Celebrating Blue Collar Day And Its Unsung Heroes in WA.

Monday, December 8th is National Blue-Collar Day so let's take a look at blue-collar workers and the best towns to be a blue-collar worker in the United States? Looking at the list of the top ten, the Pacific Northwest has three cities in that list. 

According to bizinsure.com,
‘Blue-collar workers keep America running by building homes, repairing power lines, maintaining vehicles, and producing the goods that shape everyday life. As automation, urban growth, and shifting labor markets continue to reshape the workforce, these hands-on roles remain the backbone of the U.S. economy.’ 

BizInsure.com did some research to discover what are the best cities to be a blue-collar worker and they came up with five different criteria for their study. They analyzed five major industries and scored each city across six factors: cost of living, job availability, job concentration, wage competitiveness, entry-level pay, and top tier pay. These scores were averaged to determine overall and industry-specific rankings. 

Here is what we found out. 

The best cities for Entry-level blue-collar work. 

Let's look at the top five. 

#5 was Colombia, South Carolina. With the citywide entry level annual wage of $25,660, the blue-collar entry level annual wage, $30,950.  

#4 was Charleston, SC. With a citywide entry level annual wage of $27,010 the blue-collar entry level annual wage, $33,312. 

#3 was Augusta, GA. With a citywide entry level annual wage of $23,470 The blue-collar entry level annual wage. $29,690. 

#2 is Baton Rouge, LA. With a citywide entry level annual wage of $22,900 the blue-collar entry level annual wage. $30,116. 

#1 New Orleans, LA. With the citywide entry level annual wage of $23,130 the blue-collar entry level annual wage. $30,862. 

 Let's look at the top five cities for blue collar workers in the United States. 

With a maximum aggregate score of 100 using all these metrics, here are the top scores for the top five cities that are best for blue collar workers. 

#5 was Portland, OR with a score of 61.2. 

#4 was Tulsa OK with the score of 61.3 

#3 was Stockton CA with a score of 61.7 

#2 was Spokane WA with the score of 62.3 

#1 was riverside CA with a score of 62.6 

The scoring on these top five cities is pretty tight when you look at it. The honorable mention goes to Seattle, WA that came in at #10 with an index score of 59.1. 

The big missing in all of this information is how easy it is for you to learn a trade in these cities, and that's where our community colleges come into play. Community colleges all across Washington state are continuing and beginning trade programs for everything from electricians, plumbing, dental hygienists, mechanics and more.
The Best U.S. Cities to Be a Blue Collar Worker | BizInsure