Linemen for the power company will always stay busy regardless of the economy, and it pays stupid well.
My boss is a former lineman; he quit because there was a lot of bullshit dealing with the power company. I gather that the pay in my area wasn’t that great either. When storms roll through, shifts are going to be long and brutal.
Still can. There are still owner-operators, and they have significant control over how they do their job, as long as they aren’t caught cooking their books (…which is what most drivers used to do before there were crackdowns, because you got paid per mile). They usually get paid a lot more than fleet drivers, because fleet drivers aren’t responsible for the maintenance of the truck.