Posted on 09/18/2005 9:19:51 AM PDT by Willie Green
Angel Mills worked at GST AutoLeather in Williamsport, Md., most of her adult life. She cut, inspected, packed and shipped leather upholstery until she was laid off in June 2003 as the company scaled back local operations and shifted production to Mexico.
"It's sad. It's scary. I've been a factory worker all my life, and I didn't know what I wanted to do," said Ms. Mills, a 38-year-old Williamsport resident with a teenage son.
But by March 2004 she was taking a half-year course to become a state-licensed massage therapist. A federal program that helps workers who lose jobs owing to foreign competition paid for her training and offered extended unemployment benefits.
In July, she started working at Venetian Salon and Spa in Hagerstown, Md.
~~~SNIP~~~
Mr. Thomas said that for all trade adjustment program workers passing through the consortium, the average wage was $14.36 an hour before the layoffs, while after retraining it was $11.87 an hour, a decline that is common for factory workers who have to restart their lives.
U.S. Labor Department figures indicate that among the retrained, those that find new jobs end up making only 70 percent to 80 percent of their old wages on average.
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
I am mystified why people think that law is a good field to pursue. The problems you describe all exist in law as well, and the hours are worse.
Interesting. Didn't really think about the hours (50-60 for me, what is a lawyers workload?) Why is the market for lawyer's jobs depressed? To many applicants?
That's right. Did you miss the part of that same post where I said the price of labor is determined by supply and demand? My point is that demand is in large part affected by the productivity of a given person's labor. The four least productive of those guys are going to transfer their qualifications to another job. They're quite unlikely to remain unemployed just so they can spite their guy who did get hired into accepting below subsistence wages.
The number of jobs for a particular product or service is limited by the demand of the market for the product or service. However, jobs as a whole are not a scarce resource. Human demands for things are unlimited; jobs as a whole are only limited by productivity in high demand production allowing excess labor to be profitably diverted to other products.
OK, I would; but what's wrong with that-- you're against this? You might want to try rewriting this post.
U of C., Northwestern, U. of I., and Notre Dame are first-tier. Two or three of the downtown schools are second-tier.
Let's simply say that if you wish to work for a prestigious downtown firm, and live that "lifestyle" (nice car, nice condo, etc.) then you'd better go to one of the top tier schools. If you have the misfortune of attending one of the second-tier schools, then you'd best be a member of Law Review or go to work for Daddy. Otherwise, you are destined to become a worker-bee, taking the train to and from your dismal place in the suburbs, and drinking heavily before you see the wife who does nothing but complain that she cannot understand why her friend's friend at Kirkland & Ellis or Baker & MacKenzie just bought a summer home in Michigan and you can't. (ok, so I'm exaggerating)
No need. Nothing is wrong with your view at all.
It's just that you have now placed yourself athwart some of the more doctrinaire of the ideological extremists who are so vocal about untrammeled U.S. import trade.
Watch your six!
What are the best fields to pursue in the country with little manufacturing? For example in Argentina?
I would imagine it would be lawyers, physicians and government positions.
Your saying that "the economy has been doing fairly well" gets my hopes up that we can all work together with the kind of standard measurements that those of us working in the industry use. You are right on the money with the need to look at 15 years down the line ---but step one is to make sure we're able to see clearly what's going on now. Some say everyone has his own reality --but we can't even talk to each other unless we can both agree that there's no 'your' reality and 'my' reality -- just the reality, and the economy.
What is this "letting our manufacturing base go" thing. Is that for in 2020 or is it something we already did? When you say that the economy is good now, are talking about jobs, wages, gdp, inflation, and manufacturing output --or are you saying everything is good except manufacturing which is bad. Let's look together at stuff like manufacturing output, industry profits, pay scales-- hard measurements that anyone can run a business on. I can't use a blog that comes from say, Maurine Dowd.
In the mean time, maybe we can work on the "wages are stagnant" (498) crowd and bring them on board.
LOL --that's what my wife keeps telling me, that I'm athwart everyone. It doesn't matter what political or religious persuasion someone has, I always disagree on something.
Sure, I always agree on something too, but that's boring.
Whereever are you going with these questions? I'm dying to know. You might as well ask me about the job opportunities in outer space.
Good question...but I've been unable to find any good data on wages. Usually there is just some lump-sum number, but for wage data to be meaningful we need to see it in terms of a career field vs time vs numbers.
For instance, wages for Economic professors has alledgedy gone up faster than the rate of inflation, according to the WSJ. However, in order for that data to be meaningful to me, I would like to see a total numbers for economic professors for the past 10 to 20 years, and their average salary for each of those years.
Sadly, it's difficult to find this kind of information for particular career fields, especially blue-collar.
One thing you learn quickly in economics is how easily it is to lie with statistics.
However....
It's one thing to be a newly minted college grad, and another to be out in the field for a while, and then be laid-off, like so many have been in the past several yaers.
Once you get experience + higher wages, it's very, very difficult to find a position that pays the same as the old one, if you can find one at all....
I've noticed that...the last time my wife was in the hospital, I was surprised at how many nurses spoke with a slightly foreign accent.
And yet, as far as I understand it, there is still a growing demand for more healthcare workers. Go figure.
On thing for sure, there will ALWAYS be a need for salesmen...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.