my best years so far.
by the end of his second year my income had doubled (keep in mind I also went from an apprentice at 80% of scale to full journeyman so it shows the increase as a bit more than would be fair).
by the end of his 3rd year, up until the end of 2001, I was making almost 3 times what I was making when Bush's dad was running the show.
I never had any problem finding work, companies were paying bonuses of $2-3 over scale for certain jobs. you could quit a job at one company and half the time there would be another to choose from before you got back to the union hall, the rest of the time you might be off for a week (except January and half of Dec & Feb, when we rarely have work).
I didn't know anybody who wanted to work, wasn't a complete moron, and had any sort of a marketable skill that couldn't find a job.