Future outlook on welding

Date 09-02-2003 11:18

I cannot say what the need for welders will be in 2005. I can tell you that fewer people are entering the skilled trades work force. This means that as skilled labor retires fewer people are replacing them. If the trend continues there won't be enough skilled people available to satisfy the needs of construction. This includes welders, boilermakers, electricians, carpenters, masons, etc., and etc. across the industry.
You can read about this on the various trade organization web sites. Just how critical this is at this time remains to be seen. The bottom line is that if you are interested in a career in welding, don't let the report for 2005 stop you.

By Michael Sherman (***)

Date 09-02-2003 13:18

That is a 180 degree turn from the usual reports. Everything I have seen to date says we do not have enough people entering the trade.

Mike Sherman

By RonG

Date 09-02-2003 17:01

UnHu! And they said computers would eliminate paper work also.

Not so! Computers generate more paper work than ever before (the information age) has arrived.

What is changing in the welding field is the equipment. The welding and metalurgy (materials) fields have no boundrys and a person needs for than good eyes and steady hand to weld. In other words he needs a good education behind him.

You may need to define welder a little more finite to get the real scope. Is a person who programs robots a welder? I should think he needs to know a great deal about welding. They are usually confined to 1 process tho.

Top notch All around welders like in fab shops and constuction sites are getting pretty hard to find but they will all ways be in demand.

Welding work is growing very fast it just takes on a different look in some areas.

By sayeeprasad (*)

Date 09-03-2003 04:38

"Computers generate more paper work than ever before (the information age) has arrived."
On the lighter side--- if email had been around before the telephone was invented, people would have said, "Hey, forget email! With this new telephone invention I can actually talk to people!"

By billvanderhoof (****)

Date 09-03-2003 04:55

In a way (the telegraph) it was, and they did.
Bill

By RonG

Date 09-03-2003 17:38

Absolutely! We now have more information at our finger tips than we can process and each Bite or every Byte just raises a need for more information for some folks.

I spend more 10 to 20 times more time putting together packages of information or procedures to do a job than it takes to do it. I know every hour of planning can save 3 but good grief, I spend the other 3 hours at the printer. I am exaggerating I know but it sure seems that way some times.

I have to print darn near every email i get (if it applies to one of my projects) and keep it in the job file. When a job is finished we have a lady who strips the files down to generate completed reports. It takes as many people to process the paper work as do the job.

And the telephone! Its a good thing Mr. Bell is already dead. Every time I get a good start on getting my paper work done that d&%$#@ thing starts ringing.

By billvanderhoof (****)

Date 09-03-2003 05:42

A good deal of the steel in the US has allready been in places like India and Indonesia. Fabricators here need to at least consider that somebody will start welding it into anything that will fit on a truck before shipping it here. Its hard to compete with labor that's getting paid $.25 per hour.
Bill