Which trade should you do?

First, decide the way a tradie would

• •Do not start with "which trade pays most". Start with the work. You will spend years doing it, so the daily task matters more than the headline wage.
• •Ask yourself honestly: indoors or outdoors? Fine detail or heavy lifting? Same site for weeks or a new job every day? Diagnosing faults, building something from nothing, or working with people all day?
• •Think about your body. Every trade is physical, but some are harder on knees, backs and shoulders than others, and that bill comes due in your 40s and 50s.
• •Think about where you want to end up. Some trades lead easily to running your own business and licence; others keep most people as employees. That changes your earning ceiling.
• •The good news: nearly all of these trades are in national shortage right now, so you are choosing between good options, not gambling on one.

How getting into a trade actually works

Every trade here is entered through an Australian Apprenticeship. You are employed and paid from day one while you train, and you study towards a nationally recognised Certificate III (sometimes IV) with a training provider (a TAFE or private RTO). A trade apprenticeship usually runs three to four years. You finish with a qualification and, for some of these trades, a pathway to a licence.

This is the "earn while you learn" model. You are not paying course fees the way a uni student does, and you are getting paid to learn a skill that is hard to send offshore or automate. That holds whether the trade is on a building site, in a truck workshop, behind a salon chair or in a commercial kitchen.

• •Apprentice pay is not a flat number. It is set by the modern award that covers your trade, and it rises each year of your apprenticeship (first year up to fourth year).
• •Your rate also depends on your age and whether you are a junior or an adult apprentice. Adult apprentices (generally 21 or older when they start) get higher minimum rates, which matters a lot for career changers.
• •Do not trust a random figure you read online. Check the exact minimum for your trade, year and age using the Fair Work Ombudsman Pay Calculator (linked in the sources). That is the only number that counts.
• •Yes, apprentice pay is low in the early years. That is the trade-off for being trained and qualified with little or no debt at the end.

What the trades pay once you are qualified

These are approximate full-time median earnings for qualified, adult-rate workers, drawn from the Australian Government's Jobs and Skills Australia occupation profiles (based on ABS earnings data as at May 2025). Treat them as a rough guide only. Real pay varies a lot with experience, location, overtime, shift work, and especially whether you stay an employee or go out on your own. Self-employed tradies with their own clients can earn well above these figures; they also carry the risk and the paperwork. For a couple of trades (tiling, and diesel mechanics as a separate occupation) the ABS does not publish a reliable median, so those are described in relative terms.

• •Auto electrical: around $2,810 a week on the official median, the highest figure on this page, but read it carefully. It is a small trade averaging 49 hour weeks with a big slice of well-paid mining work; a suburban workshop pays a lot less than that number.
• •Plumbing: around $1,990 a week. One of the best-paid mainstream trades on this list, and a licensed plumber's ticket is valuable.
• •Plastering: around $1,840 a week, better than most people expect, driven by subcontract rates and busy-period hours in construction.
• •Electrical: around $1,820 a week, with strong overtime and mining or industrial work pushing it higher.
• •Diesel mechanic: no separate official median is published, but heavy vehicle and mobile plant work sits near the top of trade earnings, well above general car servicing, and mining maintenance rosters pay more again.
• •Carpentry: around $1,760 a week, though a lot of chippies subcontract and income swings with how much work they chase.
• •Welding and metal fabrication: broadly around $1,700 a week, higher for coded welders and specialised structural, pipe or shipbuilding work.
• •Air conditioning and refrigeration: around $1,620 a week, with good demand from commercial and cold-chain work.
• •Commercial cookery: around $1,420 a week for chefs, with penalty rates for nights, weekends and public holidays doing some of the lifting, and head chef or sole-charge roles paying more.
• •Cabinet making: around $1,400 a week, steady workshop money rather than boom money.
• •Tiling: no reliable official median is published. It is heavily piecework and self-employment; fast tilers on piece rates can out-earn most trades here, slower ones earn much less.
• •Bricklaying: can pay well, particularly on piece rates or self-employed, but employee earnings vary and the trade is shrinking (see below).
• •Automotive (light vehicle mechanic): typically one of the lower-paid trades here, especially in general servicing; dealership specialisation pays better, and the diesel and heavy vehicle side is a different pay league.
• •Painting: around $1,240 a week, generally below the all-jobs median, though established painters running their own books can do better.
• •Hairdressing: around $1,210 a week on the median, the lowest starting point on this list, but senior stylists with a loyal client book, or their own chair or salon, climb well past it.

Where the work is going (and where it is not)

Demand is not the same across trades, and this is where an honest guide earns its keep. On the 2025 national Occupation Shortage List, every trade on this site was assessed as in shortage Australia-wide except chefs, who were rated in shortage in regional areas (and in shortage outright in the NT and ACT). That is good news for job security, but shortage ratings do not tell you why a trade is short, and the why matters.

• •Strong and growing: electrical, plumbing, air conditioning and refrigeration, and carpentry. Housing, renovation, the energy transition (solar, batteries, electrification) and an ageing building stock all keep these busy.
• •Heavy demand, less hyped: diesel mechanics and auto electricians. Freight, buses, agriculture and mining cannot run without them, both are in national shortage, and not enough people are training into either.
• •Short because people leave: hairdressing and commercial cookery. Both are in genuine shortage, but partly because the hours and early pay push qualified people out. Great demand if you stay; go in knowing why others did not.
• •Steady: welding and fabrication, automotive, and cabinet making. Solid ongoing demand, though automotive is changing as electric vehicles arrive, and cabinet making headcount is flat with imported flat pack keeping pressure on local workshops.
• •Housing-cycle trades: tiling, plastering, painting and bricklaying all ride the building cycle. All are currently in shortage, but subbies in these trades feel a downturn first.
• •Under pressure long term: bricklaying. Employment has been slowly shrinking as building methods change, so while skilled brickies are still needed and currently short, the multi-decade trend is down. Worth going in with eyes open.
• •Moderate: painting. Reliable work and easy to start a small business, but it is one of the least specialised trades here, which keeps pay and barriers to entry lower.

Match the trade to the kind of person you are

• •Like solving problems and working with your head as much as your hands: electrical, auto electrical or automotive. All heavy on fault-finding and diagnostics.
• •Like machines, the bigger the better: diesel mechanic. Trucks, buses, earthmovers and mining plant, and the pay follows the size of the gear.
• •Like building something you can point at: carpentry and bricklaying. Tangible results at the end of the day.
• •Like precise finishing work you can stand back and admire: tiling, cabinet making and plastering. Craft trades where the quality of your hands is on display.
• •Do not mind getting into tight, dirty or awkward spots for good money: plumbing.
• •Like a mix of mechanical work, electrics and problem-solving, often indoors: air conditioning and refrigeration.
• •Like precision, heat and making things from raw metal: welding and fabrication.
• •A people person who wants a creative trade and conversation all day: hairdressing. It is as much about regulars and rapport as it is about scissors.
• •Thrive under pressure and want a skill that works in any town and any country: commercial cookery.
• •Want the lowest-cost, fastest way to start your own small business: painting or hairdressing, where tools and start-up costs are modest.
• •Want to work outdoors on new builds: carpentry, bricklaying, and a lot of plumbing and electrical.
• •Prefer indoors and workshop or premises based: automotive, diesel, cabinet making, much of welding and refrigeration, and all of hairdressing and cookery.

The downsides nobody puts on the poster

• •The early years pay poorly. You are on apprentice rates for three to four years while your mates in other jobs may earn more sooner. Hairdressing and cookery apprentices feel this hardest.
• •It is hard on your body. Knees, backs, shoulders and hearing take a beating. Bricklaying, carpentry and tiling are brutal over decades; plastering hammers shoulders; plumbing and refrigeration involve awkward, heavy work; diesel components are seriously heavy; hairdressers stand all day and cop wrist and skin problems.
• •Weather and early starts are real. Outdoor trades work through heat, cold and rain, and construction days often start before 7am. Kitchens flip it: chefs work nights, weekends, public holidays and split shifts, which is a big reason the trade is short-staffed.
• •Some trades carry real hazards: electrical (shock), welding (fumes, eyes, burns), automotive and plumbing (chemicals, asbestos in older buildings), tiling and plastering (silica and plaster dust when cutting and sanding), hairdressing (chemical exposure and dermatitis). Safety training is not optional in any of them.
• •Work can be lumpy. Subcontractors and the self-employed ride the ups and downs of the building cycle, and a quiet stretch means no pay. Tilers, plasterers, brickies and painters feel this first.
• •Going out on your own means running a business: quoting, chasing invoices, insurance, GST and licensing. The trade is only half the job. That applies behind a salon chair as much as on a site.
• •The best diesel and auto electrical money often comes with strings: shift work, remote sites or FIFO rosters. Factor in what that does to life outside work.
• •Bricklaying's declining employment and automotive's shift to electric vehicles mean it pays to think about where your chosen trade will be in 15 years, not just today.

All 15 trades in one honest line each

• •Electrical: high pay, strong demand, lots of diagnostics and a licensed ticket, but strict safety and a competitive apprenticeship to get into.
• •Plumbing: top pay and rock-solid demand, physically demanding and not for the squeamish, with a valuable licence at the end.
• •Carpentry: versatile, satisfying, everywhere in construction, but income can be lumpy for subbies and it is tough on the body.
• •Air conditioning and refrigeration: growing, technical, good indoor-outdoor mix, less well known so less crowded.
• •Automotive (light vehicle): great for problem-solvers who love cars, but generally lower pay and a trade in transition to electric vehicles.
• •Diesel mechanic: the big-money end of the vehicle trades, trucks, buses and mining plant with demand everywhere, but the parts are heavy, the grime is real, and the best pay often means rosters or remote sites.
• •Auto electrical: a small trade with huge demand and the highest official median on this page thanks to mining and long weeks, but everyday workshop roles pay more modestly and you will live in wiring diagrams.
• •Welding and fabrication: skilled and well paid once you are coded, workshop-based, with real exposure to fumes and heat.
• •Painting: cheapest and quickest to get started and to go solo, but the lowest construction pay and easiest to enter, so more competition.
• •Bricklaying: can pay strongly on piece rates and builds real craftsmanship, but employment is slowly shrinking and it is punishing on the body.
• •Tiling: precise, visible craftsmanship where fast piece-rate tilers earn serious money, but your knees pay for it, cutting tiles makes dangerous dust, and quiet building patches hit tiling subbies first.
• •Plastering: better money than its reputation suggests and one of the quickest routes to subcontracting, but it is repetitive, dusty, hard on the shoulders and tied to the housing cycle.
• •Cabinet making: indoors with machinery instead of weather and real precision to be proud of, but pay sits mid to low and imported flat pack keeps squeezing local workshops.
• •Hairdressing: creative, social, cheap to start out in and short-staffed in every state, with a real path to your own chair or salon, but the early pay is the lowest on this list and you are on your feet all day.
• •Commercial cookery: a chef's ticket works in any town and any country and the jobs are everywhere, but nights, weekends, split shifts and kitchen pressure are exactly why so many leave, which is why demand stays high.

How to actually choose (do this before you sign anything)

• •Take the two minute quiz on this site at /which-trade-suits-you. It now covers all 15 trades and gives you a short list to investigate, not a verdict to obey.
• •Get on the tools first. Do work experience or a trial day with two or three of the trades you are weighing up. One day on site, in the workshop, the salon or the kitchen tells you more than a week of reading.
• •Talk to tradies who are five and twenty years in. Ask them what they would tell their younger self and what the work has done to their body.
• •Look into a Group Training Organisation (GTO). They employ apprentices and rotate you between host businesses, which is a safer way in if you cannot find an employer directly.
• •Check the licensing at the end. Electrical, plumbing and refrigeration have formal licences that protect your earning power, and some states licence other building trades too; find out what your state requires.
• •Use the official tools: the Your Career and Jobs and Skills Australia profiles for real pay and demand, and the Fair Work Pay Calculator for what you will actually be paid as an apprentice.
• •Pick the trade you can see yourself still wanting to do at 40, not just the one with the biggest number next to it today.