Top dollars for blue collars

If you can work with your hands, then you needn't worry about job opportunities. You'll have plenty.

By CHRISTINA REXRODE
Published June 24, 2007

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If you can work with your hands, then you needn't worry about job opportunities. You'll have plenty. Though the Internet may make travel agents dispensable, though outsourcing may obliterate the need for call-center reps in the United States, there are plenty of blue-collar jobs that technology and overseas labor just can't mess with - not that we can reasonably foresee, anyway. Here, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and CareerBuilder.com, is a list of the 10 fastest-growing blue-collar jobs, its median wage and how much that profession is expected to grow by 2014. You'll see another trend here, as well: You needn't necessarily earn a college degree to make a good living.

1 Construction and building inspectors

$43, 596 a year or $20.96 an hour +18 to 26 percent

2 Waste treatment plant operators

$34, 965 a year, or $16.81 an hour +9 to 17 percent

3 Elevator installers and repairers

$58, 718 a year or $28.23 an hour + 9 to 17 percent

4 Subway and streetcar operators

$49, 296 a year or $23.70 an hour +9 to 17 percent

5 Iron and metal workers

$42, 432 a year or $20.40 an hour +9 to 17 percent

6 Electricians

$42, 286 a year, $20.33 an hour +9 to 17 percent

7 Brick masons, block masons, stone masons

$41, 746 a year or $20.07 an hour +9 to 17 percent

8 Plumbers, pipe fitters and steamfitters

$41, 288 a year or $19.85 per hour +9 to 17 percent

9 Heating/ ac/refrigeration mechanics

$36, 254 a year or $17.43 an hour +18 to 26 percent

10 Carpenters

$34, 902 a year or $16.78 an hour +9 to 17 percent

Blue collar jobs by the numbers

931, 000 Expected new construction and extraction jobs by 2014, at a growth rate of 12 percent.

657, 000 Expected new installation, maintenance and repair jobs by 2014, at a growth rate of 11.4 percent

1.1-million Expected new transportation and material-moving jobs by 2014, at a growth rate of 11.1 percent.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, CareerBuilder.com