Replies

“Could be employers don’t want to hire as much from the “participation award” snowflake generation.”

Recently, there was a fatal accident in front of a house I own. A massive truck blew a tire, left its lane and hit a small truck head on. The driver of the truck was 78. (I don’t think his age played a factor in the accident.)

I was discussing this with the former vice president of a steel company. On the driver’s age he said, “it’s almost impossible to hire a young person as a driver. They can’t get a CDL because they can’t pass the drug test. If you do manage to hire a young person they generally aren’t reliable. Then there’s risk. Hiring somebody who is young (for various drug related reasons) is much higher. Look at the semi’s and see who is driving them. It’s white hair or no hair.”

I regularly see contractor’s trucks loaded with youngsters on their way to jobs. Generally, the driver is very much senior. (Another issue to hiring people is an unbelievable number don’t have regular driver’s licenses because of DUI’s or they got taken because of debts owed to the state for fines. I employ a couple of those and must pick them up and drop them off.)

That and I don’t think as many Mexicans do drugs..
We see Mexicans driving trucks, and then there is construction. My son works as Ops manager for good size construction company who uses contractors...he’s 46...he says it’s hard to find reliable workers and they compete against Govt bennies...ie ebt, welfare, etc

There’s a large ski resort ten miles from us near the Canadian border. The only way they can get the numbers of employees required during the winter is to send out vehicles to pick them up/take them home, as most of the younger people can’t drive for exactly the reasons you stated.

Same problem exists in the building trades. My office was recently remodeled, and the foreman was a guy who I had worked with 30+ years ago when I was working my way through college. I asked him what the greatest challenge was in the building trades, and he said it was the next generation of skilled trades. His generation was getting ready to retire and there weren’t enough young people willing to do the work to replace them. He said when their experience and competence leaves the work place it won’t be replaced.

Of course, I chose not to replace it when I was young. But a couple days of nailing plywood on a roof all day in 38 degrees and steady rain will convince you to get into law school instead.