So How Has Your Day Gone...?!

[fixthecopier]

Re: So How Has Your Day Gone...?!

In the 20 years that I spent as a field tech the number of times I ran out of jobs you could count on one hand. Usually there was two or three jobs waiting for me. These days we are always telling the techs to go and have a cup of coffee and we'll call you when something turns up.
The machines are getting better and the copy count per month is slowly dropping, how much longer have we got before we're all thrown on the scrap heap?

If people were smarter than they are, most of us would be out of work. I am counting on the technological ignorance of people to keep me employed for another 15 or more years.

[NeoMatrix]

Re: So How Has Your Day Gone...?!

Yes things are slowing down...

The currently low circulating dollar is allowing professional labour to be outsourced to a cheaper foreign work force. As will always happen : the dollar talks, the cheapest rate wins the contract or the cheapest contractor.

Foreign work forces(take it as good or bad) can stifle a local economy in many ways.

Foreign workers are willing to work for a cheaper rate, which is good for the boss but bad for the local economy as a whole. Money removed from local circulation will stifle the local industry firstly.

An example of a foreign work force crippling the industry happened to the Australian Wool Shearer industry around the 1980's here in Australia. At that time the standard rate to shear a sheep for a born and bred Australian shearer was around $1.00 per sheep. Foreign workers from New Zealand came into the Australian Shearing industry to shear sheep at a much cheaper rate. The foreign work force of New Zealand shearers could shear the Australian sheep at half the rate of the local work force, which was around 50cents per sheep. The scab labour rate as it was known in the industry, nearly reach crises point with extreme violence between the local and foreign workers.

How the foreign cheap(scab) labour problem worked:

At the time the exchange rate between New Zealand and Australia was a low 50 cents(NZ) to $1(AUD). When New Zealand workers came over to Australia to shear sheep the money in their pockets halved in value. $1(NZ) bought 50cents(AUD). But when the NZ shearers transferred their Australian wages back to New Zealand their money doubled in value. The "magic" of the exchange rate allowed New Zealand shearers to work for half the wages of any other local shearer, which allowed NZ workers to dominate the Shearing industry and draw money out of the Australian economy; further crippling the working Australian shearer labour force. The money from the local Australia shearers was never spent in their own local communities, and hardship was being felt further by local business. It had a flow on effect you might say.