Need for More High School Dropouts

momofthreeboys
Sat, 17 Nov 2012 17:56:13 +0000

Presuming the economy grows, business and industry have learned how to function essentially without middle management…lean manufacturing, JIT, Six Sigma and numerous other initiatives plus automation took care of the necessity for middle management and paper pushers. The downturn in the economy hit the services industry hard so jobs were shed that were lower wage but those will come back if the economy comes back. Construction grown to a halt and business deferred maintenance so it’s understandable the construction industry and trades will come back, someone has to ‘fix’ all that deferred maintenance.

Older workers are hanging onto their jobs having their retirements pelted by downturns in the market, escalating college costs for their kids and the tightening of the banking loan industry. The aging population will tax the healthcare system and the healthcare model is changing. Most of these charts seemed pretty believable.

I do agree that HH incomes won’t rise as rapidly…heck most jobs have been paying zero - three percent increases for almost a decade now and no cost of living adjustment on top of that. It’s supply and demand…no need to pay big salaries when there are plenty of takers. It’s really the new normal and another reason why almost every parent cautions kids not to go into excess debt for a college degree. Things have changed even between my oldest heading off to college and now my youngest heading off. Oldest is moving up slowly in a service industry, soon to be graduate is focused on water conservation and water in general and the youngest wants construction. Many of the kids have a “sense” of where the future is going. But yeah, from 2004 - 2009 my primarily engineering company farmed much of the entry level/mid level engineering out to low cost countries and it’s probably not coming back.