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Low unemployment is great — unless you're a small business looking for workers
NBC News ^ | 5/3/2019 | Martha C. White

Posted on 05/06/2019 11:08:23 AM PDT by Beave Meister

Next week is National Small Business Week, but owners aren’t likely to spend it celebrating — they’ll be too busy trying to hire workers or keep the ones they have from defecting to bigger firms.

With a 3.6 percent unemployment rate, the lowest since December 1969, the labor market continues to thrive. “This is a worker’s job market,” said Moody’s Analytics Chief Economist Mark Zandi.

But Zandi adds that this is less-than-good news for the small companies that comprise the vast majority of U.S. businesses. “The risk or the concern would be at some point that businesses start to come under financial pressure, particularly smaller ones,” he said.

“Owners are trying to hold on to the employees that they have in a highly competitive labor market,” a March survey from the National Federation of Independent Business said.

They’re not always succeeding. The survey found that although 60 percent of respondents said they were hiring or trying to hire, 54 percent found few to no qualified applicants for those open positions. More than one in five said difficulty in finding workers was the top problem facing their business, and nearly two in five said there were current job openings at their companies they could not fill.

“Small businesses have fewer resources to throw at recruiting and training, so it’s harder for them to get the labor they need,” said Josh Wright, chief economist at iCIMS. Bigger companies also can generally offer more attractive benefits packages, flexible parental and sick leave policies and opportunities for advancement.

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


TOPICS: Chit/Chat
KEYWORDS: america; didyousearch; economy; liberals; smallbusiness; taxcuts; taxes; trump; unemployment
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To: relictele

Re:”Competition is a two-way street again.

There’s no need (not that there ever was) for minimum wage laws.

If you’re an owner or a manager assuming you’re going to get a certain standard of employee (irresponsible, unpredictable, disloyal) because ‘that’s the only thing out there’ then you are fooling yourself. Your customers are making economic decisions every day, every visit. In other words, pay peanuts get monkey.

Equilibrium at or around the minimum wage figure has existed since the GWB administration thanks to a [censored] economy. Surely those experiencing higher sales, higher profits and/or increased foot traffic must countenance real or potential increases in labor costs?”

https://web.archive.org/web/20180209094721/www.newtechusa.com/ppi/talent.asp


41 posted on 05/06/2019 12:43:14 PM PDT by khelus
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To: Beave Meister

Low unemployment is great for me.I get to listen to my boss complaining about having to pay me for 30 hours overtime every week.


42 posted on 05/06/2019 1:16:11 PM PDT by arthurus (1)
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To: C210N

I only work one job but I get 70 hours a week doing it because the pool of people who will do the work blew away with Hurricane Michelle (I don’t accept transgenderism in hurricanes).


43 posted on 05/06/2019 1:19:00 PM PDT by arthurus (,)
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To: RedStateRocker
That free market is amazing, isn’t it?

By DEFINITION, if a business can’t find the workers it needs, it is paying too little.

Amen!

This article pursues two objectives: bash the Trump boom, and support the corporate globalists' claim that the USA needs more 'cheap' (for them) foreign labor.

44 posted on 05/06/2019 1:20:14 PM PDT by NobleFree ("law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual")
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To: Harpotoo

The only place known where everyone runs out of the building when there’s a sale on.


45 posted on 05/06/2019 1:47:07 PM PDT by RedStateRocker (Nuke Mecca. Deport all illegals. Abolish the DEA, IRS and ATF,.)
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To: Beave Meister

Does anyone really believe the government’s methodology in generating numbers for employment or inflation?

For many jobs, only one-in-five pass the drug testing criteria. This does not agree with an approximately three percent unemployed figure, but that’s the legacy system for the numbers in place for some time.


46 posted on 05/06/2019 2:43:17 PM PDT by Ozark Tom
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To: Beave Meister

While it is hard for small businesses to get help, the more severe problem is that the labor pool is saturated with barely literate, very entitled people.

There is a good reason why middle aged and older people are more highly prized now. They are better educated and have a superior work ethic.


47 posted on 05/06/2019 4:00:19 PM PDT by ChildOfThe60s (If you can remember the 60s........you weren't really there)
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To: Ozark Tom

Yep.

Shadow Government Statistics
Analysis Behind and Beyond Government Economic Reporting

http://www.shadowstats.com/

“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics”


48 posted on 05/06/2019 4:05:14 PM PDT by ChildOfThe60s (If you can remember the 60s........you weren't really there)
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To: ChildOfThe60s

Actually, the direction we have been given is to target young, unmarried, workers.
Health care costs.


49 posted on 05/06/2019 4:18:41 PM PDT by redgolum
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To: Beave Meister
I'm just gonna make a quick couple points - small businesses don't need to hire people, they need to hire people to grow. Also, small businesses may not be able to match financial compensation, but they have other benefits. Generally it's easier to do work-life balance, less rules at work, often easier to take time off as needed.
50 posted on 05/08/2019 8:33:16 AM PDT by Svartalfiar
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