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A.I. companies are recruiting electricians and carpenters by the thousands

nytimes.com

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Re: A.I. companies are recruiting electricians and carpenters by the thousands

#141

Post by WarmWash »

jsrozner wrote: post #44
scotty79 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Things come to be only when there's demand for them. Nothing else makes the capitalist pay the worker or expand any business. AI providing the missing demand might be the thing that will push our infrastructure industries into XXI century. Because everywhere except China infrastructure seems to be stuck in the 70-ties of the previous one.

Things come to be only when the people with MONEY demand them. If you have no money your demand doesn't exist. A society this unequal serves only the rich (whether that's people or companies).

The 50-99% has twice the money of the 1%, and spends orders of magnitude more.

If you want to know what is in demand, look at what nice neighborhood suburbanites are doing.

Re: A.I. companies are recruiting electricians and carpenters by the thousands

#142

Post by 9x39 »

SR2Z wrote: post #62
9x39 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are they? Or just creating a demand shock and a monopsony? Amazon has hired so many journeymen electricians from our area that apprenticeship waiting lists have exploded. If you can assume that happens where the demand is being bought up, jobs could fail to emerge even if wages go up for existing experts. In any case, the externalities like power and water draw or pollution rain down on the locals permanently, even i…

> Amazon has hired so many journeymen electricians from our area that apprenticeship waiting lists have exploded. If you can assume that happens where the demand is being bought up, jobs could fail to emerge even if wages go up for existing experts. If there is more sustained demand for electricians why on earth wouldn't more people become electricians? Right now there's a supply crunch, but unless you think the US w…

People would become electricians if it’s sustained, but trades tend to have boom and bust cycles. Additionally, you have significant hurdles to becoming one. You have to qualify to be an apprentice, be taken on under a journeyman or higher, and have documented hours to advance.

My point was that journeymen often at an electrical shop who have apprentices are recently at Amazon without apprentices because Amazon is bidding wages so high they (to some extent) abandon the apprenticeship system. The waitlist I was talking about doesn’t reflect new demand from entrants so much as a backlog that is no longer clearing as people rationally defect and go work for the data centers who have different priorities.

Overall, it will balance out but I don’t think the NYTimes should be let off for carrying water for capital trying to fix data centers PR by misleading people thinking this will create jobs in their communities or some nonsense.

Re: A.I. companies are recruiting electricians and carpenters by the thousands

#144

Post by Danox »

bpodgursky wrote: post #23
palmotea wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, it's exactly like that oil boom in North Dakota. There was a brief, massive increase in demand for construction labor to build oil rigs, and you had "man camps" an the like. Then once the rigs were built, the employment dropped massively because it takes a lot fewer guys to run an oil well than build one.

North Dakota's unemployment rate is 2.3%

Other than farming, what is there to do in North Dakota or South Dakota? Most of the people who live there if they want to do anything else they have to go someplace else.

Most of those data centers built in relatively remote areas. will have just a few people working at that data center. It’s not going to bring lasting prosperity to that midsize or small town.

Re: A.I. companies are recruiting electricians and carpenters by the thousands

#145

Post by anthk »

paul7986 wrote: post #35
bpodgursky wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's sort of no winning here! AI unemploys middle-class workers: AI is stealing jobs from the middle class! AI employs unionized middle-class workers: AI is stealing cheap labor from the rest of us!

And in time AI robots will reduce the need for these blue collar workers who are presently helping replace the white collar workers. Just learned of a new acronym today "NILF," not in the labor force with over one million supposed NILFs out there -- dropped out and gave up.

Good luck with robots traing to lay up bricks, or doing plumbing in a home.

Re: A.I. companies are recruiting electricians and carpenters by the thousands

#146

Post by smalltorch »

krapp wrote: post #108
Theodores wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Allegedly many an American 'believes' that Jesus will be back some time right about now. They are serious about this belief, however, it is never explained as to how he waves a magic wand and fixes the many, many entirely man-made problems we have. But now I see the light. Jesus was a carpenter, right? I am imagining that Jesus, with his carpentry skills, is driving right now in his Chevy truck to the job site, to he…

>however, it is never explained as to how he waves a magic wand and fixes the many, many entirely man-made problems we have. It's explained in the Book of Revelations - Jesus comes back and kills everyone who isn't Christian (and actually most Christians too) with plagues and fire and violence and burns the world down to ashes. And then (something something multi-headed dragon something something Whore of Babylon) a…

>Jesus comes back and kills everyone who isn't Christian (and actually most Christians too)

I don't recall this part what's the reference

Re: A.I. companies are recruiting electricians and carpenters by the thousands

#147

Post by michaelfm1211 »

krapp wrote: post #108
Theodores wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Allegedly many an American 'believes' that Jesus will be back some time right about now. They are serious about this belief, however, it is never explained as to how he waves a magic wand and fixes the many, many entirely man-made problems we have. But now I see the light. Jesus was a carpenter, right? I am imagining that Jesus, with his carpentry skills, is driving right now in his Chevy truck to the job site, to he…

>however, it is never explained as to how he waves a magic wand and fixes the many, many entirely man-made problems we have. It's explained in the Book of Revelations - Jesus comes back and kills everyone who isn't Christian (and actually most Christians too) with plagues and fire and violence and burns the world down to ashes. And then (something something multi-headed dragon something something Whore of Babylon) a…

An overwhelming number of Christians do not believe this and do not interpret Revelation in this way. The belief that "Jesus will come back and solve everything instantly" is only held by a minority of small 2nd Great Awakening groups and a few outspoken Evangelical groups, and is unique to theological traditions that arose in the United States. The official teachings of the Catholic Church, Orthodox Churches, Anglican and Episcopal communions, Presbyterian denominations, etc and other mainline Christians don't believe this. Before you blame a group for ruining the world or rejecting climate change please actually talk to a representative sample of real people in the group you are making claims about.

Re: A.I. companies are recruiting electricians and carpenters by the thousands

#148

Post by higginsniggins »

willis936 wrote: post #17
kristov wrote: post #11

It's nice to hear tradespeople getting paid well with lots of work. I'm happy for them :-)

Yes, that's good. It also prices out a lot of other better uses for their labor. Projects I work on have seen prices soar. I don't consider building the things everyone hates because they promise concentration of wealth and an attack on labor at the expense of building literally anything else to be somehow a big W for labor because a few people get a slightly higher temporary paycheck. Ask the Wagyu cows how they fee…

wouldn't the analogy be Wagyu farmers?

Re: A.I. companies are recruiting electricians and carpenters by the thousands

#149

Post by ceroxylon »

chasd00 wrote: post #104
kvisner wrote: post #89

I would be very careful about basing your career decsions based on this trend. The data center build out will always be very boom and bust, which would really suck to work in. One year you would be making 300k working on dataceters and the next you would make 30k because thousands of electricians are now competing to build a few single family homes.

Also, an electrician just doesn't pop into existence. You have to go through years of apprenticeship and union dues payments.

Very true, it is difficult to even find an opening for the training to start the process, the schools are limited and have short enrollment windows that are fiercely competitive (at least in California).

Re: A.I. companies are recruiting electricians and carpenters by the thousands

#150

Post by foobarian »

bell-cot wrote: post #129
NichoPaolucci wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't that average out to 165K / year? That's not so bad IMO!

If it was a predictable & reliable 300k, 30k, 300k, 30k, 300k, 30k pattern, then yes. But if not...

I imagine a Bernoulli pattern would work too
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