work/trades...what do you do for a crust?

Oddjob

Merry fucking Xmas to you assholes
For some really depressing stats take a look at our manf as a % of GDP figures. Australia has fallen well behind the third world as we've more than halved our figures from 1990 to 2016. Once you lose the capability to make stuff you are truly in the grips of a banana republic.

https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NV.IND.MANF.ZS?year_high_desc=false
There's a reason for this and its called the value chain. As countries develop, their workforces become more educated and skilled and can do more high value things. The high value things tend to be more profitable so thats where the production focus moves to. Farming tends to be at the bottom, manufacturing in the middle, services tend to be at the top.

Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk
 

ajay

^Once punched Jeff Kennett. Don't pick an e-fight
Machining is dying a horrible, slow death in australia. I went breakdown fitter after a few years as an apprentice in a CNC shop.
More interesting and pays HEAPS better, with phone/car/fuel card etc. Deffinately dirtier. And I hurt my back doing it too so theres that (big mx/dj crashes mixed with physical job. Not entirely jobs fault, but it doesn’t help hahaha).
Now going through a early adult crisis of wtf do I do once my backs sorted........ keep swinging spanners or back to study/career change?
Tough trying to get into fitting with purely machining background, but I am exploring that option. My gut is telling me to get off the tools though.
In other news, I'm on my way to Sydney for an interview (typing this while at the airport) and I got bumped to another flight, it's long story but the short of it is I'll miss the interview... ><
 

Ultra Lord

Hurts. Requires Money. And is nerdy.
hopefully they can reschedule your interview mate, thats a shit go.

If your umming and ahhing over stayin on the tools, I probably wouldn’t go to fitting then. It’d be like doing an apprenticeship all over again for you.
 

northvanguy

Likes Dirt
Working as a finance consultant.... maybe sounds fancy but really boring as hell... always looking for opportunities that dont require Excel 9 hrs a day!!! (Melb based but happy tp move to Byron Bay!)
 

SummitFever

Eats Squid
There's a reason for this and its called the value chain. As countries develop, their workforces become more educated and skilled and can do more high value things. The high value things tend to be more profitable so thats where the production focus moves to. Farming tends to be at the bottom, manufacturing in the middle, services tend to be at the top.

Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk
Tell that to the Germans. They seem to be able to tick all of the boxes. Proper manufacturing with automation and robotics is highly skilled. A clever country will make its manufacturing more efficient and smarter rather than outsourcing the same old crap overseas. At some point in time cheap labour runs out and if you get to that point without any domestic manufacturing capabilities you are stuffed.
 

link1896

Mr Greenfield
Machining is dying a horrible, slow death in australia. I went breakdown fitter after a few years as an apprentice in a CNC shop.
More interesting and pays HEAPS better, with phone/car/fuel card etc. Deffinately dirtier. And I hurt my back doing it too so theres that (big mx/dj crashes mixed with physical job. Not entirely jobs fault, but it doesn’t help hahaha).
Now going through a early adult crisis of wtf do I do once my backs sorted........ keep swinging spanners or back to study/career change?
My mate runs a huge workshop, him and a skeleton staff with dozens of machines. Each machine has at least one, if not two kawasaki robot arms loading/unloading and assembling components.

Close to fully automated, runs 24/7. Significant workforce made redundant due to automation.
 

scblack

Leucocholic
Tell that to the Germans. They seem to be able to tick all of the boxes. Proper manufacturing with automation and robotics is highly skilled. A clever country will make its manufacturing more efficient and smarter rather than outsourcing the same old crap overseas. At some point in time cheap labour runs out and if you get to that point without any domestic manufacturing capabilities you are stuffed.
A company does the manufacturing. The country has nothing to do with it. Many factors dictate where a company will decide where to manufacture but high labour costs will help edge that overseas. Why would anything be stuffed without cheap labour? Its only a relative cost compared to other locations. Then stuff will be purchased from the cheapest at that time.

Same arguments have been thrown up since the start of the industrial revolution and the use of machines. Nothing new here....
 

Flow-Rider

Burner
A company does the manufacturing. The country has nothing to do with it. Many factors dictate where a company will decide where to manufacture but high labour costs will help edge that overseas. Why would anything be stuffed without cheap labour? Its only a relative cost compared to other locations. Then stuff will be purchased from the cheapest at that time.

Same arguments have been thrown up since the start of the industrial revolution and the use of machines. Nothing new here....
What he said isn't entirely true anyway because a lot of BMW motors and parts are manufactured in China.
 
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