My brother is in HVAC, so my perspective on this is biased, but in general there's a blue collar shortage because the job still sucks.
First, you have pretty high barriers to entry in the form of apprenticeships and per-state licensing requirements. Then you have the shit hours and shit customers that expect those shit hours. My brother got angry calls from customers because he dared to say no when they wanted him to ditch his daughter's birthday party on a Saturday to go fix their AC immediately. Then you have the actual pay which just isn't that great unless you're an established business owner with a good clientele - as others have pointed out (and the article itself points out), the real pay after you sort through all the outlier stories is pretty low.
So, option A is you go to college, immediately get a job with zero hurdles up front, sit behind a desk from 9-5, and collect a solid paycheck. Option B is you go to trade school, then make next to nothing apprenticing for years, then you make somewhere around median income while driving a truck all over the place working in shitty conditions and getting chewed out by people who expect you to be available 24/7.
First, you have pretty high barriers to entry in the form of apprenticeships and per-state licensing requirements. Then you have the shit hours and shit customers that expect those shit hours. My brother got angry calls from customers because he dared to say no when they wanted him to ditch his daughter's birthday party on a Saturday to go fix their AC immediately. Then you have the actual pay which just isn't that great unless you're an established business owner with a good clientele - as others have pointed out (and the article itself points out), the real pay after you sort through all the outlier stories is pretty low.
So, option A is you go to college, immediately get a job with zero hurdles up front, sit behind a desk from 9-5, and collect a solid paycheck. Option B is you go to trade school, then make next to nothing apprenticing for years, then you make somewhere around median income while driving a truck all over the place working in shitty conditions and getting chewed out by people who expect you to be available 24/7.