The economy may be lukewarm, but if you are looking for work or thinking about a career change, blue-collar jobs are red hot -- with salaries climbing into the six-figure range.
For those with an interest in the trades, Wayne Peppard of the B.C. Building and Construction Trades Council says there will soon be more jobs than new workers to fill them.
"Even if we could convince them -- and that's another issue, convincing them that it's an industry to get involved in -- even if we could and take them all we still couldn't meet the demand that we're going to see," Peppard said.
Among the trades most likely to see demand in the coming years are boilermakers, millwrights, industrial mechanics, crane operators and especially construction managers.
People like Archie Fontaine are one of the many reasons why tradespeople are becoming such hot commodities. After 42 years of digging, building and operating cranes all over the country, Fontaine is set to retire next month.
"My top salary was $160,000 a year at the Golden Ears Bridge. I was running a 500-tonne crane there," he said.
His advice for anyone looking for work is to look no further than projects like the BC Place renovation and the Port Mann Bridge.
BCIT ironworking student Ryan Stele is definitely listening to that advice.
"A lot of people think that after high school the way to go is spend four years doing your bachelor's degree, move on to do your master's, and that's the route to take, whereas there are a lot of people now realizing that in the construction trades there's a lot of opportunity," he said.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Sarah Galashan
