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There is a HUGE shortage of workers who can operate tools requiring CNC expertise. It's an extremely high-stakes quantitative exercise in many cases and the cost of error can be equivalent to e.g. a SaaS outage.

CT has a robust technical educational system, a relic of the heyday of Colt, Pratt & Whitney, and UTC, now Raytheon. One of the best states for it, glad to see it getting some attention here.

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If it's that high-stakes, wages ought to be commensurate.

If there is a huge shortage, employers will be talking to people in the street, offering to train them at the employers' expense. If not, there ain't a shortage.

This is correct. The only shortage is the amount they're willing to pay machinists. I was just looking at these jobs online, and haven't seen one pay anywhere near $85k. If they were so desperate, the wages should be going up to try to attract people.

Most of these jobs have to deal with unions. So almost anything advertised to the general public is going to be for training heavy entry level jobs. Very few will move up the rank and those that do will have to do so through the union.

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