This race is getting too damned close.

[Lurker Deluxe]

42. A lot different

It is hard to compare the shift in jobs during the major expansion in the US to now.

Back when the interstate was being built there was more work than there was workforce (60 million people were killed world wide in WWII), it is one of the reasons why immigration was so high, there was work everywhere. For a couple of decades after WWII the US was the only standing manufacturing base in the world, we were building shit for the entire world and our economy exploded because of that.

Today, there are very few opportunities like that left, that is just a fact. We have outsourced damn near all of our manufacturing to "low cost" countries so corporations can make their CEOs and other executives filthy rich.

This is not news, it is what it is.

Your link for those jobs does not work.

I am in the end game of my time in the field, I am just getting to old to travel like I used to and truthfully the work is simply to stressful for someone approaching 50. I have made my money there and spent wisely and built a decent savings, I know those that come behind me will not have the same opportunities I did. I have spent months in Panama, Mexico, and Dominican Republic training people to do what I do. The corporation is not doing that for any other reason than human resource cost, flights are cheap ... benefits and labor are not when the employee is US/EU based. I started training for HVAC the beginning of the year because I can see it coming and I know the time of US based offshore mechanical support is ending.

I do know many people who will be caught in the end game though.

The people I know in the industry that have lost their jobs are like myself, specialized in certain trades. Myself, I am an in place (InSitu) machinist/millwright and I travel around the world fixing big broken shit. Engines, turbines, propulsion drive units, and other things that simply can not be removed from where ever they are and have to be fixed in place. My supervisor does not make the kind of money I do, he used to, but he no longer travels and does not work near the hours I do. No one .... no one, in field service works 40 hours a week. If you are not working 1000+ hours of overtime a year you are underutilized and there is a reason for that, either to old (my problem even though I managed 1600 hours/OT last year), lack the experience to be able to perform the task, or simply are not willing to put the time in.

Most people in the industry I am in have a tie to the oil patch, but the fact is that there is always something broken somewhere in the world and there are people who have to go fix it. If you are one of those people and the company you work for is diversified you will always have work and if you wanted to (and are capable) you can work 2000+ hours/OT and make 200K with little problem. If the company you work for is tied directly to drilling in the Gulf, you are most likely unemployed or about to be.

You are correct, most people do not make that kind of money. It takes years of skill building, training, and experience to get to that level. I have been a carpenter, welder, fitter, and a machinist ... before I began to offshore. When I started traveling I was a 100ker within two years and that was 16 years ago, of coarse my wages grew from there with experience.

It is a tough gig, but the money is there ... for a few more years anyways.