Purely to see if there were jobs available within my skill set.
I inputted counterbalanced forklift operator.
Today I received an email from the job site which read;
Based on your saved search for forklift operator in All Perth WA , we’ve found 7 new jobs that could be right for you.
HV Electrician (high Voltage)
Dozer Operator
Truck Centre Parts Interpreter
Office Warehouse
Costco Airport Clothing Stocker
Costco Airport Merchandise Stocker
Warehouse Coordinator
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my son started. out as a Fork lift Operator within 3 years he was he was promoted to Warehouse Manager receiving and sending out RR plane Engines and its the largest Global one in the world ,from small beginnings big things can happen .
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A few months ago, also out of curiosity, I went back to LinkedIn. What a bizarre mix of recommended jobs - some with job titles I could not understand. Pretty much all demanding lots of knowledge of IT systems that I’d not heard of. Quite happy to have all that behind me.
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I found it ridiculous that I was found suitable for a High Voltage Electrician position.
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Seems like old machine operators like me…Centre Lathe, Miller, Grinders, Slotters, Shapers and whole host of other machines that nobody has ever heard of, are not required anymore in favour of CNC and Computer guided tooling stations…Where you put some metal in one end, and a finish product comes out the other end in the time it takes to mash a mug of tea… 
I’m beginning to hate computers…They’ve killed jobs in industry, they control and drive our cars, and made us a very lazy nation…
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I used all those manual machines you mention. I lost the end of my finger using a shaping machine.
Had it squashed out of existence via the rocker arm which operated the vertical feed
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Ouch! Bretrick…
I know quite a few engineers minus a digit or two…Seem to me, you are very lucky to have a career in engineering and retiring with all your bits intact.
I had some close shaves in the past…
But escaped unscathed…
I lost the tip of my index finger in 1977. 1st year apprentice Fitter and Turner.
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Even back in the 90’s (when some of us were almost young) there were plenty of complex machines. I worked in an aerospace factory near Manchester about then. Not on the shop floor, no skills for that. But we’d a couple of 7-axis milling machines to take large aluminium billets down to precision cut aircraft spars. You can knock computer controlled machines but it wad impressive to see 80%+ of the ali being milled off over 28 hours.
I was very impressed by the operator. Aligning the lengthy billet. Setting the machine programme. Overseeing the cutting. There is zero possibility of a manually operating machine achieving that accuracy.
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I probably sound like a bit of a luddite but, look at factories at the beginning of the 20th century.
Full of workers beavering away and doing mostly manual labour. Hundreds of thousands of people turning up for work each day and doing mostly physical jobs. Plenty of skilled personnel experienced and trained teaching the next generation of workers.
Towns and villages with shops and small businesses being supported by the workers from the factories…
There is a lot more to industry than profits on a spreadsheet.
They keep communities out of poverty, and the government collect taxes from the workers.
Humans need something to do. They need to occupy their time, and they need to keep strong and healthy.
Why are Gyms a thing these days? Park runs etc? Because most jobs these days are for people sat on their bottoms staring at screens. They are either overweight, or attending a gym in their spare time, or pursuing some other sporting activity. The other half of the community are getting up to no good - At least round here they are.
So we produce machines, computers and AI, so what has happened to those communities?
They have turned into endless rows of houses with not a shop in sight, and where you don’t even know the name of the person next door. Unless you meet them while out walking your dog. We have doctors surgeries and hospitals packed to the rafters with sick people and hardly any doctors. When I started in my career as an engineer there were 50 workers and half a dozen admin and clerical, now there are 50 admin and clerical (bean counters) and five workers…Our future young people are been sent for extended education, not only don’t they pay tax, we pay for that education that probably won’t get them that job that they are qualified to do. And no qualified graduate at 21 is going to get their hands dirty doing a manual job or taking orders from some boss who is probably less qualified than them…On paper anyway…
So lets forget about people and communities and lets keep taking peoples jobs and livelihoods away by creating ever bigger and more efficient machines and lets make loads of cheap goods and money…But what about the workers?
There you are Lincs, I’ve included some ‘Whataboutery’…But don’t worry, because you admin folk and bean counters will always have something to analise and turn into a statistic…
You’ve certainly widened the scope of the thread.
I’ve three observations on your post.
I’m not convinced that all factory workers were doing physical jobs, even back in the day. Quite a lot was fairly stationary - at work station or machine. No more active than someone working in an Amazon warehouse (sorry, fulfillment centre). The diet was most likely the key factor that kept people from being overweight.
I’d observe that you are one or two steps away from recommending a communist utopia - where everyone has a job that the state supports, everyone has a role in their society and profit is not a factor.
Lastly, computer controlled machines do still require operator input. The machines enable highly accurate and highly repeatable manufacture. Back in the 50’s and 60’s it was down to the machinist to try to be accurate and the same as one before … but tolerances had to be much lower because of the hand-built nature of manufacturing. Hence there were more duff products, products that failed quite quickly and a need for lots of product repair / maintenance. Which is all surely a good thing.
Lifting and carrying, probably stood at a machine for several hours, walking or cycling to work…How much of those things are being done now?
Diets were also part of the equation, fresh locally produced food instead of imported stuff from the other side of the world, and providing farming jobs. The total amount of confectionary could be displayed on one counter of a newsagents shop, now it takes up three isles of a supermarket.
Once upon a time that Amazon warehouse would have been full of machines and workers, these days it takes half a dozen pickers and fork lift truck drivers to operate a warehouse the size of a small African country. Probably on good farmland that would have helped reduce the amount of imported stuff.
Most machinists that I worked with could work to extremely fine tolerances with no failed products else you were up the road…
And my point was, that machines and computers are drastically reducing the amount of workers…So what will all the excess workers do? A poor local economy and lost skills. No wonder our young folk can’t afford to buy a home, they’ve got very few practical skills and don’t even start work until their twenties. I was a skilled man at 21 earning enough to buy my own home. There is more to industry than figures on a spreadsheet and producing masses of cheap goods, instead of supporting communities. We are losing our way, and computers will be the death of mankind…But isn’t that what the rich and powerful want?
Further education is good for society, but, chasing Birds 24/7 is good four the soul.
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there’s no money in chasing birds, pigeons especially.
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Oh how I miss the days when job hunting was a matter of buying the Sydney Morning Herald (substitute your local paper here) on a Saturday morning and ploughing through a 100 pages of job ads.
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yes I remember back in the 60/70s there being columns full of jobs and a Machinist making up clothes for M&S was an easy job to find , now majority of Clothes are made abroad , The Factories employing as many as 100s are now turned into Apartments , and people are living in them .
Gone are the days when you could walk out one job and be working somewhere else the next week .
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Moving to London in the 70s, I was amazed by all sorts of unusual “opportunities” advertised in the Evening News and the Evening Standard (later merged into The Standard).
You didn’t need a CV, just went for an interview with the MD, and he’s say bugger off or you can start in the morning. My first job in London was a van driver, little Escort, for a printing company. It didn’t seem to matter that I had zero experience, they just wanted someone who could think for themself.
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That’s exactly how it was d00d!
Happy days 
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Happy days, oh yes. Not sure life’s quite so easy/uncomplicated nowadays.
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