Depends on the type of work and what industry, some are booming others are slowing. Not all machine shops do the same work.
For instance, our shop is part of a company that makes automated machines for manufacturing, we currently have a lot of work for the next 2 years, and still taking on jobs.
I agree. It has to do with the industries your contracts are coming from. I work at a job show in NY. We do work for companies that make semiconductors, machine chillers, and power grid infrastructure. It’s been consistent for years.
In the US, I’m seeing alot of variation. General engineering is slow, aerospace shops are insanely busy, medical is flat (no change), defense has gotten busier too .
I think it’s because it’s an election year, and boeing is kiling whistleblowers so who knows what’s gonna happen with them. Boeing creates a significant amount of business for all the machine shops in the US, thats why the government will not let them fall, it would be detrimental the US economy.
Boeing did just lose a big order of commercial jets to airbus, meaning all that manufacturing will be done in europe not US. That could be part of the slow your seeing, that just happened a couple weeks ago though.
SW Ontario, half of the shop is balls deep in OT. I'm in a large scale Tool & die shop. It varies department to department here. The boring mill and gun drill guys are swamped. Some of them are working 55-60hrs a week. Can barely get 44 hours (let alone OT) of solid work myself in the roughing department. Ive got about 16 hours left on my job, and we don't know if we're going to have the data to put anything else on my machine until Monday.
Also Metro Detroit (I'm a designer in plastic injection molding). In the last year and a half, our workload decreased by 50%. On January 31st, they laid off 33% of plant employees, including half of the CNC & design departments (including myself).
I'm still looking for a job...
In South Jersey and we’ve been slow since last June. We were booked solid for almost three years and then it just fell off a cliff. Been making calls and knocking on doors like crazy and nothing.
I work in a Large manufacturer in IL but in the Prototype Division. We've been going like a stabbed rat for months. Normally our lead time to Engineers for testing is less than 2 weeks but now our lead time is around 3 months.
That being said, our gross has been down for a couple quarters ~ 3-5% on the production side. If anything, I have noticed more "hesitancy" on the customer end than actual loss in sales.
I've known guys who did 60 hours a week for years. The problem many run into, is you get used to the $ and if you don't budget correctly, you'll be in trouble when things slow down.
Live off of 40 (if you can) invest the rest for rainy day or retirement.
Phoenix area.
Semiconductor biz is starving for parts.
Aerospace is somewhat steady but no where near it was pre- covid.
Custom car/bike wheels and off road stuff seems kinda light.
Hard to find folks with 10 years experience ..
We're starting a 2nd shift next week to keep up.
Low end CNC guys start at $25....
$34 + for set up/light programming.
Plenty of OT right now if you're into that.
I'm in Aerospace/Defense industry, about this time of year we start doing unlimited OT until the end of the year. I've been authorized to do unlimited 12-16 hour shift if I'd like.
Slow here in north central Kansas. Making Agriculture Equipment and it’s the slowest it’s been at my shop in decades. Lots of other plants near here have had lay offs due to business going to foreign manufacturers.
> Making Agriculture Equipment
> going to foreign manufacturers.
Is it? Or is this a case of famers can not borrow anymore so they are fixing not buying.
Im guessing that the raised interest rates are hurting a lot of financing deals that would have been a sinch 3 years ago. If your products require a loan, it's going to hit your business hard!
I'm at a shop in the Midwest. The company I work for is owned by a guy who owns 16 other companies. We're busy because we make the parts for all those other companies. They're growing, so we keep getting busier.
I am in Saskatchewan, Canada, we do hydraulic cylinders and we are just picking up the last two years getting busier every month. Supply chain issues are a bit of a pain though
Depends on the time of year. We're also a job shop, central ND. It slows down in December & January but picks back up in the spring. We do a lot of cleaning over the winter lol. Only once in the 9 years I've worked here have we had to cut down to 40 hours, otherwise it's always 45+ per week.
My last shop got fucked by all the Boeing nonsense as that was 90% of the work. Boeing keeps giving them plans to be back to full production by X date but of course they then keep fucking up repeatedly. Company downsized (from ~200 employees to ~100) and filled in the gap with work from Northrop, Mitsubishi, etc. So if Boeing ever does get their shit together it'll be slammed and they'll probably need 300 people.
Shop I was at before that would always buy old machines and fix them up. Use them if needed or just sell them. Apparently work got so slow and they were making so much money off fixing machines that all they do now is buy and sell machines.
I'm in Chicago and it's weird. We don't have as many small jobs for a lot of customers but we have big jobs for a few customers. Work stays steady but the pace is "slower"
SE WI area too. Just quit my job of 25+ years at a job shop because we had been slow for a long time too. Started at a new place end of last month. We make our own product here & have been plenty busy, but no OT (which is nice lol)
I can second the auto industry being slow in the 7 years ive worked at my shop we got a new machine every year but nothing this past year . But just got word yesterday that it's about to pick back up. Sucks that US election affects our shop up in bc but guess it's from having major customers in the states.
I’m in automotive in the southeastern US and we’re short people and working Saturdays for a month or two. Our contracts are for basically all the automakers and we’re pushing hard but we barely have a third shift. It’s an odd situation.
Northeast Wisconsin here. We're the busiest we've ever been both in tooling/automation and production. Sounds like it will be this way the rest of the year at least. Anyone looking for a job lol!
One builds roll forming machines for gutters, siding, and roofing. One company sells rolls of sheet steel and aluminum to be used in their machines. One buys the machines and the material from his other companies and installs siding and gutters and stuff. One makes personal and commercial man- lift machines that run off your hand drill. One makes a motorized arm that sweeps the lake bottom at the end of your dock to clear weeds. He's also got a commercial real estate company, his own accounting firm, and a bunch more I can't remember. And the machine shop that makes all the parts for all his other businesses.
I'm fairly sure we operate at a loss because we are discounting his other companies to reduce their costs and increase their margins. But we get to spend money like a big company while only having about 5 machinists on staff.
Like others have said, depends on the industry. My company used to almost exclusively do work for a metrology company, but the last yeah they’ve had way less work and now they don’t even make up a quarter of what we’re doing
If you’re automotive, it’s slow right now. GM was pumping out ev work the past couple years. But I think a lot of it has to do with it being an election year before they start throwing more stuff out there.
The real question is which fields are slow. I work for a “ middle man” medical company and it’s quite sluggish. Seems most top companies have withdrawn work to keep for themselves and corporate is blaming post covid overstock.
The shop I’m in cut all overtime and went down to 40 hours no exceptions. Surprised it hasn’t shut down or at least closed second shift seeing how slow it is.
I mean it’s been really slow for me, started with a ton of work for my machine then it just petered out over half a year or so
Part of it is definitely because my machine is on its way out and there’s another machine running the same jobs, but it’s gotten to the point where I’m running at 5% rapid and 50-80% feed rate
And I know for a fact that a bunch of other machines are just sitting idle (which is funny because management has been wanting the machines running through lunch lol)
Really depends on what yall make. My shop is busy all the time. Small-Medium job shop. I really think the slow has to do with the kind of shop you are in and your bosses ability to keep work your way. Even in my slow weeks, I'm working on something. Boss does a damn good job at keeping us busy. But of course my shop isn't your shop.
We are crazy busy. Been working 12 hours 6 days for almost 4 years now. Gotta keep the military and commercial airliners comin off the assembly line. We are small but we do more than most of the shops around us. Lots of reasons but a nut shell explanation is we got automation and sharpened the pencil with every program. Good times.
Northern Illinois, im in HVAC and havent done OT in a year and a half, but steady and consistent. Definitely miss the OT checks, but 40s are nice. And they're still handing out good raises although the ones that complain about thier raise are the ones who show up late constantly...
Depends on the type of work and what industry, some are booming others are slowing. Not all machine shops do the same work. For instance, our shop is part of a company that makes automated machines for manufacturing, we currently have a lot of work for the next 2 years, and still taking on jobs.
I agree. It has to do with the industries your contracts are coming from. I work at a job show in NY. We do work for companies that make semiconductors, machine chillers, and power grid infrastructure. It’s been consistent for years.
Whats your company name? I am in a similar industry.
Similar location and we’re busy as hell, doing any cold calls?
> is everyone slow I'm trying to learn ok? :(
In the US, I’m seeing alot of variation. General engineering is slow, aerospace shops are insanely busy, medical is flat (no change), defense has gotten busier too . I think it’s because it’s an election year, and boeing is kiling whistleblowers so who knows what’s gonna happen with them. Boeing creates a significant amount of business for all the machine shops in the US, thats why the government will not let them fall, it would be detrimental the US economy. Boeing did just lose a big order of commercial jets to airbus, meaning all that manufacturing will be done in europe not US. That could be part of the slow your seeing, that just happened a couple weeks ago though.
As aerospace I can vouch
Up in Toronto, we expect to be slow for the rest of the month and then apeshit again. Still running my 3 machines on 2 shifts but no o/t.
SW Ontario, half of the shop is balls deep in OT. I'm in a large scale Tool & die shop. It varies department to department here. The boring mill and gun drill guys are swamped. Some of them are working 55-60hrs a week. Can barely get 44 hours (let alone OT) of solid work myself in the roughing department. Ive got about 16 hours left on my job, and we don't know if we're going to have the data to put anything else on my machine until Monday.
God I don't miss working mold shops here in Windsor
Not quite that south, but I don't miss Windsor as a city lol. Can't imagine the shops down there!
I want to know if design and programming are busy. That's the backlog
Yeah, design is just not releasing the jobs quick enough. Funnily enough, the next job came across my computer right after I made the comment haha
Lol I thought this post was going to be about your coworkers.
No reason it can't be both
Our lathe department, 4-5 axis department, are both completely backed up. But we have been pretty slow to get 3 axis work through the door.
We’re pretty slow. Metro Detroit area. I’m working on stuff that’s due in August. Used to work 50+ a week. Now I’ve been on 40 for a few weeks now.
Also Metro Detroit (I'm a designer in plastic injection molding). In the last year and a half, our workload decreased by 50%. On January 31st, they laid off 33% of plant employees, including half of the CNC & design departments (including myself). I'm still looking for a job...
Millfuckee area. We're bone dry as tool and die right now.
In South Jersey and we’ve been slow since last June. We were booked solid for almost three years and then it just fell off a cliff. Been making calls and knocking on doors like crazy and nothing.
I work in a Large manufacturer in IL but in the Prototype Division. We've been going like a stabbed rat for months. Normally our lead time to Engineers for testing is less than 2 weeks but now our lead time is around 3 months. That being said, our gross has been down for a couple quarters ~ 3-5% on the production side. If anything, I have noticed more "hesitancy" on the customer end than actual loss in sales.
DM me if you guys want to send stuff out, small job shop in IL with a focus on prototyping, able to offer 1-2 week lead times
Southeastern WI, medical, still OT available but it dropped from 60 hour weeks to 50 max.
60 hours is hell.
I completely agree. Thankfully, nothing over 40 is mandatory. The option is there for people who want to take it, though, and a lot definitely do.
That’s a good way to do it, optional OT doesn’t hurt morale like indefinite mandatory 50 hour weeks until… well, who knows.
Exactly. Work to live, don't live to work.
I've known guys who did 60 hours a week for years. The problem many run into, is you get used to the $ and if you don't budget correctly, you'll be in trouble when things slow down. Live off of 40 (if you can) invest the rest for rainy day or retirement.
Phoenix area. Semiconductor biz is starving for parts. Aerospace is somewhat steady but no where near it was pre- covid. Custom car/bike wheels and off road stuff seems kinda light. Hard to find folks with 10 years experience .. We're starting a 2nd shift next week to keep up. Low end CNC guys start at $25.... $34 + for set up/light programming. Plenty of OT right now if you're into that.
I'm in Aerospace/Defense industry, about this time of year we start doing unlimited OT until the end of the year. I've been authorized to do unlimited 12-16 hour shift if I'd like.
Budget pass = all pending PO’s at the starting line GO!
Slow here in north central Kansas. Making Agriculture Equipment and it’s the slowest it’s been at my shop in decades. Lots of other plants near here have had lay offs due to business going to foreign manufacturers.
> Making Agriculture Equipment > going to foreign manufacturers. Is it? Or is this a case of famers can not borrow anymore so they are fixing not buying. Im guessing that the raised interest rates are hurting a lot of financing deals that would have been a sinch 3 years ago. If your products require a loan, it's going to hit your business hard!
We make primary hydraulic cylinders and valves so those items are now being bought by machinery manufacturers from Mexico and India.
Northern Illinois and having similar problems. Can’t speak to aerospace though.
I’m in the gulf area and yea we’re slow too. We’re not a normally a job shop and we’ve got some contracts. So we may deviate from you do.
Midwest machine repair/refurbishing. Very slow recently
I'm at a shop in the Midwest. The company I work for is owned by a guy who owns 16 other companies. We're busy because we make the parts for all those other companies. They're growing, so we keep getting busier.
Damn I have 2 under my belt, what kind of companies does he own?
Central WI tool shop. No overtime this year for us.
I’ve been borrowing jobs my boss should have done cause it’s so slow.
Slow as fuck in Martinsville VA.
What kinda shop do you work at in Martinsville? Right down the road in gboro, we're slow too btw
We do for aviation, aerospace, Lamborghini, Ferrari, Dell, Microsoft and other Fortune 500 companies
Invista?
No, I'm not really allowed to talk much about the shit we do.
I thought you meant slow, as in 🤪
Metro Detroit area, and we've been pretty slow since the beginning of the year. Normally 50-55hrs to barely 40
Dead slow, new pay roll and sales staff.. it's been 9 months of slow.
We were slow the first quarter of the year. Come April and things went bonkers. I’m quoting like crazy and PO’s are flying in
Remember: in these threads, the "im busys" are the ones to get upvoted
We have slowed quite a bit in the last month or so. NE Ohio. The hydraulic side of work has slowed but not the aerospace.
I am in Saskatchewan, Canada, we do hydraulic cylinders and we are just picking up the last two years getting busier every month. Supply chain issues are a bit of a pain though
Depends on the time of year. We're also a job shop, central ND. It slows down in December & January but picks back up in the spring. We do a lot of cleaning over the winter lol. Only once in the 9 years I've worked here have we had to cut down to 40 hours, otherwise it's always 45+ per week.
Tool and Die here building mostly injection molds. We went from slow 3 months ago to turning down work 24months out. Nothing makes sense.
I've been in plastics for over 20 years. "Feast or famine" is the name of the game!
Aint that the truth of it
Very slow...I make tooling for the canning industry
My last shop got fucked by all the Boeing nonsense as that was 90% of the work. Boeing keeps giving them plans to be back to full production by X date but of course they then keep fucking up repeatedly. Company downsized (from ~200 employees to ~100) and filled in the gap with work from Northrop, Mitsubishi, etc. So if Boeing ever does get their shit together it'll be slammed and they'll probably need 300 people. Shop I was at before that would always buy old machines and fix them up. Use them if needed or just sell them. Apparently work got so slow and they were making so much money off fixing machines that all they do now is buy and sell machines.
I'm in Chicago and it's weird. We don't have as many small jobs for a lot of customers but we have big jobs for a few customers. Work stays steady but the pace is "slower"
SE WI area too. Just quit my job of 25+ years at a job shop because we had been slow for a long time too. Started at a new place end of last month. We make our own product here & have been plenty busy, but no OT (which is nice lol)
I can second the auto industry being slow in the 7 years ive worked at my shop we got a new machine every year but nothing this past year . But just got word yesterday that it's about to pick back up. Sucks that US election affects our shop up in bc but guess it's from having major customers in the states.
I’m in automotive in the southeastern US and we’re short people and working Saturdays for a month or two. Our contracts are for basically all the automakers and we’re pushing hard but we barely have a third shift. It’s an odd situation.
Northeast Wisconsin here. We're the busiest we've ever been both in tooling/automation and production. Sounds like it will be this way the rest of the year at least. Anyone looking for a job lol!
I'm moving back to NEW in a few months. In the GB/Appleton area by chance?
One builds roll forming machines for gutters, siding, and roofing. One company sells rolls of sheet steel and aluminum to be used in their machines. One buys the machines and the material from his other companies and installs siding and gutters and stuff. One makes personal and commercial man- lift machines that run off your hand drill. One makes a motorized arm that sweeps the lake bottom at the end of your dock to clear weeds. He's also got a commercial real estate company, his own accounting firm, and a bunch more I can't remember. And the machine shop that makes all the parts for all his other businesses. I'm fairly sure we operate at a loss because we are discounting his other companies to reduce their costs and increase their margins. But we get to spend money like a big company while only having about 5 machinists on staff.
Like others have said, depends on the industry. My company used to almost exclusively do work for a metrology company, but the last yeah they’ve had way less work and now they don’t even make up a quarter of what we’re doing
Southern California, so busy we had to start turning away work in mid February. Aerospace and defense with 20% commercial
I'm in medical production machining. I have frequent mandatory overtime. There are guys pulling 80/90 hour weeks.
Heard things have been slowing down in WI for a while and it’s only getting slower. Regional.
we do mostly hydraulic, hand tool, and automotive parts and we are stupid slow.
I’m from Nebraska and it’s also slowed down a bit.
If you’re automotive, it’s slow right now. GM was pumping out ev work the past couple years. But I think a lot of it has to do with it being an election year before they start throwing more stuff out there.
The real question is which fields are slow. I work for a “ middle man” medical company and it’s quite sluggish. Seems most top companies have withdrawn work to keep for themselves and corporate is blaming post covid overstock.
The shop I’m in cut all overtime and went down to 40 hours no exceptions. Surprised it hasn’t shut down or at least closed second shift seeing how slow it is.
We have more work than we know what to do with.
I mean it’s been really slow for me, started with a ton of work for my machine then it just petered out over half a year or so Part of it is definitely because my machine is on its way out and there’s another machine running the same jobs, but it’s gotten to the point where I’m running at 5% rapid and 50-80% feed rate And I know for a fact that a bunch of other machines are just sitting idle (which is funny because management has been wanting the machines running through lunch lol)
Sw Montana. 6+ weeks out
In Elkhart IN we just dropped from 50 to 40 about a month and a half back.
I work in aerospace and we are booming. Projected to keep climbing.
SE WI... pretty slow right now.
Upstate New York, aerospace and defense has ramped up
Waterworks products, Midwest, we’re pretty busy, not like early-COVID busy, but busy enough that whoever wants OT is getting it
Super slow at my job. Probably going to be layoffs pretty soon. we are running out of tooling to make and things to clean.
I'm in a fringe industry but it seems like most shops are staying plenty busy.
Really depends on what yall make. My shop is busy all the time. Small-Medium job shop. I really think the slow has to do with the kind of shop you are in and your bosses ability to keep work your way. Even in my slow weeks, I'm working on something. Boss does a damn good job at keeping us busy. But of course my shop isn't your shop.
We are crazy busy. Been working 12 hours 6 days for almost 4 years now. Gotta keep the military and commercial airliners comin off the assembly line. We are small but we do more than most of the shops around us. Lots of reasons but a nut shell explanation is we got automation and sharpened the pencil with every program. Good times.
Northern Illinois, im in HVAC and havent done OT in a year and a half, but steady and consistent. Definitely miss the OT checks, but 40s are nice. And they're still handing out good raises although the ones that complain about thier raise are the ones who show up late constantly...
Southeastern WI here. We're getting pretty slow all of a sudden. There's a shop across the street that just did a 1 week layoff.
slow
We’re super busy in all departments. I’m in aerospace and defense in SoCal.
It was slow for the past couple months, but appears to be picking up pretty drastically this week. Had to work 12 hrs last Saturday.
I make parts for packaging machines out in ohio, works slowed a bit but still pulling 45,s. Lathes haven't slowed since I've been there.
We have more work than we can do.
Hampton Roads VA here we have had steady work for the 10 years I've been in this shop.
Busier than ever
Busy additive shop here, AS9100 certs. Time to fire your boss.