Blue Collar Jobs Make (Lots Of) Cents

What would you say to making $18 per hour after less than half a year of postsecondary training? Or $35 an hour in a union job?

Those aren’t hypotheticals. Workforce experts say those jobs exist in the Kansas City area, and workers are in demand.

One of the biggest hurdles in matching people with those positions, observers said, is overcoming the stigma that has developed around blue collar professions like manufacturing and construction.

How is it that such good jobs can have such a bad reputation?

— Kansas City PBS is examining the issue of workforce development as part of its participation in the national American Graduate: Getting to Work project, an initiative made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Follow #AmGradKCPT on Facebook and Twitter for local American Graduate content and #AmGrad to see content from across the United States.