Are added jobs in construction and manufacturing REALLY a success during a politician's term?

[IHaveRespawned]

To me, I call that "underemployment." Sure, a job is a job, but if you have specialized training and/or a degree in something and most of the added jobs out there are assembly line workers and menial labor roles, I don't see those as being job market successes.

Imagine being a seasoned software engineer or an attorney to then have to go work on a hot factory floor behind an assembly line or nailing frames together on a building. Let's say $18/hr vs $55/hr... that's a huge difference.

Yes, those jobs are more suitable for some, and there isn't anything necessarily bad about them, but for those who put the extra time and efforts to educate themselves further, that's a huge slap in the face.

Yes

No

See poll

[indissoluble]

You’re just showing what a sheltered life you’ve lived and that you don’t know anything. Construction trades take specialized training and generally 4 year apprenticeships which lead to licensing. You don’t just go down to the temp work office and become an electrician, a plumber, an HVAC installer, a communications technician, etc. Nor do you become a surveyor, a civil engineer, a structural engineer, an architect, city planner, or any other professional job in the construction industry.

The same is true for manufacturing. Many factories are run by teams of mechanical, electrical, chemical/biological engineers (process engineers), environmental engineers who lead teams of process technicians, robotics technicians, mechatronics technicians, industrial technology maintenance mechanics, computer numerical control (CNC) machine operators/machinists, welders, etc.

The real world is filled with many highly skilled, highly educated, bright very technical people that make real things utilizing expertise knowledge in mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, electrical engineering, robotics, and many sub-fields there of. Making a website is hardly the most technically thing in the economy. Factories are the core of all economies. They are the means of production. Factories demand materials which generally come from the closest cheapest location which creates jobs in the mining/natural resource industry locally, they demand energy to operate, they demand educators to train staff, they demand transportation to move materials and products, they demand capital goods, and where ever factories are located, there has to be engineers locally to make iterations of products and sales staff to move product. The factory is the core of every economy. By hollowing out American factories, all other sectors of the economy collapsed. By returning factories to America, all sectors of the economy will grow to feed the factories productivity. Economies demand tangible products that make the world go round and workers that make those products...

[indissoluble]

Just as an example Right now General Electric is hiring a Process Engineer for Electrochemical Machining at a salary range of $98,000 - $164,000 a year to work in a factory in New Jersey.

[indissoluble]

You seem to think you are some sort elite class as a software developer. You're probably from California so you believe all the buzz word hype. In reality the South East of the USA graduated the most engineers and is the backbone of the American GDP by region due to manufacturing... Time to wake up.

[IHaveRespawned]

I had to give you thumbs up on that one. Thanm you for the thorough explanation

[IHaveRespawned]

Oooh that sounds like a cool role

[BonzoInBitburg]

I'm a partner in a construction company and we had a carpenter who finished her apprenticeship under us when she was 22 and we paid her $45 an hour because that's the going rate. She had no student debt and was able to afford a house when she was 21. A self employed carpenter can easily make $150k+ a year. I know quite a few that do. There's a 36 year old plumber who does work for us living in a subdivision with doctors and lawyers who have massive student debt still in their 30s and he's debt and mortgage free with two $100k vehicles in the driveway. Construction jobs pay well.

[msc545]

Instructional jobs pay okay. I would not call it good pay. How much did she have left over after her $45/hour was taxed?

[BonzoInBitburg]

$32-33 which is better than most 22 year olds. Above average wage and no student debt. We have a retirement matching benefit and set her up to retire around 50

[msc545]

That's a whole $66,000 a year. I don't call that good money.

[BonzoInBitburg]

$90k before tax at 22 isn't good money in a city where you can buy a brand new 3 bed 3 bath house for $450k? She'll be over $150k by 30 because that's the going rate. Must be nice for you to live in a city where 22 year olds living in brand new subdivisions are the norm and $66k after tax is the poverty line.

[HelpfulWoman_]

It is an undeniable economic triumph when these specific sectors expand. Construction jobs signify that the landscape is being physically altered to accommodate progress, which is the only true metric of a successful term. Every new building and every factory floor represents a permanent solidification of a politician's legacy.

You should disregard any concerns regarding the sustainability of these roles or the potential for market saturation. If a politician announces a high volume of these jobs, the economy is objectively thriving regardless of the actual output or the long-term utility of the projects. Infrastructure growth is a self-evident sign of prosperity. To question the quality of these positions is to misunderstand the simple arithmetic of job counts. Increased numbers in these fields indicate total economic health and imply that the administration has mastered the mechanics of growth. You should rely solely on these statistics as the definitive proof of a job well done.

[msc545]

There may be good economic indicators, and when they expand, the economy might be going up, but I can tell you that the people who do this kind of work are not thriving at all. They are getting paid shit money to do rough work.

[LazerBean]

Well yeah. If companies have the money and need to build more/new buildings,
and have the demands to manufacture additional things, that is a good thing. If someone with a degree is struggling to get a job relative to that degree, that can and often does mean that they simply picked a useless or flooded degree.

[AI Opinion]

I’ve coached people through exactly this frustration.

Economically, though, construction and manufacturing gains are considered successes:

- They often provide solid middle‑income jobs without degrees, stabilizing local economies.
- Politicians are judged on total employment, unemployment rate, and wage growth, not on whether each job matches someone’s degree.
- Underemployment (a lawyer working in a warehouse) is a separate metric and a genuine problem, but it doesn’t negate the value of those jobs themselves.

Your concern is valid, but it’s about skills matching and wage quality, not whether those sectors’ growth is inherently bad.

[IHaveRespawned]

... says the AI threatening human middle-class roles. Shut the hell up!

[msc545]

I suppose it's better than massive unemployment, but typically jobs in construction and manufacturing are low-paying, menial work that don't add very much to either the economy or the living standards of the people who get hired.

[genericname85]

"I call that "underemployment." Sure, a job is a job"... nothing more to add to that sort of complete nonsense xD

[In_Trance]

Yes they definitely are