I’ve been a machinist for 43 years and am retiring at years end. We baby boomers are rapidly leaving all the trades but seems machinists are really leaving. My company and most nation wide are struggling to find any machinists at all. Pay is good and it’s not a particularly hard job if one gets the basics in a technical college. Almost everything we have and use is in some way touched by a machinist. We make molds to mold almost all our plastic parts and all parts to nearly everything from your auto to food prep to tools and whatever you can think of. Google machinist and read what we do to the shortage. I work for a medical device factory and make parts for surgical tables, overhead lights so surgeons can see, to scrub sinks, carts and other hospital equipment.
The Machinist trade has largely gone Star Trek. 3D printing is going to be doing the bulk of metal fabrication in 10 years. It's already doing a lot of it and they're getting the machines very tuned in.
