Young Michiganders can make bank in trades, Mike Rowe says

Young Michiganders don’t need to earn a four-year college degree before landing a high-paying job, former Dirty Jobs host Mike Rowe told around 600 people at a May 1 Mackinac Center event.

When millennials and those in Generation Z were growing up, older people encouraged the youth to attend college, rather than trade schools.

But now, we need plumbers, electricians, and journeymen, Rowe told those assembled.

“They got the memo,” he said.

“They want to tell me about how learning a skill that’s in demand and applying a measure of work ethic to that skill has led them to a place that looks like prosperity,” Rowe said to an audience at “An Evening with the Mackinac Center,” held at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn.

In which dirty jobs can Michigan residents earn $60,000 per year or more without having to spend four years in a classroom and take out thousands of dollars in student loans?

Michigan offers plenty of well-paying dirty jobs, according to documents obtained through a records request from the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs.

Some of the projected high-need, high-wage jobs through 2030 that don’t require a college degree are: software developers, architects, computer and information systems managers, computer information, automotive service techs and mechanics, cement masons and concrete finishers, computer user support specialists, correctional officers and jailers, dental laboratory technicians, excavating and loading machine operators, heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers, insurance sales agents, licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses, massage therapists, medical dosimetrists and health technicians, operating engineers, construction and maintenance painters, police and sheriff’s patrol officers, roofers, nontechnical sales representatives and technical and scientific sales representatives.

Michigan is famous for having the Motor City, but vehicles are becoming less important to its economy. In 2000, only Michigan’s finance sector contributed more to the state’s gross domestic product than auto manufacturing. The state produced $56.5 billion in financial industries, and more than the $44.9 billion in motor vehicle and parts manufacturing, according to James M. Hohman, director of fiscal policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

But the number of construction workers exceeded the number of auto workers by October 2023, the month with the most recently available data. Six sectors produce more than the automotive sector’s $41.2 billion in output: wholesale trade, retail trade, professional and business services, health care, government and real estate.

Michigan has:

• 35,485 electricians
• 16,394 plumbers and apprentices
• 11,700 builders
• 7,846 mechanics
• 1,911 inspectors.
• 682 elevator journeyman.