Automotive Service Technician
SOC 49-3023
Automotive service technicians diagnose and repair cars and light trucks — and diagnosis is the part that pays, because a modern vehicle is a network of computers. ⚠ 805,600 people do this work nationally with about 70,000 openings a year, and Florida teaches it at technical colleges in 150-hour blocks you can stop and start.
HVAC Technician
SOC 49-9021
HVAC technicians install and repair heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration — and in Florida that is year-round work on the systems that make buildings usable. ⚠ It pays the best median of the clock-hour trades on this site ($61,010) and is the only one federal projections call much faster than average.
Industrial Maintenance Technician
SOC 49-9041
Industrial maintenance technicians keep production machinery running — mechanical drives, hydraulics, pneumatics and the controls over them — and are who a plant calls when the line stops. ⚠ 439,600 employed, growing much faster than average, 45,700 openings a year, and a training pipeline in Florida of four or five colleges.