Jason L. asks…

Q. Do you think welding jobs may still be available when I finish my certificates in the next year?

A. Definitely. According to the American Welding Society (AWS), 40% of manufacturing companies declined new contracts due to insufficient availability of skilled workers. That trend will not change soon. According to an article in Midwest Manufacturing News, even robotic welding has not been fully utilized due to cumbersome programming issues. One firm, Kinetiq Teaching, has designed an add-on solution to allow any welder to intuitively program welding robots without having any in-depth programming knowledge. Use of this software or others like it may trickle down to small and medium businesses and allow them to employ welders too. So opportunities abound for entry-level welders and experienced ones as well.
http://www.virtualonlineeditions.com/article/Teaching+Welding+Robots+By+Demonstration/1747358/0/article.html