N_Cook wrote:

This article has soldering as a dying art along with trug making etc

http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2...heritage-craft

perhaps they meant soldering as in tin-smithing.

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NDUzWDY0MA==/z/CMgAAOxyLm9TDdVl/$_12.JPG

But on the other hand how much hands-on soldering rework of modern day
mass electronics production is there?

Probably just rework on any dead items at the end of the line (if has
sufficient value) or attaching the big lumpy stuff like connectors and
transformers.