Commercial and Airline Pilot
SOC 53-2012
⚠⚠ The commercial certificate (250 hours) lets you be paid to fly, but airlines need 1,500, and nearly everyone fills the gap by working as a flight instructor or charter pilot. ⚠⚠⚠ The cost is flight time, not tuition: one Florida college publishes $64,579.80 in flight fees against $4,838.28 in tuition. A qualifying aviation degree cuts the airline minimum to 1,250 or 1,000 hours. Median pay: $123,220 for commercial pilots, $232,140 for airline pilots.
Commercial Truck Driver
SOC 53-3032
⚠⚠ A federally licensed job with about 214,500 openings a year and a training requirement that became federal law in 2022: first-time Class A and B CDL applicants must train with a provider on the FMCSA Training Provider Registry. Florida's public Class A course is 320 clock hours. ⚠ Florida pays $50,640 at the median against $58,640 nationally, and drivers under 21 may drive only within Florida.