[Arrath]

I think loss of institutional knowledge is a huge problem across all sectors of the economy. In my niche of specialty construction engineering I saw it get exacerbated by the Great Recession, companies froze hiring and laid folks off from the bottom up, while retaining senior people. Who are now or have already retired, without a younger cadre to have absorbed their knowledge and carry it on.

[cmpalmer52]

Yes, we see that, too, in the natural gas industry. The old engineering guys are retiring and being replaced by technicians who can implement a design, but not design something new. One of the reasons our firm provides engineering services through contracts to smaller utilities. But even the larger utilities are losing institutional knowledge, largely due to replacing engineers with techs, many of whom are field guys with no engineering training.