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Staff-starved factories in Minnesota, US finally offer higher wages, perks
The Finger Lakes Times ^ | October 9, 2018 | Dee Depass, Star Tribune

Posted on 10/16/2018 1:28:21 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

As the job market continues to tighten, more factories are turning to a recruiting tool they have been avoiding: money.

Take Spectro Alloys Corp. in Rosemount, Minn. The aluminum recycling firm has upped its recruitment budget and raised starting pay nearly 10 percent —it even raffled off a new ATV to job applicants.

"The hiring environment is extremely challenging right now," said Luke Palen, president of Spectro, which recently added 5,000 square feet and needs more workers to meet demand. "A hot market for recycled aluminum and even hotter local job market is forcing the Spectro team to think outside of the box when it comes to finding new members."

While many retailers have been raising minimum wages, manufacturers had been trying to take the long-term approach, offering training and steady benefits to attract younger workers to replace an increasingly older employee bases. That's not cutting it anymore as the Minnesota jobless rate in August hit the lowest point since 1999, while the national rate now stands at a low last seen in 1969.

Some of the change is in fast-growing areas such as the Twin Cities' south metro, but outstate employers also are feeling pressure. Wages and salaries for Minnesota manufacturers grew 2.4 percent in August year over year, compared with a growth rate of less than 1 percent in the two years before....

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


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Society
KEYWORDS: jobs; manufacturing; minnesota; wages
There's an idea.
1 posted on 10/16/2018 1:28:21 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Yeah. Funny that. Just doing the jobs Americans won’t do if you pay them like Mexicans.


2 posted on 10/16/2018 1:38:57 AM PDT by mindburglar (I like spelling it Lazers. It looks cooler.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Will they do what some companies do in my area of ny, “hire” them on at a lower pay rate with the promise of higher wages and benefits after the “probationary period” is over but instead let them go before having to pay the higher rate and begin benefits?


3 posted on 10/16/2018 2:10:26 AM PDT by Darksheare (Those who support liberal "Republicans" summarily support every action by same.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Pay enough money people well come and work for you.

For sure a novel idea.


4 posted on 10/16/2018 2:21:01 AM PDT by riverrunner
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To: Darksheare

That seems like a REALLY stupid business decision, this would put a company in a constant state of training AND employees that NEVER become more productive due to not being on the job long enough to be proficient, to me the company would be losing more money by practicing this procedure!!!


5 posted on 10/16/2018 2:22:34 AM PDT by Trump Girl Kit Cat (Yosemite Sam raising hell)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Managers and “Business” degreed executives are clueless about economics and business.

Ask around at your work. Find out which managers have business degrees. Those people are skilled at only one thing, they “manage the decline” of the company.

They are the Sears who would not study the internet, but instead networked with their football buddies, while the competitors grew.

Business majors are not taught to be competitors. They are taught to socialize with the collective.

They could not handle advanced math, science, so the dumbed down business degree was created, which is mostly just networking, hoping somebody else will solve your company’s problems. They are taught panic management. They are followers.


6 posted on 10/16/2018 3:28:18 AM PDT by TheNext (Anonymous Source)
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To: Darksheare
Will they do what some companies do in my area of ny, “hire” them on at a lower pay rate with the promise of higher wages and benefits after the “probationary period” is over but instead let them go before having to pay the higher rate and begin benefits?

After a while, word would get around.

7 posted on 10/16/2018 3:30:23 AM PDT by PapaBear3625 ("Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities." -- Voltaire)
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To: Darksheare
"Will they do what some companies do in my area of ny, “hire” them on at a lower pay rate with the promise of higher wages and benefits after the “probationary period” is over but instead let them go before having to pay the higher rate and begin benefits?"

They probably kept the good ones. Anyone with business experience knows that turnover is more expensive than paying a bit more for good employees.

8 posted on 10/16/2018 3:41:18 AM PDT by MV=PY (The Magic Question: Who's paying for it?)
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To: Darksheare

I know of an outfit or two like that.


9 posted on 10/16/2018 3:55:37 AM PDT by wally_bert (I will competently make sure the thing is done incompetently.)
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To: Darksheare

I worked at a place like that. The holiday season is when things die down for the particular trade so they would have a 90 day probationary period and would extend that as needed. They dumped me two weeks before Christmas for taking 3 separate days off in a period of 4 1/2 months and I had prior permission from by direct supervisor on each occasion. It’s how they kept their workforce flexible in size. They also played a lot of phsyc games, pitting one dept against another with a wacky bonus system. They did that because the owner was super scared of the workers “organizing” aka going union. They even went so far as to just shut the place down for two weeks. People came to work one day and the doors were locked. No explanation given. Unemployment levels were 8-9& at the time so when they called everyone, pretty much everyone came back because there was no where else to go. Never worked at a place with such low moral and suspicion among employees.


10 posted on 10/16/2018 4:31:08 AM PDT by Pollard (If you don't understand what I typed, you haven't read the classics.)
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To: MV=PY
The plant where I work is thriving because they had an even more innovative way to get new employees after a wave of retirements-- look for workers in their late 50s and early 60s who got discarded during the ObaMao era.

Not that they won't take younger workers, just that they found older workers are worth the extra cost becuse we need minimum training.

11 posted on 10/16/2018 6:47:22 AM PDT by Vigilanteman (ObaMao: Fake America, Fake Messiah, Fake Black man. How many fakes can you fit into one Zer0?)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Americans just don’t want to work for Mexican wages.


12 posted on 10/16/2018 7:21:20 AM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight yourr way back to the rifle you should never have dropped)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

A friend of mine owns a small factory that makes various products from metal raw materials of many typse. He has no shortage of applicants. His shortage is in people with the skills to do the work - machinists. Even those expecting do start as beginners do not even know one wrench from another or how to use them - he tells me. It is not the pay he is offering, the hours they need to work, or the benefits he can afford to pay - its not enough people who can do the job.

We have spent three decades emphasizing “everyone must go to college”, increasine how much “going to college” has meant the “humanities” and other Left-dominated courses of indoctrination, massively increasing the portion of women in college, reducing the portion of men in college, and cancelling out skills and vocational training before college (and when not concerlling it out, adding to “peer shame” against those choosing it).

One of the reasons manufacturing has been going offshore and robotic is and has been a shortage of people coming into the workforce with skills that can be applied, and improved, in manufacturing.

Yes, my friend is taking a pinch in revenue from higher raw materials costs due to Trump’s tarrifs on imported metals, but his worst problem is in finding people who can do the work.

He and a few of his most experienced workers are working most weekends to try to meet deadlines. He’s getting very tired.


13 posted on 10/16/2018 8:07:57 AM PDT by Wuli (u)
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