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 ...
“As the unemployment rate drops across the country”
Chortle
It should start to bubble up, oh, around January of 2017 (if all goes well. Otherwise it never will again).
“wouldn’t it be discrimination against people using a legal substance to do drug testing in the first place???”
—
Some companies test for nicotine usage-—and that’s a legal substance,
.
The problem with marijuana is it stays in the system for up to a month after using. So testing positive doesn’t mean the person will show up to work stoned. And it’s not like they can just stop using for a couple of days and pass the test, so they just leave.
I would agree but we seem to be tending toward the minority lately. The trend is to make a lot of money but do nothing. Not sure of the logic on that but its the trend. LOL, pop culture at its finest.
Funny, they are so scared about tobacco, but sure, light up that pot! lolol
We have this EXACT thing in CA. this ballot, legalize pot put a 4.00 tax on a pack of cigarettes to include vapor cigs!!!!! I AM SO SICK to death of these BASTARDS!!! GET THE HELL OUT OF MY LIFE!!!!!!
I know where you’re coming from and I agree...It may take a few months to get going, but, as you said, if all goes well, it will head back to where it should be...
I would be willing to see it become aldrbz, but not kegsl.
You shouldn’t need to pass a drug test for any job that doesn’t involve the potential for life risking injuries.
That would be all jobs, essentially.
Let alone legal.
LOL. I meant to write legal. It got garbled somehow..
I always thought it funny that one of the masks for marijuana in pee was called “urine luck”.
As I understand it, the unemployment rate measures the people who are drawing unemployment benefits and actively looking for work.
There are two ways to cause it to drop: one is by people finding jobs; the other is by people not seeking jobs, and dropping out of the workforce.
A lo of the later has happened as, for instance the number of SSI/ Disability recipients has skyrocketed. You've got people saying, "Heck, I'm not unemployed, I'm permanently disabled."
Oh, and a third thing that will cause a drop in "unemployment" rates, is unmderemloyument." That could be people working at jobs far below their educational and skill level (MBA's shampooing dogs) and by people working part-time or seasonally when they really need and want to be working full-time year-round.
So the real numbers to look at are not "unemloyment," but "workforce participation." The USA has a workforce NON-participation rate of nearly 40%.
I won’t work someplace that drug tests. I’d pass, but that’s an environment of distrust I don’t want to be in 40 hours a week. If people are getting the job done you don’t need to worry about whether or not they do drugs, if they aren’t getting the job done you also don’t really need to worry about it. Making people pee in cups doesn’t get you better workers, just gets you a lot of pee.
Don’t drug test unless they are operating moving vehicles. Or don’t drug test for marijuana, period. It doesn’t seem fair, especially where marijuana is legal. The guy who drank beer all night the night before passes, but the guy who smoked a joint a week ago doesn’t?? Unfair, really, just because the weed is testable longer.
Plenty of jobs where you’re not allowed to drink, and a growing number where you’re not allowed to smoke. So yes it will still be legal to ban employees from smoking pot even after it becomes legal.
It all boils down to insurance liability, which has gone way up since the reforms.
It costs a smoker about $1600 a year of denied benefits and matching where I work.
What is that now, three cartons?
Federal Government: “You must hire drug users, but if they screw up and hurt somebody, we’ll sue your ass for hiring a known drug user.”
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