Blue-collar jobs are booming. White-collar jobs, not so much.

Alyssa DeOliveira followed a well-worn path: go to college, get a degree, find a white-collar job. Her mother always told her she'd grow up to be a doctor, lawyer, or politician, so she tried nursing and accounting before settling on criminal justice, landing a job at a law firm. For a little over a year she arrived every morning at about 8. She listened to voicemails and checked emails. If she was lucky, she left at 5. But she yearned to work with people. Nearly three years ago, she started looking for something less tedious that didn't happen almost entirely in front of a computer screen.