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I have a relative who is a draftsman out of a job. The problem is that computers now easily do their job. A lot of people are refusing to be retrained especially if they are 40+. This has nothing to do with the job market or who is President. They are obsolete and won't admit it.

They are obsolete and won't admit it.

I agree, Lockheed once had draftsmen (persons?), heck, they used to have secretarys (typists) but now the engineers do their drafting on computer, (in fact, designers have to learn the companies software, Pro-E, or you can't design) This is just how life is. But I bet a 35 year draftsman could earn a teaching credential in a summer intern program and teach math. This is something in pretty high demand if willing to relocate. If not, go ahead and retire.

has 35 years of pipeline-design experience...

Pipeline design is what they give the newly hired drafter. To stay at that level for 35 years takes effort.

When Jeffrey and I started work in '69 we used mechanical adding machines and to multiply numbers we used slide rules or (I swear I'm not making this up) added logarithms. Most of us grew with the field and have been very happy, but others (like Jeffrey) never wanted to learn autocad or anything else on a computer. My last boss was another example-- he was right out of Dilbert. I could have given him an Etch-a-sketch and told him it was a notebook computer.

It's getting more and more difficult to find the clouds in all the silver linings.

Edward Rendell (D). The official unemployment rate is 5.4 percent, but it's "much greater,"

right.

Precisely. As the nature of work in the United States changes, people need to be prepared for the possibility that their fields could become obsolete or outsourced.

There's a awful lot of whining going on, which isn't going to do anybody any good. Having a broad skill set is the best thing you could possibly do to ensure future employment... I'm a QA engineer, but I just got my degree in Communication with a minor in Poli Sci. People ask me all the time, "So what does that degree have to do with your job?", and the answer is absolutely nothing. That's the whole idea.

I've also been known to give music lessons and do some wedding photography on the side when the need arises. This reminds me of the grocery strike we had just a few months ago - lots and lots of whining, and nobody preparing for their future. Your talents have to be diversified, like it or not.

It is more than that.

I know 5 drafting languages, and there is no work up here in Ct.

It is not the software's fault, nor is it the lack of a need for board draftsman, it is the lack of new contracts from companies.

New products mean new drawings, and if the company already has a trained staff, they dont need new draftsman/designers.

it is only when a company is expanding that they hire new people. Up here, I dont know anyone who is expanding, everyone is either stable or falling away.

People who think the economy is doing so well need to call temp agencies and ask them how many resumes they receive a day when there is a job posted, especially an engineering job.

I have been repeated told that for every engineering job listed for an agency in Connecticut, there are over 500 resumes that come in, and that is not an exaggeration on my part. Maybe their part, but not in what I am telling you they said to me.

I remember 10 years ago, Connecticut papers had over 5 pages of just engineering jobs listed in the Sunday Papers. This Sunday we had 9 or 11 jobs total, 4 were civil, 2 were Manufacturing Engineering, something I dont have a degree for, and the others were too far to drive.

9 jobs listed is over the average of the last 6 months, that average is 5.

I have to admit, though, manufacturing jobs themselves are increasing in number, up to over 15 this week, only they are all paying low, wages I made 15 years ago when I did similar or lesser work on Aircraft.

Living in Connecticut on 30K a year as an adult with a house/Mortgage is poverty wages.

I learned drafting in high school back in the 60's when men were men and draftsmen used Koh-I-Noor pencils, art gum erasers, Rapid-o-graph pens and velum.

Two years ago - after I lost my job and unable to find another one - I took a community college course and learned AutoCAD.

Anybody with previous drafting experience can become an expert in computer drafting within two months - it's EASY!

In fact, I dropped out of the class half way through because I had finished all the chapters and done all the homework by then. (The instructor got pi$$ed when I started doing 3-D stuff and told me that I was too far ahead and would have to just sit and wait for everyone else to catch up.)

But I had an advantage over the younger kids, you see, because I actually knew math, trig, and geometry - which they all seemed to struggle with, being products of the modern American educational system.