statistics show, especially if you live in a fast growing area where there’s a lack of skilled workers. I know where I live, in a growing area of Florida, experienced welders, HVAC technicians, CDL truck drivers, and electricians can make substantially more than this post indicates.
All above listed salaries have been updated with BLS data from March/April of 2024. New salary information will be published around that time in 2025 and the information on this page will be updated then.
This salary information was gathered from the official BLS website. United States National Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates
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Reference & more reading:
This careers guide is pretty great: https://careerschoolnow.org/careers
Thank you for compiling this list. I thought I would have to do the research myself, and I see that you already did it. I appreciate it.
Welcome Jay, the new info will be out in a couple months and I’ll update this article when it does. (edit: the new 2021 info came out and I updated this article)
Well, leaving spam comments in WordPress blogs is NOT the way to get there.