Demand high for workers in trades

The Balitmore Sun reports:

There's no shortage of work for Mike Kirby, a 21-year- old apprentice electrician in Iowa who lately has been on the job 10 hours a day, seven days a week.

He and others in the traditional trades are in great demand throughout the country, with many trades groups and employers hotly recruiting high school students to try to fill the growing need for everything from plumbers to bricklayers and drywallers.

Yet despite the opportunities, the jobs are proving a tough sell - not only to young people but to their parents and school counselors, who don't always see the trades as a desirable option.

"That's the way it's preached: 'If you don't go to college, you can't do anything.' But obviously that's not true," says Kirby, who'll finish his apprenticeship with Shaw Electric in Davenport, Iowa, next year.

He expects to make $18 an hour once he finishes and hopes that will increase to as much as $25 an hour in years to come.

Better deal than college for many?