I was making $50K/year as a developer on Wall St. with 2-3 years professional experience...and it was awesome. And yes, the HFT guys got 'FAANG' salaries. HFT was in its infancy, and those guys were making bank!

While the absolute numbers may seem small by today's standards, it was more then enough for a single 20something to have the time of their lives. Even paying Manhattan rents, we were out 5-6 nights a week clubbing and partying

There are many factory jobs today and companies have a difficult time filling them. They are not the monotonous, repetitive jobs of assembly line work (that has been outsourced) but rather involve some skill that you'll be taught. But it's hard to find people to fill these roles as qualified candidates in many cases think the jobs are below them (college educated but can't find work in their field) or they simply don't want to show up every day and work.

Many people today choose lifestyle centered work (gig economy, part time roles for short term, etc) rather than work that lets them build a life. I have multiple friends that have gone this route out of high school with no college and started at the bottom and have over the years acquired more skills and knowledge and some have moved into supervisory and management roles after their companies financed some additional skills like using spreadsheets, basic management, etc.

The endless stories of people that start, work a week and get a check, don't show for 2 weeks and then come back thinking they are still employed is amazing. The jobs exist and they pay well, but not enough people want them.

My entry level software job was $35k in 2015 in London! Outside the US, jobs across the board paid a lot more before 2008.