Haha, do you think manufacturing is staffed by people who aspire to work in factories, or those who can't get hired anywhere else?
I ask because I worked in Factories and Warehouses before going to college and becoming a programmer. Working in those places wasn't a "lifelong dream" but they were better than almost ALL alternatives for what skills I had. Better as in pay, benefits and not having to deal with people(customers) directly.
Not to detract from your point that highly skilled college graduates aren't flocking to factory jobs, just pointing out that those of us that have been there actually have actively sought those jobs out. I guess you could say I was "aspiring to work in a factory." Hell, when the average job everywhere else was 6-7 dollars an hour, a 15 dollar an hour factory job was a hot commodity.
I worked in a warehouse after high school too, nothing provides 'inspiration' to code like the alternative being stacking boxes.
Did you happen to call them lifers? That's what we called them, I was pretty sure that their primary goal in life was to spread their misery to others.
I felt like Coolhand Luke there, one of the lifer managers really seemed to hate me because it was just a stop along the road for me, and made it pretty much his mission to make my life miserable which I countered by not being miserable, as an example one night he started by giving me 4 hours extra overtime, he was looking for me about 5 minutes before my 12th hour, so ducked around the racks for a few minutes before making it to the break room for my 30 minute paid break after 12.
He found me in the break room and I thanked him for the overtime, he was not impressed, then I asked if I could show up late the next day due to all the overtime I worked, he flatly refused and started telling me that first thing tomorrow I'd be sweeping the docks on the driveway.
So I get there the next day at 7 AM in full freezer gear (more OT because the stupid fuck was so caught up that he forgot about the 8 hours between shifts rule) find him and complain about having to sweep the docks, he smiles hands me the broom and tells me to get to work, get outside, beautiful day, take off my gear, throw my freezer jacket in a puddle, and start sweeping.
About noon, he finds me with a smile on, and I let him know I just got paid time and a half to sweep, and didn't even have to work freezer on this beautiful day, so he sends me to the freezer, and I refuse because my jacket is soaked.
Funny thing is he ends up getting in shit the next pay cheque cuz I'm way over on pay and way under on cases.