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Opinion: Have businesses really run out of people to hire?
Market Watch ^ | June 17, 2016 | Caroline Baum

Posted on 06/17/2016 4:08:44 AM PDT by expat_panama

Throughout the seven-year old U.S. expansion, as the unemployment rate tumbled from a peak of 10% in 2009 to a low of 4.7% last month, policy makers have been focused on the slack in the labor market. Yes, slack....

...surprise to read this week that the problem facing companies is a shortage of workers, both highly skilled and entry-level.

Why not offer them a higher wage?...

...the Roaring ‘90s? That’s what a tight labor market looks like: signing bonuses; offers of free cars, even for mid-level managers; and a sufficiently attractive wage to entice some criminals...

...plenty of business owners who will tell you that they can’t find workers...

...Janet Yellen on Wednesday cast doubt on a significant interest-rate increase in the near future...

...monthly JOLTS report (Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey) revealed a record number of job openings...

...Can’t businesses tempt labor-force dropouts with a higher real wage? There is no sign of it....

...a wishy-washy attempt to fill the reported number of job openings.

Many economists have been waiting for that beast known as “wage inflation” to boost prices...

...Businesses do not bid up the price of labor (wages) only to find their profits squeezed...

...A more compelling argument to explain the large number of reported job openings going unfilled is that demand isn’t strong enough to support economy-wide price increases...

...6.4 million Americans working part-time for economic reasons...

...wake of the truly awful May employment report, did Yellen concede...

...pointed to the low level of unemployment claims, high level of job openings and modest wage increases as signs “of a healthy labor market.”

Maybe. Until I see signs that businesses are satisfying their stated demand for labor by luring labor-market dropouts with a higher real wage, I remain unconvinced.

(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: economy; employment
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We keep hearing from the left about how our wonderful recovery from the Bush mess has been resurected to a simply lovely 4.7%.   That's now being coupled w/ what seems to be a tight job market:

 

1 posted on 06/17/2016 4:08:44 AM PDT by expat_panama
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To: expat_panama

No.

Thanks for posting.


2 posted on 06/17/2016 4:09:52 AM PDT by cba123 ( Toi la nguoi My. Toi bay gio o Viet Nam.)
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To: expat_panama

Businesses can’t find enough qualified workers to whom they can pay unqualified wages; that is the problem.


3 posted on 06/17/2016 4:11:31 AM PDT by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: cba123

Is this satire? My old friends at NYC investment banks say they’re cutting away still.


4 posted on 06/17/2016 4:12:16 AM PDT by dp0622 (The only thing an upper crust conservative hates more than a liberal is a middle class conservative)
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To: expat_panama

Why would someone work when welfare offers the equivalent of a $25/hr job in many places? The residual effect of people seeing that is another discouraging factor, albeit unquantifiable.


5 posted on 06/17/2016 4:14:19 AM PDT by Travis T. OJustice (I miss my dad. I live my life with a FIERCE ALLEGIANCE!)
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To: dp0622

Many of those job openings are false. Some companies are like the auto parts store close to me that has been known to run an ad in the paper every day for years claiming they need someone to work the counter but when anyone inquires they say they have no opening. There have been numerous examples of that sort of thing around here. Don’t ask me, I don’t know why they do it.


6 posted on 06/17/2016 4:17:45 AM PDT by RipSawyer (Racism is racism, regardless of the race of the racist.)
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To: expat_panama
From my own personal experience, several factors are at work here:

1. Employers are very reluctant to hire new staff because the salary/wage compensation is only a small part of the actual cost of employing someone. When you add the benefits and administrative costs (including all of the defensive measures that must be taken to protect the employer from legal problems down the road), there is a significant "wage inflation" that doesn't show up in the base compensation figures.

2. Employers are also reluctant to take on employees on anything more than a contract basis, since they have no long-term confidence in their prospective labor needs.

3. Even "unskilled" labor is hard to find, because too many Americans lack even three basic attributes an employer wants to see in any prospective employee: a sense of self-respect, a good work ethic, and a desire to learn and improve on the job.

7 posted on 06/17/2016 4:17:53 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("Sometimes I feel like I've been tied to the whipping post.")
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To: expat_panama

What’s the real unemployment number. I haven’t heard in awhile.


8 posted on 06/17/2016 4:17:53 AM PDT by barmag25
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To: kearnyirish2

or as the requirement for workers that actually come to work, don’t use drugs, and can cope with the increasingly absolute need to deal with the computers with which they must use, don’t have the language skills required to communicate (American born Americans), the employers have learned that the task of finding workers is very hard.

Workers have learned that the constant and increasing rate of change means that he who finds a comfortable rut will be in trouble when that rut is bypassed by change and is no longer required.


9 posted on 06/17/2016 4:20:02 AM PDT by bert ((K.E.; N.P.; GOPc;+12, 73, ....Opabinia can teach us a lot)
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To: Alberta's Child

Your number 3 is dead on. What is lacking is reliable labor.

And skilled labor is an entirely different thing. Bidding up the wages doesn’t suddenly make competent welders appear.


10 posted on 06/17/2016 4:21:01 AM PDT by SoothingDave
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To: expat_panama
Purely anecdotal, my company just performed layoff's on June 1st. This seems to be an annual event since 2009.
11 posted on 06/17/2016 4:21:46 AM PDT by yuleeyahoo (Those are my principles, and if you do not like them...well I have others. - Groucho Marx)
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To: kearnyirish2

Concur. Given what today’s schools turn out, it is surprising that businesses aren’t having even more problems finding qualified people.


12 posted on 06/17/2016 4:23:52 AM PDT by Wonder Warthog (The Hog of Steel and NRA Life Member)
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To: RipSawyer

I’ve seen ads that have been online forever and there’s no way they could have waited a year or more to fill some of those positions.

My friends who have great qualifications get interviews that are rather quick and curt and they never hear back.

Whole country’s gone nuts.


13 posted on 06/17/2016 4:24:48 AM PDT by dp0622 (The only thing an upper crust conservative hates more than a liberal is a middle class conservative)
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To: expat_panama
plenty of business owners who will tell you that they can’t find workers.

Bill Gates gives away billions but Microsoft SAYS it can't find domestic technical help. So why doesn't Bill and Co. pay better wages and attract US workers if he has billions to give away? Because running around the world playing God with a big check book is more fun. That's why.

14 posted on 06/17/2016 4:25:15 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: SoothingDave
And skilled labor is an entirely different thing. Bidding up the wages doesn’t suddenly make competent welders appear.

It promotes young people to get the training. It is called supply and demand and market forces. Get it?

15 posted on 06/17/2016 4:27:32 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: Alberta's Child
Even "unskilled" labor is hard to find, because too many Americans lack even three basic attributes an employer wants to see in any prospective employee: a sense of self-respect, a good work ethic, and a desire to learn and improve on the job.

I've been at the bottom. You learn and try to do more, twice as much as when you were hired, and you get rewarded with a paltry 3% raise. I usually start looking for a new job the same day.

The truth is most small businesses are run by greedy incompetents. Big Corps are managed by go along get alongs. I have had maybe 2 supervisors/bosses in 40 years I thought competent.

16 posted on 06/17/2016 4:31:25 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: expat_panama

U.S. businesses need to bring all the Indian tech workers over here who will work cheap, while American sons and daughters with college degrees can’t find a job.

Wonder why Trump beat 16 Republicans for the nomination…….


17 posted on 06/17/2016 4:32:29 AM PDT by txrefugee
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To: SoothingDave
Something else to consider ...

One of the biggest problems faced by both employers and prospective employees today is specialization. There are so many different sets of skills needed for many businesses to manage effectively.

My own company is looking to lay off staff in some departments, even while other departments have a desperate need for talented workers. The simple problem is that the employees in Group A don't meet the company's needs for Group B.

18 posted on 06/17/2016 4:33:41 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("Sometimes I feel like I've been tied to the whipping post.")
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To: expat_panama
6.4 million Americans working part-time for economic reasons

The Obamacare effect.

19 posted on 06/17/2016 4:35:19 AM PDT by Fresh Wind (Hey now baby, get into my big black car, I just want to show you what my politics are.)
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To: Alberta's Child
even while other departments have a desperate need for talented workers willing to work at below market wages.

Fixed. There is no labor shortage only a wage shortage.

20 posted on 06/17/2016 4:35:36 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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