Wall Street Journal Executive Summary - Essay Example

The $140,000-a-Year Welding Job The executive summary is a review of an article published in the Wall Street Journal on 7th January 2015. The article was authored by James, Hagerty R., titled “The $140,000-a-Year Welding Job.” The article is about a 24 year old, Justin Friend who against all odds decided to join the Texas State Technical College, Waco to pursue a 2 year degree in welding lieu of joining university after graduating from high school. Many people expected him to join the university and follow the footsteps of his parents who are doctoral degree holders and works as lecturers.

In 2013, Justin Friend netted $130,000 as annual income from his welding job a figure that is considered triple the average annual wages earned by U.S. welders. In 2014, his annual average income rose to around $140, 000. The prices of oil have fallen below $50 mark in the Texas, and this is likely to push down the incomes earned by welders and other workers in the energy industry. The plummeting prices have been attributed to the slowing economy and a fall in the global prices of fuel. For this reason, the levels of exploration are on a downward trend and Hagerty argues that this is likely to reduce the level of demand for welders in the U.S. market in the near term; a lucrative industry that has been on upward trend in the recent past mainly because of the boom in energy industry.

However, Hagerty argues that, even though, the energy industry’s growth is on downward trend, the estimated numbers of qualified welders in the U.S. is likely to increase in the future because more students are enrolling in the Texas State Technical College schools network. For instance, in the ending semester of 2014 summer-fall, the number of students in the colleges rose by almost 70% compared to the earlier three years. The levels of unemployment of welders in the U.S. is likely to reduce by the year 2022.

The United States Bureau of Statistics projects that about 378,200 jobs will be created in the U.S., representing about a 6% increase in job opportunities since the year 2012. However, this is below the 11% projected rise in the levels of employment in other industries in the U.S. Mr. Friend, however, argues that with better and more advanced skills, the projected 6% figure can increase as more welders will be able to secure jobs in the auto industry where many have been eliminated by the use of robots.

Conversely, with advanced skills the welders’ annual incomes are also likely to increase as depicted by the rise annual income for Mr. Friend in the 2013-2014 period. The level of demand for welders in the energy industry is on a downward trend while the level of their supply, on the other hand, is on the rise. The number of welders graduating from schools is expected to be high in the future as more and more students join the Texas State Technical College schools’ network to pursue degrees in the welding profession.

As was noted above, the number of students joining the network increased by about 70% in the fall of 2014 semester, a clear demonstration that the number of welders is on the rise. The average pay rate per hour for welders in the U.S., as demonstrated by Justin Friend is on the rise. When Justin joined the industry in 2012, his base pay per hour was about $22, but the figure has risen over the years and currently it is over $25. This is a clear indication that the annual average income earned by welders in the U.S. is on an upward trend.

Thus, probably this explains the rising number of students taking the courses in technical fields, especially in the welding profession as demonstrated by the 70% enrollment in the Texas State Technical College schools’ network. In summary, the projected fall in oil prices in Texas and the U.S. is attributable to the global fall in the prices of oil as result of low demand for crude oil and the upsurge of oil exploration in the United States and insipid economic growth in other nation globally.

Conversely, the increased supply of crude oil from OPEC countries is another significant factor that led to the decline in oil prices since 2014. The level of unemployment of welders in the U.S. is likely to reduce because of the surging United States economic growth and the surge in oil exploration that is likely to open up the energy and bring it back to its glorious past. The demand of welder in the U.S. is plummeting because of slow current economic growth as a result of the fall in prices of oil globally resulting in shrinkage of the industry.

Ultimately, the projected rise in base pay rates for welders in the U.S. will be as a result increased demand for welders in different industries. Works Cited Hagerty, James R. The $140,000-a-year welding job. Web. 2015, January 7.