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  1. #1
    If you stopped to actually learn something you might not post these uninformed posts.
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    3.2 Million good jobs nobody wants

    A trillion dollars in student loans. Record high unemployment. Three million good jobs that no one seems to want. The goal of Profoundly Disconnected is to challenge the absurd belief that a four-year degree is the only path to success. The Skills Gap is here, and if we don’t close it, it’ll swallow us all. Which is a long way of saying, we could use your help…




    http://profoundlydisconnected.com/

  2. #2

    If I could take it all back, I would go do a tradeskill no questions asked. If you arnt doing college for math/science/technology for something high level, its far better to just spend those 4 yrs, apprenticing (and earning cash) then paying for a piece of paper that costs 40k+

    That said, it's not super easy to just get these jobs he talks about either. It takes time to learn the trade, so it's great for people who havnt made the mistake of going to a big school and wasting tons of money, but not as great for people facing student loan payments monthly. A lot of these catepillar jobs i'm looking at require at least 6 months experience to start out at $14/hr. Not sure on the average income of the area the jobs are located in, as I didn't spend time looking into that either. If the places don't cost a lot to live in, that's great. If rent is 900+ a month though, that sucks for the first few years, but at least w/o student loan payments it's a great choice.

  3. #3
    Pandemonium
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    Three million good jobs that no one seems to want.
    Except, no, that's not the case at all. A job position being open doesn't mean no one wants it. That's ridiculous, and you're not going to be able to support it as a valid point, because it's not one. This is a case of lazily using a statistic to support an argument it doesn't directly apply to.

    The reason there are so many unemployed people despite the presence of jobs—which will always exist, since people will be fired, could quit, move, get sick, die, or go through any number of other things—is because there is a greater amount of unemployed people than there are openings.

    http://www.theatlantic.com/business/...enings/276787/

  4. #4
    Sleep Deprived Galka BLM
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kohan View Post
    Except, no, that's not the case at all. A job position being open doesn't mean no one wants it. That's ridiculous, and you're not going to be able to support it as a valid point, because it's not one. This is a case of lazily using a statistic to support an argument it doesn't directly apply to.

    The reason there are so many unemployed people despite the presence of jobs—which will always exist, since people will be fired, could quit, move, get sick, die, or go through any number of other things—is because there is a greater amount of unemployed people than there are openings.

    http://www.theatlantic.com/business/...enings/276787/
    You fool! That wasn't reported by one of the four fringe "news" websites I trust! Don't you know, even if it's supported by facts, evidence and even common sense, it can't possibly be true if reported by the lame-steam media!

  5. #5
    Pandemonium
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    Quote Originally Posted by Komm Suesser Tod View Post
    You fool! That wasn't reported by one of the four fringe "news" websites I trust! Don't you know, even if it's supported by facts, evidence and even common sense, it can't possibly be true if reported by the lame-steam media!
    You know what's unfortunate, though? I honestly don't entirely despise the website's sentiment. It is true that we put an unnecessary burden on young people by suggesting that a college degree is the only thing that will make them employable, therefore pushing them to saddle themselves with debt.

    Of course, I would recommend tackling this in other ways, which would include drastically reducing the cost of higher education and/or having the country cover it for its people, and eliminating the anti-intellectualism that encourages unfounded critique of higher education in general, but, you know. Not as interesting to those down-home country folk who just want to hear that their way is the right way, I guess.

  6. #6

    Sweaty Dick Punching Enthusiast

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    100 bucks an hour welding sounds amazing though, good for that guy.

  7. #7
    Sleep Deprived Galka BLM
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    Quote Originally Posted by AidenCarby View Post
    100 bucks an hour welding sounds amazing though, good for that guy.
    The problem with a lot of these jobs, as good as they are, are only available when they're needed. When the need dries up, all those jobs get cut, and as robots and automation are used more and more, those jobs will disappear for good, and all those 40 somethings with welding experience and 15+ years at a good job will be in a job market with next to no useable skills.

  8. #8
    Mr. Anna Kendrick
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    Guess MBAs mean nothing.....

  9. #9

    MBA's are like, the new High School Diplomas.

  10. #10
    Mr. Anna Kendrick
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    Quote Originally Posted by Waraji View Post
    MBA's are like, the new High School Diplomas.
    Time to get into the shocking new field of electrician! Lol brb if im not maimed at work

  11. #11
    The Shitlord
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    Quote Originally Posted by Komm Suesser Tod View Post
    The problem with a lot of these jobs, as good as they are, are only available when they're needed. When the need dries up, all those jobs get cut, and as robots and automation are used more and more, those jobs will disappear for good, and all those 40 somethings with welding experience and 15+ years at a good job will be in a job market with next to no useable skills.
    eh, yeah, but not ALL of them. there will always be a market for truly skilled welders (and other, similar trade skills). the guys that know not only how to weld, but also how to scan the welds and read the results, looking for flaws. because machines can't reason, and look at two separate types of diagnostic scans that individually show a perfectly acceptable weld, but combined in just the right way form a critical failure.... but only for certain types of products.


    but those guys don't just materialize out of thin air so they can't get to that level unless companies willingly take a smaller hit to the bottom line to keep potential talent coming in (opposed to the larger, later hits from those failures). Which the smart ones do, especially since the robots also have much higher initial cost than hiring guys to weld until you find a few who could reach the level you need in 10 years, and perform competently under supervision in the mean-time. Source: My dad trains the people making those decisions. He's a good teacher.

  12. #12
    I Am, Who I Am.
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    I miss Dirty Jobs and all things Mike Rowe related.

  13. #13

    Quote Originally Posted by Sepukku View Post
    Time to get into the shocking new field of electrician! Lol brb if im not maimed at work
    This. This is the reason why jobs that require an education are superior to these "hard working" jobs. That hard work often involves significant risk to life and limb. Fuck that noise.

  14. #14
    If you stopped to actually learn something you might not post these uninformed posts.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Blubbartron View Post
    This is the reason why jobs that require an education are superior to these "hard working" jobs. That hard work often involves significant risk to life and limb. Fuck that noise.
    If anything, risky jobs pay more.

  15. #15
    HABS SUCK!!!!!
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    Quote Originally Posted by Blubbartron View Post
    This. This is the reason why jobs that require an education are superior to these "hard working" jobs. That hard work often involves significant risk to life and limb. Fuck that noise.
    Most of the time, theres no risk if you're not a fkn idiot. ie: dont stick your dick in the electrical outlet. Shut down all power before working on any electrical cables, so theres no electricity.

  16. #16

    Lol. The risk is usually only a risk for those not knowing wtf they are doing. Electrician fits that description perfectly. A trained electrician has less of chance of hurting/killing themself on the job as you do killing yourself in a car accident on the way to an office job.

    The guys in the trades in NYC make A LOT of money. You'd need an executive level position to out gross most of the established Union Laborers. Here's a quick few salaries of some friends of mine, not exact but very much in the ballpark of their actual numbers:

    -Union Welder -> $130k+ (8 years exp)
    -Union Project Manager (electrical) -> $100K (6 years exp)
    -Union HVAC -> $105K (mostly from OT though) (5-6 years exp... not positive)
    -Union Sandhog -> $190K + (extremely dangerous job though.... 8 years exp)
    -Union Carpenter -> 85K (2-3 years exp)



    Now if you were to take those guys and move them out of NYC: The sandhog wouldn't have a job at all, and the others salary would be cut in 1/2 basically.

  17. #17
    You just got served THE CALLISTO SPECIAL
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    Quote Originally Posted by Komm Suesser Tod View Post
    The problem with a lot of these jobs, as good as they are, are only available when they're needed. When the need dries up, all those jobs get cut, and as robots and automation are used more and more, those jobs will disappear for good, and all those 40 somethings with welding experience and 15+ years at a good job will be in a job market with next to no useable skills.
    This, I have multiple close electrician/carpenter/plumber friends, they make money hand over fist when construction is up but I also saw each and every last one go a solid year or more with zero work because there just wasn't enough to go around for everyone in the union.

  18. #18

    What part of the country do you live in Callisto? I've seen that in my area, about 70 Miles North of NYC. This is in regards to trades working local though, not NYC Unions.... those guys always have work.

  19. #19
    New Odin
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    Quote Originally Posted by Callisto View Post
    This, I have multiple close electrician/carpenter/plumber friends, they make money hand over fist when construction is up but I also saw each and every last one go a solid year or more with zero work because there just wasn't enough to go around for everyone in the union.
    ^

    This is my father right here. When his work is around, the money is good but for about 3-4 months of the year enjoy sitting on unemployment because if you lack a second job or side projects lined up you're going to be on your ass for a while.

    Lucky for him, he's got private side projects that keep him busy during the lagtime.

    As per title naming conventions, this title is deceptive. Yeah, there are jobs in construction and physical labor but more often than not it isn't the master plumber, master electrician goldmines that you'd be led to believe. You might just end up working under the table with some Mexicans/Ecuadorians for subsistence wages and promises of the American dream.

    Coupled with the future advancements in technology, many of these jobs stand to get swallowed up in the sea of service sector jobs leaving a similar situation to the current degree bloat we have going on. That being said, if you can get a private business going fixing things for us less-than-inclined tech savvy folk you could probably succeed on a small scale.

  20. #20

    Yeah winter/fall season is ass for a lot of these jobs if you live anywhere that has snow and shitty seasons. When i did electrical/carpentry shit with my father in law/brother in law we usually sat around from Dec-Feb with shit to do, and if shit did come up, there wasn't enough pay for all 3 of us, so I ended up getting the short end and not working. Granted I was in school at least during that time period so it wasn't a total loss, but no income hurts.

    If you're good at budgeting, you can budget out the year, but again, unless you're in a union or have solid work year round, you have no idea if you're going to get work the next year or the year after. That part of it sucks ass. The pay though is amazing if you can find a location where you can bunker down in and just do it nonstop.

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