Seems the rates have been the same ($60-$80 per hour) for the past 10 15 years (midwest). The wages for the people that do the actual machining haven't improved much either, and they sure didn't anywhere keep up with inflation.
Frankly, I don't see how people can stay in business. Out of about 6 shops I worked in only two are still in business and they are very small outfits; the big places that had heavy duty contracts or made their own products are LONG gone! The excuses for the low pay/rates first was the Japanese and Koreans, then Mexico, now it's ALL in China. Kinda funny how the Communists (who protect their economy) turned out to be the only large scale manufacturers left.
Oh well, c'est la vie, guess I should have been a CEO or something. Never really could figure out what those people that live in those 'burb mansions did for money, (not machining/manufacturing) there sure seems to be an awful lot of them though!