Wastewater? Maybe get a job at your local plant or office? They need all sorts of people: customer service, maintenance, engineers, automotive, chemists, IT, etc. The alternative is dumping raw sewage in water ways. They sometimes have apprenticeship programs.
ETA: Best job security in the world. People aren't going to stop shitting anytime soon. People don't want rivers of shit. So....
ETA2: I know you said you are coming in unskilled, but a lot of better places to work will pay for education if you wanted to go from say customer service to engineering or something.
Conservative = my group is better than yours so we deserve power and resources
Tactics:
Scape goating a weak group to sell it to a lower class (E.g. Pre MLK US blacks - poor whites)
Appealing to fear and presenting a protector strong man
Appealing to tradition and good old days (that sucked)
Anti intellectualism