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Shale boom: Pipeline welders make $150,000 in Ohio, while liberal arts majors flounder
Daily Caller ^ | April 23, 2014 | Michael Bastasch

Posted on 04/24/2014 10:31:19 AM PDT by PJ-Comix

he economy is tough, especially if you have a liberal arts degree, writes Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel. While liberal arts majors are forced to take low-paying jobs, pipeline welders are making six figures thanks to the country’s oil and gas boom.

“Too many young people have four-year liberal-arts degrees, are thousands of dollars in debt and find themselves serving coffee at Starbucks or working part-time at the mall,” Mandel wrote in the Wall Street Journal. “Many of them would have been better off with a two-year skilled-trade or technical education that provides the skills to secure a well-paying job.”

“A good trade to consider: welding. I recently visited Pioneer Pipe in the Utica and Marcellus shale area of Ohio and learned that last year the company paid 60 of its welders more than $150,000 and two of its welders over $200,000,” Mandel said, adding that the company has actually had to turn down orders because there aren’t enough skilled welders to fill them.

(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; US: Ohio; US: Pennsylvania
KEYWORDS: energy; naturalgas; shale; shaleoil
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To: PJ-Comix
Shale boom: Pipeline welders make $150,000 in Ohio, while liberal arts majors flounder

Would a liberal arts major know the difference between flounder and founder?

21 posted on 04/24/2014 10:58:08 AM PDT by LimitedPowers (Citizenship is not a Hate Crime!)
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To: babble-on

Not everyone can weld pipelines. Not only are you welding from all kinds of angles but the welds must meet some very stringent requirements and they are almost always xrayed for defects. Weather plays a major factor also. Laborer are making anywhere from 65K to 80K so a skilled welder would make somewhere near there.


22 posted on 04/24/2014 11:00:20 AM PDT by cork (Gun control = hitting what you aim at)
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To: PJ-Comix

Poetic justice — welders prosper while liberal arts majors learn to hate their heritage and acquire useless kills.


23 posted on 04/24/2014 11:06:53 AM PDT by Socon-Econ
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To: wastedyears
I’m not too sure I want to know, but what’s grievance studies?

Once upon a time, the liberal arts were oriented around the study of "the true, the good, and the beautiful," more-or-less in that order but with the underlying classical/Platonic/Judeo-Christian understanding that, in the end, the unity of the good meant that a study of one led to the others. If you learned something serious and systematic in any of these areas, and learned to think critically and write clearly, you were thought to be equiped to lead a better life. I think this is still largely true.

The tradition lingers, but unfortunately the rot is pretty far advanced on most campuses. Grievance studies are based implicitly on the idea that education is all about ME -- not the good, true, or beautiful, but ME, and people like me, driven by identity politics and undisciplined egos. A sad decline.

24 posted on 04/24/2014 11:08:48 AM PDT by sphinx
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To: Tula Git
Aren't there similar stories about how plumbers and electricians make more than some doctors and lawyers.

Learn a trade, kids.

Do both, really. There are plenty of options. Learn a trade, get a good job, and then take college courses at night or online. You'll avoid insane debt, earn money instead of doing bong hits with your frat buddies, and appreciate the country rather than hate it.
25 posted on 04/24/2014 11:09:06 AM PDT by needmorePaine
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To: cork
Young men today should give the trades a good look.

Good craftsmen will always make their money, and often on their own terms.

26 posted on 04/24/2014 11:09:45 AM PDT by Pietro
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To: LimitedPowers
Shale boom: Pipeline welders make $150,000 in Ohio, while liberal arts majors flounder Would a liberal arts major know the difference between flounder and founder?

I am not the only one who cringes at the use of flounder.

Founder is more appropriate here. It is what the Titanic did after the iceberg. 50K-100K in student loans with a liberal arts degree makes these student's personal Titanics.

27 posted on 04/24/2014 11:12:12 AM PDT by cicero2k
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To: wastedyears

Good hand eye coordination, common sense, decent eysight and the ability to not mind getting dirty or breathing semi nasty fumes.

Had all my certifications (all rods, all thicknesses, all positions) back in the day.

Hard work, newest guy in a shop gets the crappy tasks (as it should be) but race/religion/gender don’t matter, all that does is having your weld pass inspection and getting the job done.


28 posted on 04/24/2014 11:36:02 AM PDT by RedStateRocker (Nuke Mecca, deport all illegal aliens, abolish the IRS, DEA and ATF.)
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To: wastedyears
grievance studies?

Whining minority group studies

29 posted on 04/24/2014 11:37:15 AM PDT by omega4412
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To: Buckeye McFrog

I learned welding at age 46 to stay in the Army Reserve. My welders kept busier than the truck mechanics.

MIG welding is fairly simple, stick welding takes more practice, TIG is fun once you get the hang of it, but pressure joint welding to me is an art, some just have the knack for it. My uncle built home heating propane tanks & made good money.

Pipeline welders have to be extremely good at pressure joints. That’s where the high pay is, IMO


30 posted on 04/24/2014 11:59:26 AM PDT by elcid1970
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To: PJ-Comix
“Too many young people have four-year liberal-arts degrees, are thousands of dollars in debt and find themselves serving coffee at Starbucks or working part-time at the mall,”

It couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of people. (sarcasm on)

Meanwhile, Governor Andrew Cuomo is not allowing fracking in New York state, otherwise it could literally bring potentially billions of dollars in revenue to the state and revive many faltering cities in upper New York state.

31 posted on 04/24/2014 12:04:55 PM PDT by RayChuang88 (FairTax: America's economic cure)
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To: PJ-Comix

The hottest job in the summer, and the coldest in winter. Don’t worry, you can always get replacement knees.


32 posted on 04/24/2014 12:05:18 PM PDT by Rannug ("all enemies, foreign and domestic")
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To: PJ-Comix

The problem isn’t the liberal arts degree. Its the mis-perception that there should be a job tied to every degree.

Get your liberal arts degree if thats where your interests are. Then go get a job on the shop floor and learn the business from the ground up. If you are bright and you work hard you’ll do well. Of course if you don’t have a liberal arts degree, but you are bright and work hard you’ll also do fine.

The point of an education isn’t just getting a job.


33 posted on 04/24/2014 12:29:29 PM PDT by marron
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To: cicero2k
Looks like to me 'flounder' is correct as well _______________________________________________________ floun·der 1 (floun′dər) intr.v. floun·dered, floun·der·ing, floun·ders 1. To make clumsy attempts to move or regain one's balance. 2. To move or act clumsily and in confusion. See Synonyms at blunder. See Usage Note at founder1. n. The act of floundering.
34 posted on 04/24/2014 12:36:24 PM PDT by chaosagent (Remember, no matter how you slice it, forbidden fruit still tastes the sweetest!)
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To: PJ-Comix
I lost the data, but the five most popular degrees in the USA have the lowest job prospects (don't quote, but they were Psychology, Sociology, Comm, Journalism/Media, Education). The bottom five degrees were Accounting, Finance, Econ, Engineering and Mathematics.

Job prospects for the top five majors are the worst but best for the the bottom five.

However, the kicker, is that the most popular majors with the least amount of job prospect had the highest GPAs. A cynical person would opine that colleges have cupcake majors to pay for inflated university budgets without actually providing a service to the student.

35 posted on 04/24/2014 2:32:55 PM PDT by 11th Commandment ("THOSE WHO TIRE LOSE")
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To: KarlInOhio

That does give it a decent umbrella to explain everything.


36 posted on 04/24/2014 3:50:24 PM PDT by wastedyears (I'm a pessimist, I say plenty of negative things. Consider it a warning of sorts.)
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To: Rannug
Don’t worry, you can always get replacement knees.

Hussein is trying to do away with that.

37 posted on 04/25/2014 6:01:43 AM PDT by houeto (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate)
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To: marron

77% of today’s liberal arts grads spend 2 years unemployed after graduation.


38 posted on 04/25/2014 6:58:37 AM PDT by TurboZamboni (Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.-JFK)
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