On Sat, 5 Jun 2004 14:40:46 -0400, "Paul Fritz"
wrote:


"John H" wrote in message
.. .
On Sat, 05 Jun 2004 11:46:21 -0400, DSK wrote:

NOYB wrote:
With the revisions, nearly one million jobs have been created over
the last
three months.

Gee, that's great. How come we still have engineers coming to my door
and pleading for a job almost daily? How come interest rates have
barely
twitched off the bottom of historic lows?

DSK

Good news is really bad news, isn't it? Has there ever been a time when
no
engineer was looking for work? If the employment rate were 1%, would no
engineers be out of work. The employment rate is better than it was
throughout
the 90's, yet there is this persistent whine.

There are many reasons why engineers and other technical fields are
suffering. With the steady increase in productivity of computers, you do
not need the bodies to do the equivalent amount of work that you used to, I
recently completed a design of a 250,000 s.f. office building. The entire
team...engineers, included, that worked on the project was 10. There were
500 sheets of drawings that were completed in under 6 months. Just a few
years ago, it would have taken 3-4 times that many people to complete the
same task.

The construction industry always lags behind the rest of the economy as
well.

Look around a present day office, you don't see many secretaries like
there used to be either.

I agree with you, Paul. However, there are some in this group who would claim
that improved efficiency was simply a subversive plot of the Bush administration
to keep good people out of work.

John H

On the 'Poco Loco' out of Deale, MD
on the beautiful Chesapeake Bay!