Machinists used to make a great wage around here in the 90's... but now that everything is being made in frickin CHINA...Shop owners around here usually charge around 60Hr. , so how can a small shop owner to pay top $. The big companies will ,but to them your a number and when things get slow the high paid higher skill guy programmers (like myself) is the first to go...and the operators and just set-up guys tend to stay around. If i were to do it all over again I wouldn't go anywhere near machining. It's totally an under paid under valued trade. I used to be a carpenter.. stumbled into machining in the early 90's during the first Bush recession when I was 22. I got tired of the lay offs from construction. If I were you I'd get out of the trade...and if your want a trade instead of going back to school , than try electrician or HVAC.. you can always work as building maintenace somewhere and make 35 an hr or more. Or shoot go be an RN, 3yrs of school and your making 90 g's a year here in california, for what stickin a thermometer in someones ass?
If your still in your early 20's than my advice to you would be walk away from it ,better yet run and go back to school.
Unless there is a major policy shift in this country in regards to free trade I don't see it getting anybetter.
Don't get me wrong I really enjoy making stuff. It's cool to say I made that! Especially when someone else can't make it and you figured it out, man there is no better feeling, but the uncertainty of the trade and the annual "uh oh" it's getting slow again... the pay now is not worth the stress.  |