It's to be expected that tradies would be earning so much...

It's to be expected that tradies would be earning so much because we have just gone through the biggest housing boom (bubble) in Australia's history. You just had to look on TV at the miriad of programs promoting renovating a property for 6 months, then flick it back on the market to sell for a tidy profit, to see how popular renovation was. The end result of the above, mining boom and people using home equity to update their properties caused a shortage of tradies, so they smartly started raising their prices (no fault of their's demand > supply).

To compare nursing (mostly fixed wage earners set by the government), to a group of demand driven labourers is hardly fair on them. They have taken advantage of conditions and rightly so. Being an outraged keyboard warrior won't change the way supply and demand driven economies work, no matter how hard you pound your fists on your desk.

That being said, a recession is the great leveler, and I think you will find that their wages rates will start to drop once the boom in housing fades, till then they will ride the wave.

And there lies within the advantages of being an alumni worker. There is never enough people to fill the positions so you don't get an oversupply like trades do (even in boom times), because there just isn't educational capacity to push the number needed through the system. If you look back over the years at the trends of employment and wages in trades vs that of alumni workers, I think you would be suprised to see alumni well on top on the average, with particular trades sectors ebing up and down with large swings depending on demand.

I wonder if everyone will have the same harsh view in the next few years, when the boom fades and some of the bandwagon hoppers become the new long term unemployed.