As AI threatens to replace more white-collar jobs, a growing number of graduates are discovering that getting their hands dirty may be the smartest career move — with some skilled trades paying well into six figures.
In cities like San Francisco, where much of the infrastructure dates back more than a century, aging elevators and escalators are creating a booming demand for workers who can keep them running.
Elevator and escalator installers and repairers are now among the highest-paid blue-collar workers in the Bay Area, earning between $109,820 and $130,000 a year, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
With aging infrastructure and a shrinking pool of skilled tradespeople, the profession offers the kind of job security that AI simply can’t replace.
One chart showed jobs for certified elevator operators earn even more than things like first-line supervisors of construction trades and extraction workers, and more than terrazzo workers and finishers.
Greg Hardeman, with local IUEC, a union for elevator constructors, said “elevators have been around forever,” in the city.
“We’re pushing our 125th anniversary next year, but we’ve been putting elevators in probably longer than 130 years,” Hardeman told Mission Local.
He said there’s a definite need for people who have the skills to replace things like welding brackets, pull wires, and align tracks.
“We’re almost like the SEAL Team 6 of the trades because we do everything, everywhere.”
Hardeman said there’s been a huge increase in applications recently for enrollment into the union’s apprenticeship program.
“We took 750 applications and filled them up pretty quickly — in under a minute,” he said.
Mike Moore, a longtime elevator technician with the union and instructor of the trade, said remote workers need to realize the value of having a skilled trade.
“Because if you can stay at home and work, then somebody in India can do your work for cheaper. And that’s what’s going to happen,” Moore said.
“If your elevator breaks down, they’re not going to outsource a broken elevator to India. They’re going to require somebody to come in and look at the elevator in person.”
To qualify for the program, a person needs only to have their high school diploma. It takes about four to five years to complete the process and become certified.
Currently, there are 1,400 elevator technicians in all of Northern California, with only two trade schools in the entire state for these kind of jobs.
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