Amazon set to lay off thousands in Washington state

[cheetah50]

Yep, the coding bros went from telling coal miners to learn how to code and then now they will have to learn welding or plumbing.

Seen this one firsthand. Many of the processes now in mining are highly automated and quite complex. I've worked at Coal mines as an electrical engineer in the past. Many, many, electricians (Regular electricians need not apply, you'll need MSHA certification and typically state certification for mining as well), Many professional welders, many plumbers ( Fire suppression systems, Water sprays for dust suppression, cooling loops in modern equipment, etc...). You'd be surprised how many processionals it takes at a modern coal mines. The jobs pay well...but dang is it rough on you. Last one I was at was a 21" seam height, maybe 23" of clearance in a good spot... Rough as all heck on the body. When a layoff hit a buddies mine a few months back he was told to go back and earn his welders certification and he might be able to land a job down the road....he already had his welders certs, the job down the road was 1/4 the pay. He left the area and is working in Canada now, need to call and see how he's doing.

 

[Owen Lucas]

Last one I was at was a 21" seam height, maybe 23" of clearance in a good spot

Wait, that's the height of the workspace? I've seen the low profile mining vehicles but wow, that is super short. Why not dig a bigger work space?

 

[alarmguy]

The new occupation buzz will soon be "just learn how to weld".

Yup, many employers in the trades, heating and air, electricians, plumbers, framers, roofers, flooring, law enforcement, city, and state workers, postal workers, prisons to name just a few have employment opportunities. Not just opportunities but shortages of workers guarantee employment.

All you have to do is want to work and that is a problem sometimes in our new soft culture. The work ethic has disappeared from many, but certainly not all they got used to being in handed things without working for them.
I can’t believe when I see some people referred to with its hard work. Really now.

 

[GON]

Not at all; they all complain about health issues by middle age, multiple divorces, alcohol and drug abuse on the reddits and I can believe it. Not the results I would envy although their work is honorable.



Probably not enough local hands to help anyways, if the only people that are local-ish are themselves farmers or already have some sort of job in their farming town.

Some assessments conclude that private industry physical labor jobs directly compete with government incentives not to seek employment.

 

[cheetah50]

Wait, that's the height of the workspace? I've seen the low profile mining vehicles but wow, that is super short. Why not dig a bigger work space?

Yep, that was the workspace height. It was much cheaper to mine at the lower height rather than take additional material due to processing. The lower height was straight ship, so it went straight from the mines to the buyer. Mines that had inter seam burden or take larger areas have to process the coal to remove the waste material, that involves fairly extensive costs and the material has to be disposed of , typically in "holllow" fill impoundments, which incurs long term liabilities.

Edit: Here is a old MSHA fatality report for a mines that was in the same seam as the one I was at, their mining height was a tad higher and much older mining techniques: https://arlweb.msha.gov/FATALS/2006/FTL06c39.asp

 

[Owen Lucas]

All you have to do is want to work and that is a problem sometimes in our new soft culture. The work ethic has disappeared from many, but certainly not all they got used to being in handed things without working for them.
I can’t believe when I see some people referred to with its hard work. Really now.

This applies to customer service as well.

 

[Dave Hess]

Not at all; they all complain about health issues by middle age, multiple divorces, alcohol and drug abuse on the reddits and I can believe it. Not the results I would envy although their work is honorable.



Probably not enough local hands to help anyways, if the only people that are local-ish are themselves farmers or already have some sort of job in their farming town.

Some trades are slow.

Some trades that are union….. certain folks get consistent work and others are sitting at home not working.
Friends and relatives are always making money with connections to union boss.

I think in some trades there’s just way too many folks looking for work and limited projects.
Also lots of undercutting the next guy to get a job.

Example:
3 licensed (electricians, plumbers, carpenters, welders, HVAC, etc…) and 40 helpers without license at job site like a supermarket being built.

 

[Owen Lucas]

Here's another theory:

Amazon needs to reallocate capital to buy expensive Nvidia GPUs for their AWS division to desperately secure a place in the future of AI cloud.

This was necessary because AWS's growth numbers had been declining, and its rivals (Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure) were catching up in the AI space.

To avoid damaging AWS's crucial profit margins while making these large capital expenditures, Amazon cut salaries, their biggest fixed expense.

 

[Dave Hess]

I saw that video the other day.

I agree employees are very expensive and cutting them is the fastest way to reduce costs and reallocate elsewhere.

I wold really like to see the salaries of various positions that were eliminated from A - Z.
Some jobs were easily over $300K per year….

 

[M56959]

Topic has run its course.