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.