Blue collar labor is becoming hard to define, since government figures include both skilled and unskilled workers. Manufacturing jobs are decreasing- moving offshore or increasingly automated, requiring technical expertise in computers and machines. Growing, and now often defined as blue collar, are in communications, law enforcement, transportation and crafts. U. S. government figures show that 32% of craft workers have some college experience, or have graduated. Many in communications, commerce, law enforcement, computers, etc., have attended schools like DeVry, Phoenix and dozens of state institutions.
Plumbers, electricians, mechanics, gas and steam fitters and construction workers require licenses in order to practice, and technical school training is required for many of these jobs. Installation, maintenance and repair work is increasingly more technical.
Immigrants, legal or illegal, do the cleaning, fruit picking, etc. There are still some jobs 'working for the city' but even these require knowledge of equipment, etc., in many cases.

In other words, the old 'blue collar' worker who worked on an assembly line or in the mills is disappearing. In Pennsylvania, about 22% of workers are classed as blue collar, and this now includes many with training, and a spread in wages.

Improved education is a must- Unfortuntely, the number who graduate even at high school level is only around 50% in many large city schools. The people who drop out have few chances at middle class life.

The candidates have not addressed the problems. Speeches do not revive obsolete jobs. "No child left behind" is empty rhetoric in too many cases.