>> it's not Youtube influencer level cool and industry relies increasingly on older generations
Usually it means the pay is crap, the schedule is bad and nobody is willing to invest into training. Why should young people select such career?
Usually it means the pay is crap, the schedule is bad and nobody is willing to invest into training. Why should young people select such career?
It also has much better and more predictable hours than, say, the ever-popular gaming industry.
You're right that low pay is an issue, but pay is crap in part because of outsourcing. Any machine shop in the US is competing with China to an extent that, oddly, we don't actually see in the software space. The West is mostly using Western-made software, and outside of that, only India is invited to the club (and even that only as a subcontractor).
But a lot of it is also just culture / parenting. Every parent wants their kid to become a software engineer, a lawyer, or a doctor. There's basically zero pride in being a machinist.
Plumbing does not pay well for the average plumber. Not doctor-well at least, which is what you are responding to.
Can some plumbers make good money? Absolutely. But you need to do dirty, body-breaking work for years.
There’s nothing wrong with being a plumber and it’s a profession we surely need young people to go into. But the pay and trade offs vs a white color job will lean heavily in direction of the latter.
We also have such tradition. Senior software engineers are teaching juniors.
Would tradition manufacturing employ an apprentice without knowledge about the tools and materials? I doubt that. Everyone now wants to get a senior employee with 20y of experience and pay junior rates.
> Every parent wants their kid to become a software engineer, a lawyer, or a doctor.
> There's basically zero pride in being a machinist.
If you don't attend university, being a machinist is skilled labour that pays well. Plus, you can continuously self-educate to climb into more and more skilled roles that pay more. The salary is solidly middle class, and the work is probably in areas with a low cost of living.
I disagree.
A lot of people, nerds (and me) included, would see no problem in taking an operational role inside manufacturing if it paid a livable wage and offered a career.
But somehow people still act shocked when nobody wants to work a job that pays retail wages.