I`m going to start this off with a disclaimer; I am uneducated and have no idea what i'm talking about, if I happen to be wrong then oops.
Back in the post-war era the United States as a whole had a vision, that all of the crappy jobs will be outsourced to developing countries and Americans will get the good jobs, doctor, lawyer, banker, professional dog walker. and in order to get these good jobs we were going to invest heavily in education so even the poorest of kids have a chance at having a real career. And as a society we put educated jobs up on a pedestal and you can see that most clearly with certain people that strive for academic success and chase titles their whole lives and hope to one day end up as professors in a prestigious university.
And the problem with this whole idea is that most people dont understand supply and demand so we have diluted college degrees, they are handed out far too easily and now there is an abundance of degrees that provide a starting pay of under $40k per year and graduates are struggling with the decision to take a pay cut from their waitressing job to get into a career within their field, there's law school graduates who are fighting over paralegal jobs, middle management, marketing, biologists, chemists, graphic design, art, some IT and others I dont know about that are struggling to find jobs in their field right now because the market is so heavily oversaturated, and now these graduates are tens of thousands of dollars in debt with a career that pays comparatively to a shift manager at McDonalds.
So what jobs are in demand instead? well the ones that no body wants to do, Engineer, electrician, plumbers, mechanics, Hvac, equipment operators, carpenters, most of these jobs will make you over $100k per year within only a few years of experience. But the problem is we have stigmatized those jobs, as a country we have been pushing so hard for education that the public views manual labor jobs as careers for stupid people, we see electricians and plumbers as simple minded people who were too stupid for college and now have to work with their hands because thats all they can do, now obviously thats not true, these careers require an insane amount of skill to be good at but society puts them very low on the social status totem pole, and most people care about social hierarchy than nobility, and thats exactly what these jobs are, noble, theres no shame in working as a lineman in frigid weather to get the lights on in a snowstorm, these are very honest jobs, problem is most people dont see them as “cool”, you never see a carpenter in a Mercedes but you do see a lawyer.
Theres also the problem with the potential income, a lawyer or teachers income is usually infinite, or is at least seen that way, as long as you climb the ladder you think you can get to a point where you are making $500k per year, but skilled labor is always only going to be worth so and so per hour ( unless you start a business) not to mention that in demand jobs are in demand for a reason, because they suck, hard work, crazy hours, poor social status, overtime.
In conclusion I suppose that society needs to normalize crappy jobs again, and stop telling everybody that they need to go to college so they can make $30k per year using their degree in business and finance.