 The trades career tier list, that's what we're gonna be talking about today and there is a lot to go over in this video and I don't want it to be like 30 minutes long. So I'm gonna jump right into it and get right on with the list. I believe that trades are underrated and I think they're making a huge comeback and as long as you never forget to immediately gently tap the like button, I will explain exactly why. So the way I construct these lists is I look at a bunch of different factors like salary, job growth, job satisfaction and then a bunch of different X factors. Now these X factors generally include stuff like how easy it would be to automate a job or outsource a job or how well the skills that you learn in a certain job could translate to other industries or other careers. And in this video, I'm gonna be ranking all of these different trade careers from S tier which is extremely good to F tier which is bad. I'm not gonna have time to go over all of these different factors because that would make the video like an hour and a half long. So if you wanna know that, you're gonna have to watch some of my other videos. And please, if you think I'm wrong on any of these, go ahead, comment down below exactly why you think I'm wrong. Maybe you're right about it. Maybe we all can learn something. All right, first one on the list is going to be welder. This is one where the pay honestly isn't all that good if you just get hired for it. A lot of the time it's gonna end up being kind of seasonal or where you just get hired for a job and then you know you do it for a few months and you're not really needed anymore. This one of course can be really good if you're working in certain industries like the natural gas industry. There's also a high ceiling in terms of the level of skill. So there's really basic welding and then there's like above basic welding and it can get really, really high in terms of your level of skill. All the way to the point where you're like an underwater welder where you're certified in diving and like all kinds of crazy stuff like that. So this is one of those skills where if you get really good at it and you get a little bit entrepreneurial, you start your own business, maybe you buy your own rig for instance, you can make a really good amount of money. But when it comes to just getting hired for a job, it's decent but not amazing. This one is gonna go into C tier. Next one on the list is going to be a heavy equipment operator. With this one you're gonna be making around $46,000 a year. It's growing at about 10% and you're gonna need to be licensed plus you're gonna need to have an apprenticeship. And basically you are gonna be driving around heavy machinery. Anything from like big tractors to cranes. Now depending on your specialty, the pay is going to vary quite a bit. So for instance, there are certain types of crane operators that can make a ridiculous amount of money. However, they're also dealing with a high stress environment. You mess up one little bit with a crane and like lots of people could potentially die. This is a pretty good one though. I'm gonna go ahead and put it in B tier. Next one on the list is going to be a plumber. They make around $53,000 a year. You do need to be licensed and it does require an apprenticeship generally speaking and it's growing at about 14% which is really, really good. Now as a plumber you're gonna be installing and repairing pipes that carry liquids and gases. Not only that but we are also very, very neat. Now one of the great things about being a plumber is you can pretty much get a job no matter where you go. A lot of the careers on this list can be kind of like a little bit seasonal where you might have a lot of work during a certain time of the year and not much work over other times of the year. Or they might be jobs where you're gonna have to move around a lot. But the great thing about being a plumber is you can probably get a job pretty much no matter where you live in the United States. When it comes to being in the trades I always say that it's a very good idea for you to start your own business as soon as you possibly can because that's where the real money is. Even if you're just working on your own if you have your own business you can make way more money than if you were working for somebody else. And plumber is a perfect example of this. So even though it says they make around $53,000 a year if you own your own business you can very, very easily make over six figures a year. Plumber is gonna go into A tier. Next one on the list is going to be HVAC Technician. That stands for Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning. HVAC techs make around $47,000 a year and this one's growing at about 13%. These are the people that keep your heater going in the winter and your air conditioning going in the summer. Now my brother owns an HVAC business so I know a little bit more than the average person about this. It is somewhat seasonal. You're probably gonna make more money in the winter than you are during the summer months but again, that could be different depending on where you live. So for instance, you might make more money in the summer months if you live in Miami. Now you can see the seasonal nature of the business as a pro or a con. It's kind of a pro just because of the fact that you kind of have a busy season where you know you're gonna be busy and then you have kind of a slower season where you can go on vacations and kind of just take it easy. It can create difficulties when it comes to scaling a business. So for instance, if you hire people in order to accommodate all the work you need to get done during the busy season a lot of the times those people will not be able to get enough hours during the slow season. So that can make scaling a business a little bit tricky. A lot of the trades are somewhat taxing on your body and I would say HVAC is a little bit taxing but it's definitely not one of the worst ones. Overall, I'm gonna go ahead and put this one into A tier. Number six on the list is going to be dental hygienist and yes, this one is actually a trade career technically. They make around $74,000 a year. It does require an apprenticeship, a license and it's growing at around 11%. Now this one, you are going to be assisting dentists. You're gonna be doing things like cleaning and educating patients on dental health. So the cons of this one is you're gonna be all up in people's mouths, which that's gross. This one does take around three years to get into. So it's a little bit longer than some of these other ones but it's also a lot less physical than a lot of the other ones on the list. So you probably would be able to be a dental hygienist for a longer amount of time. I know somebody personally who is a dental hygienist. She works about 40 hours a week and she makes six figures a year. A lot of dental hygienists do not work 40 hours a week and so they make a little bit less than six figures but I would say this number 74,000 is probably on the low side. I will say that most dental hygienists that are very successful are going to be and I'm not saying whether this is right or wrong but it's just a fact. They're going to be young, pretty women who are kind of extroverted. Again, not saying that's right or wrong but that tends to be the people who are successful as dental hygienists. Overall, I'm going to go ahead and put this one into a tier. Next one on the list is going to be an elevator installer or repairer. They make around $79,000 a year. It does require an apprenticeship as well as licensure and it's growing at around 10% which is great. So they are obviously going to be installing and repairing elevators but also things like escalators. Basically anything that moves people up or down. So with this one you're probably going to be on call quite a bit. I remember one time when I lived in Las Vegas I got stuck in an elevator and an elevator repair guy had to come and rescue me. This was pretty late at night so the poor guy probably got interrupted from watching like late night news or whatever he was watching and he came and he got the person I was stuck with in the elevator out of the elevator and it was happily ever after. But overall this can be a really good one. It's going to go ahead and go into a tier. And I will also mention that this is one of the less physically taxing ones on the entire list. Next one on the list is going to be an electrician. They make around $55,000 a year. It does require apprenticeship as well as licensure and it's growing at around 10%. So some of the cons of this one is that you are going to be dealing with electricity all the time. That can be extremely dangerous. However, there are a ton of pros to this one. Being an electrician is definitely going to be one of the less physically taxing trade careers. That means that if you want to you could probably be an electrician into your 60s and 70s. This is a great one. I'm going to go ahead and put it into a tier. Next one on the list is going to be a geological and petroleum technician. They make around $53,000 a year. No apprenticeship, no licensure needed and it's growing at around 7%. Now they're going to be working in the natural gas industry and I've talked about this before. Generally speaking, people who work in this industry get paid really, really well. They're going to be supporting scientists and engineers in extracting natural resources. Now some of the cons to this one is that you'll likely have to move to an area where some of these companies exist. So you might not be living in your ideal situation, unfortunately. However, you're going to be getting paid really, really well and there's going to be a lot of opportunity. This one is going to go into S tier. Next one on the list is going to be a sonographer. They make around $67,000 a year and it's a 14% growth. They also don't have to do an apprenticeship or a licensure which is probably a pro just because of the fact that that can take a long time. They're going to be operating special imaging equipment so they're going to be doing things like ultrasounds. There's honestly not that many cons with this career. It's not going to be as physically taxing as a lot of the other trade careers. And yes, this is technically a trade career. I know in my other video people commented that's not a trade career. No, this one is technically a trade career. So this one, you're going to have a lot of the upside of a trade career where you don't have to go to college or anything like that. You can just pretty much go straight into your profession without a lot of the downsides that you commonly find in trade careers such as having a lot of physical issues. This one is definitely going into S tier. Next one on the list is going to be a radiation therapist. They make around $82,000 a year. It does require licensure but no apprenticeship and it's growing at about 9%. Now as a radiation therapist, you would be treating cancer as well as other diseases with radiation therapy. This can be a really tough one emotionally so you do have to be somebody who's pretty tough emotionally because you're going to be around people who are sick all day long. However, it can be extremely rewarding because you're going to be helping people who are sick and in a time of need. Overall, this one is going to go into S tier. Next one on the list is going to be a logger. They make around $40,000 a year and the projected growth is negative 12%. This one is extremely tough on you physically. It's also extremely dangerous. It's one of the most dangerous careers you can possibly get into. It also doesn't pay nearly as well as a lot of the other ones on this list. This one is going to definitely go into F tier. Next one on the list is going to be dock worker. They're going to get paid around $28,000 a year. The projected growth is around 7%. Now they're also known as longshoremen. That's kind of another word for them and it's actually a really common job. There's over 2 million longshoremen in the United States. You're going to be unloading huge cargo ships. It's a very strenuous backbreaking type of job. It's also very dangerous. It leads to a lot of injuries and deaths. This is another one that in my opinion, unfortunately, it's going to have to go into a pretty low tier. I mean $28,000 a year. Are you kidding me? They need to get paid more than that. That's ridiculous. This one goes into F tier. Next one on the list is going to be a roofer. They make around $39,000 a year. They're growing at about 11%. Now roofers are going to install, repair and replace roofs. A lot of the time they're going to be up on the roof out in the sun. It can be a pretty difficult job. You're going to be sweating buckets. If it starts raining outside, you're going to have to pack it up and call it a day. It's also relatively dangerous. I mean, if you fall off of the roof, you're probably going to get seriously injured. Still, it's a little bit better than the other two. It has a decent growth rate. So I'm going to go ahead and put this one into D tier. Next one on the list is going to be a construction laborer. So they're going to make around $35,000 a year. It's growing at 12%. And there's over 1 million jobs available. Now this is an extremely physically demanding job. There's probably going to be a lot of injuries. And on top of the injury rate, it also has a lot of deaths, unfortunately. Now this one kind of goes in that same category where they're going to get paid decently well, but honestly probably not as good as they should. I'm going to go ahead and put this one into D tier. Next one on the list is going to be an automobile mechanic. They make around $40,000 a year. They're growing at about 6.1%. And there's around 648,000 jobs available here in the US. Now I would say out of all the different types of trades, you could argue this is somewhere in the middle when it comes to how physically demanding it is. Probably not going to be as many deaths and not as many serious injuries as some of the other ones that I mentioned on this list. Now this is a very popular job. A lot of people really love working on cars. There can be a lot of opportunity here, especially if you own your own business. This one is just going to squeak into C tier. I would say welder is probably a little bit better than mechanic in terms of the opportunities. But overall, I'm going to go ahead and put it in C tier. If you haven't done it already, make sure to gently tap the like button, hit the subscribe button, ring the notification bell and comment down below any thoughts, comments, criticisms, et cetera that you have on the video. And whatever you do, don't forget to check out my other videos right here. I made them just for you.