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 or building something from nothing?
• •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 demand, 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 most 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.

• •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 earnings for qualified, adult-rate workers, drawn from the Australian Government's Your Career and Jobs and Skills Australia occupation profiles (based on ABS earnings data around 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.

• •Plumbing: around $1,990 a week. One of the best-paid trades on this list, and a licensed plumber's ticket is valuable.
• •Electrical: around $1,820 a week, with strong overtime and mining or industrial work pushing it higher.
• •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.
• •Bricklaying: can pay well, particularly on piece rates or self-employed, but employee earnings vary and the trade is shrinking (see below).
• •Automotive (motor mechanic): typically one of the lower-paid trades here, especially in general servicing; diesel, heavy vehicle and dealership specialisation pays better.
• •Painting: around $1,240 a week, generally below the all-jobs median, though established painters running their own books can do better.

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. Most of these trades appear on the national Skills Priority List as being in shortage, which is good news for job security, but a couple are flat or declining.

• •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.
• •Steady: welding and fabrication, and automotive. Both are solid trades with ongoing demand, though automotive is changing as electric vehicles arrive, which will reshape the skills over the next decade.
• •Under pressure: bricklaying. Employment has been slowly shrinking as building methods change, so while skilled brickies are still needed, the long-term trend is down. Worth going in with eyes open.
• •Moderate: painting. Reliable work and easy to start a small business, but it is the least specialised of the eight, 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 or automotive. Both are heavy on fault-finding and diagnostics.
• •Like building something you can point at: carpentry and bricklaying. Tangible results at the end of the day.
• •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.
• •Want the lowest-cost, fastest way to start your own small business: painting, where the 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-based: automotive, and much of welding and refrigeration.

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.
• •It is hard on your body. Knees, backs, shoulders and hearing take a beating. Bricklaying and carpentry are brutal on the body over decades; plumbing and refrigeration involve awkward, heavy work.
• •Weather and early starts are real. Outdoor trades work through heat, cold and rain, and construction days often start before 7am.
• •Some trades carry real hazards: electrical (shock), welding (fumes, eyes, burns), automotive and plumbing (chemicals, asbestos in older buildings). Safety training is not optional.
• •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.
• •Going out on your own means running a business: quoting, chasing invoices, insurance, GST and licensing. The trade is only half the job.
• •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.

The eight 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: great for problem-solvers who love cars, but generally lower pay and a trade in transition to electric vehicles.
• •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 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.

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

• •Get on the tools first. Do work experience or a labouring day with two or three of the trades you are weighing up. One day on site 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; 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.