[quote=AN]CAR, I agree with you that if you’re unemployed today, life is worse for you today than 10 years ago. One question for you, were you friends in engineering 10 years ago? 10 years ago = .com crash. I know many engineers who got laid off back then and those who are just graduating between 2000-2003 were lucky to find a job. So, today, when unemployment for white collar workers are under <8%, I think most engineers feels better off today than 10 years ago.[/quote]
Yes, people in the tech industry got slammed hard; but most of the techies I know were doing it during the bubble, so were making massive amounts of income (relatively speaking), and some were smart enough to stockpile that money and were able to live off it when the bubble burst. Right now, they are at or below where they were before the bubble burst. I don't know any techies who are better off today than they were during the tech bubble. Mind you, I probably know an older set of workers than you do.
One thing to consider is age, AN. If you were only graduating in 2000-ish, then it's highly likely the past ten years would see the greatest income increases in your career life (barring crashes and other similar events). Most of us saw great earnings increases right after college because that's when you are most mobile and are moving up the corporate ladder. There is a point though where that pretty much levels off, usually somewhere in your 30s to mid-40s. So, I think this might be skewing how we all look at the economy today vs. 10+ years ago. It depends on whether or not we were at the beginning of our careers then, or near the peak/plateau. For those who were near a plateau, the economy would probably tend to look a lot more bleak today than it did 10+ years ago.
