☮ ♥ ♬ 🧑‍💻<p>“A job in industry is also now harder to attain. Modern <a href="https://ioc.exchange/tags/factories" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>factories</span></a> are high-tech, run by <a href="https://ioc.exchange/tags/engineers" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>engineers</span></a> and <a href="https://ioc.exchange/tags/technicians" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>technicians</span></a>. In the early 1980s <a href="https://ioc.exchange/tags/BlueCollar" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>BlueCollar</span></a> assemblers, machine operators and repair workers made up more than half of the <a href="https://ioc.exchange/tags/manufacturing" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>manufacturing</span></a> workforce. </p><p>Today they account for less than a third. <a href="https://ioc.exchange/tags/Whitecollar" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Whitecollar</span></a> professionals outnumber blue-collar factory-floor workers by a wide margin. Even once obtained, a <a href="https://ioc.exchange/tags/FactoryJob" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>FactoryJob</span></a> is far less likely to be unionised than in previous decades, with membership having fallen from one in four workers in the 1980s to less than one in ten today.</p><p>In order to find the modern equivalent of such jobs, we looked for <a href="https://ioc.exchange/tags/employment" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>employment</span></a> with the same traits. What offers decent <a href="https://ioc.exchange/tags/pay" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>pay</span></a>, <a href="https://ioc.exchange/tags/unionisation" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>unionisation</span></a>, requires no <a href="https://ioc.exchange/tags/degree" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>degree</span></a> and can soak up the male workforce? </p><p>The result: mechanics, repair technicians, security workers and the skilled trades.”</p><p>&lt;<a href="https://archive.md/L1J7W" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="">archive.md/L1J7W</span><span class="invisible"></span></a>&gt; (paywall) / &lt;<a href="https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2025/06/10/factory-work-is-overrated-here-are-the-jobs-of-the-future" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">economist.com/finance-and-econ</span><span class="invisible">omics/2025/06/10/factory-work-is-overrated-here-are-the-jobs-of-the-future</span></a>&gt;</p>