Posted on 06/01/2016 11:16:50 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
As the unemployment rate drops across the country, employers are running into another problem – finding potential job candidates who will take and pass drug tests. Even though the country is amid an opioid epidemic, employers say marijuana has been the biggest hurdle. New York Times reporter Jackie Calmes talks to Hari Sreenivasan about her reporting on the issue.
HARI SREENIVASAN, PBS ANCHOR: So Jackie Calmes, how big is this problem of people walking away from a job interview when they hear that there’s a drug test?
JACKIE CALMES: Well, it’s bigger than I thought! Clearly, because this whole subject came to me in a completely separate news story I was reporting. And employers, local leaders, just volunteered to me that as the unemployment rate came down, the biggest hurdle they were facing in finding – in filling jobs was finding people who were willing to take a drug test, and if they did take a drug test, could pass it. And I thought, well, that can’t be as big a problem as they’re making it out to be.
So a couple of weeks later when I had some time, I started making calls around the country. This initial tip was in Indiana. And it was like shooting fish in a barrel; it was so easy to find employers to tell me it was a problem.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Is there any kind of way to break this down? Is it a type of worker? Is it from a specific region, a type of industry where these employers are facing these challenges?
JACKIE CALMES: It’s across the board, but it’s clearly a bigger problem in jobs for unskilled or low-skilled people....
(Excerpt) Read more at pbs.org ...
Maybe but ‘lately’ its really very difficult to find someone willing to show up on time, do a full days work competently and stay sober. Its sad really.... Most people seem only to live for their next drug induced stupor.
And it’s more – less than, like, a weekend use, like maybe a couple of decades ago, to more of a lifestyle of near-nightly use, near-daily use.
“...As the unemployment rate drops across the country...”
And when is this supposed to take place????????
From the Dallas Morning news a few years back:
Drug Testing Losing Favor with Employers
Those who want a job in America with Plano-based Electronic Data Systems Inc. must hand over a hair sample for drug testing – in addition to a well-crafted resume and solid references.
Across the Canadian border, however, hair samples aren’t required at EDS locations. “Because of cultural differences, it’s not as accepted there, and we would no longer be considered a preferred employer,” said EDS spokeswoman Leslie Hueholt.
“It would apparently impact our ability to recruit in Europe and Canada.”
I had to laugh at the NY Times on this issue. The NY Times editorial board is in favor of legalizing recreational marijuana use. Yet the times does drug testing for potential employees........
My question is, as more and more states legalize marijuana, will it still be kegsl to do drug testing?, wouldn’t it be discrimination against people using a legal substance to do drug testing in the first place???
Drug test welfare recipients.
Dave’s not here.
And now there are even employers testing for nicotine.
Most people get government benefits and don’t need the job. Today, a good investment in the future is to learn how to do something - practical - plumbing, electrical, machining, farming whatever. Something that gets the hand at least a wee bit dirty.
Yet businesses turn their backs on older job seekers who on the average are less likely to be potheads and more likely to show up each day.
I don’t think it will ever be kegsl.
Right its the government’s safety net is the cause. Try being a poor adult male. You know how much government assistance you get? Not much if anything at all.
Could also be the fact that the crony capitalist system we have undergone Obozo only provides hope for those on the inside.
“Yet businesses turn their backs on older job seekers who on the average are less likely to be potheads and more likely to show up each day.”
Not sure I agree with that. I know plenty of middle-age people that smoke often.
“Most people seem only to live for their next drug induced stupor.”
Why should anyone be required to submit to drug testing when the HR person and upper management-types could be mixing three different antidepressants with two or three different painkillers on a daily basis?
Working as an IT professional, I can tell you from personal experience that alcohol abuse is rampant across all tiers of IT workers. Our company has a random drug testing policy, so most of our employees get drunk. There’s a movement to stop testing for cannabis, but I’m afraid that would mean quality of work and productivity would fall out.
I get tobacco swabbed each year during my health/physical for insurance purposes. But I’ve only been drug screened during my hiring.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.