Some economic news from the front line - various people in my family are

[hedgehog]

engineers for international companies - companies that supply commodities and industrial equipment world wide. The engineers in the States are working 60 hours a week to support projects overseas - China, India, Brazil, Korea, Europe. (They are only getting paid for 40 hrs/week, of course!) The suppliers who must design and price equipment are running late on their bids, suggesting that they are also strapped for manpower. In fact, the situation is rapidly getting to a point where lack of manpower is going to mean that US companies will lose business because they can't meet the demand. This is strictly an engineering/ designer/ sales support shortage I'm seeing; I can't judge production capacity.

A lot of these outfits have a secondary problem - they haven't hired in years. The last cohort they hired is aged 50 and up, meaning that over the next ten years, the bulk of their staffs will be retiring.

I present this not so people will go to engineering school but to offer some basic information not caught by ordinary economic statistics.


Comments?

[fatbuckel]

1. Ask a republican voter or rich person. This current plan is supposed to be working.

[bluerum]

2. We are hiring staff where I work. The pick of the crop right now.

I would say that manufacturing capacity has been cut to the bone. Lots of room to ramp it up. But generally systems need to be put place by engineering. No point hiring people when there is no machineryin place. And expanding infrastructure could easily take months if not years. Infrastructure has been so neglected - no investment or development.

It will be a cluster f@ck.

[hedgehog]

3. The worst part is that there are a lot of graduates from the last few years

looking for work, as well as experienced engineers. All too often, they can't even get an interview because the Employee Relations people will only look at the most recent graduates.

[bluerum]

4. So if I am building manufacturing capacity I want a team with some experience building manufacturing

infrastructure. That means at least a few years experience. Ideally a team led by a few people who have been involved in a lot of infrastructure expansion.

[hedgehog]

5. True, but for example, say you're building rail road cars -

I'm betting some folks who've done air plane fuselages, trucks, cars, tractors, etc could get up to speed fairly quickly given half a chance.

[bluerum]

6. Of course.