Don’t you just love it when you read an article on a major news site that makes you go, “Well, duh!” Such was the case today when I read a feature story on nbcnews.com about how fewer Americans count on retiring by 65 (unfortunately, the link to this article no longer works). As reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the percentage of workers working beyond 65 has increased significantly from 1985’s low of 10 percent to 18.5 percent in 2012. My reaction is a result of seeing many of my peers among those who will be working until at least 70—some because they love what they do, but most out of necessity. (more...)
Author Archive
Debt and equity
January 23rd, 2013
By: Vicki Bell
By: Vicki Bell
A couple of weeks ago, my esteemed fellow blogger and close watcher of all things economic, Eric Lundin, wrote a post entitled “We’ve all fallen off the fiscal cliff.” Commenting on the last-minute deal Congress approved to avoid sending the U.S. economy off the fiscal cliff, Lundin said, “Yes, superficially, the new legislation prevented the U.S. economy from becoming the equivalent of a high-speed train wreck. However, it didn’t deal with the broad, deep, fundamental problems that are weakening the foundation of the U.S. economy. We have the same problems we had before this legislation passed, and the U.S. economy will eventually go off the rails. It won’t be sudden. It will play out like a painfully slow train wreck. Rather than a couple dozen freight cars piling up in a matter of seconds, it will take a decade or two, but it will happen nonetheless.”
This blog post became the lead story in January’s “Tube Talk” e-newsletter, and we asked readers to share their thoughts about the pending train wreck. Here’s what some of them had to say (the caps are all theirs): (more...)
New Year, less money
January 9th, 2013
By: Vicki Bell
By: Vicki Bell
It’s a New Year, and we escaped falling off the fiscal cliff, thanks to the very last-minute, drama-laden efforts of Congress to pass a bill to avert a much-portended catastrophe. In fact, if you went to bed too early on New Year’s Eve, which I apparently did, you fell asleep thinking we were going over the edge. It wasn’t until the next morning when I fired up my computer that I learned about the bill passing the Senate and awaiting House approval.
The bill covers a lot of ground, and yesterday’s “Fabricating Update” e-newsletter attempted to cover a few highlights that affect fabricators, both personally and from a business standpoint. And then, as we always do, we asked readers to share their thoughts about the topic. (more...)
Chipmunks on the fiscal cliff
December 18th, 2012
By: Vicki Bell
By: Vicki Bell
In 2009 and 2010, I offered a little tongue-in-cheek look at current issues in December blog posts—one a parody of “The Twelve Days of Christmas” and the other, a really lame take on “Let it Snow.”
This year, I was motivated by Alvin and the Chipmunks to revive this holiday exercise to the tune of their Grammy-award-winning song “Christmas Don’t Be Late.” My apologies to Alvin, Simon, Theodore, and Ross Bagdasarian, Jr. (a.k.a. David Seville). None to Congress. (more...)
Thoughts on the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary
December 18th, 2012
By: Vicki Bell
By: Vicki Bell
It’s difficult to write today. The events of last Friday, Dec. 14, continue to weigh on my mind and the minds of everyone I know. Looking at all the sweet faces of innocent young children and those brave souls who tried to protect them is almost unbearable. You can’t do so without thinking of your own loved ones and wondering “what if?”
There’s much discussion now about gun control and laws—understandably so—but there also needs to be a real discussion about how to help the many people in our country who suffer some form of mental illness, such as the young shooter who perpetrated this horrific act. (more...)
Go north, young welder?
December 13th, 2012
By: Vicki Bell
By: Vicki Bell
Recently, my fellow blogger Tim Heston published a post that cited a New York Times article from November about how entry level pay in manufacturing is waning. The article quoted a Boston Consulting Group report that actually questioned the skilled labor crisis: "Trying to hire high-skilled workers at rock-bottom rates is not a skills gap."
Past posts on The Fabricator blog have addressed wages, which appear to vary from region to region and company to company. And, just as Heston noted, welders and fabricators at both ends of the pay scale let us know what they are seeing regarding wages. Such was the case when I posted a link to Heston's blog on The FABRICATOR's Facebook page. (more...)
Another training option
December 5th, 2012
By: Vicki Bell
By: Vicki Bell
Last week I wrote about vocational training—how programs that were being decimated a decade ago are seeing a strong comeback with even stronger participation. Many are adding classes to accommodate waiting lists.
While music to manufacturers’ ears, this training alone likely will not be enough to make up for the huge deficit of skilled workers, at least not in a timely manner. Some companies are turning to something that once was the principal means by which craft workers learned their trades but now plays a relatively small part in the U.S.—apprenticeships. (more...)
Vocational training a good bet
November 28th, 2012
By: Vicki Bell
By: Vicki Bell
Among my job duties is scouring the Internet for news of interest to the metal fabricating community. Hardly a day goes by when I don’t run across items related to a topic of particular interest to metal fabricators—the shortage of skilled labor. It seems that every notable publication nationwide has addressed and continues to address the subject that cannot be resolved expediently enough for many manufacturers. So old, yet still timely news.
What’s relatively new in my searches—say in the last year or so—is the proliferation of news items from local media about expanded technical training programs in high schools, community colleges, and universities all across the country. I see these almost daily. It’s a far cry from what I was seeing almost a decade ago when these programs were being decimated. (more...)
Letter to the President
November 7th, 2012
By: Vicki Bell
By: Vicki Bell
Dear President Obama:
Congratulations on your reelection. Although I did not vote for you, I sincerely wish you the best of luck and fervently hope that you are able to work with our gridlocked Congress to enact measures that will help our economy. Frankly, I am discouraged by the past four years, and I don’t believe our country can take four more years of the same.
Today, nbcnews.com ran a post-election piece entitled “Now that he’s won, the six splitting headaches waiting for Obama”: Automatic spending cuts; taxes going up, by a significant amount—and not just on the rich; debt limit; confirmation of pivotal Cabinet members (replacements for Tim Geithner and Hillary Clinton) and regulatory chiefs; implementing the Affordable Care Act and appointing the members of the Independent Payment Advisory Board; and chaos in Syria, WMD—and don’t forget Iran.
And then there’s the small matter of the economy, supposedly the No. 1 concern among voters in this election. (more...)
Putting the storm into perspective
October 31st, 2012
By: Vicki Bell
By: Vicki Bell
Despite all of the advancements of mankind, we are not—and likely never will be—a match for Mother Nature. Whether it’s an earthquake, tsunami, hurricane, tornado, typhoon, drought, flooding, volcanic eruption, or some other natural disaster of epic proportion, Mother Nature has a way of showing us who’s boss.
Her children, Katrina and Sandy, certainly put us in our places. The images of the aftermath of Katrina were riveting, as are those of Sandy. And Sandy’s timing is interesting, to say the least. Even Oliver Stone, a force of nature of a sort, agrees. (more...)
