We are experiencing the symptoms of full employment. Economists note that full employment means many people who would ordinarily not be employed due to incompetence, drug use, personality disorders, etc. are employed. A month ago I put out the word to all the people I knew, no small number, I would hire anyone over 18 to help clean up the yard and house I am trying to sell. It wasn’t that no one was there to answer the call, it was that everyone said the 18 year-olds were fully employed. Several had two jobs.
I am in a small Florida town. There are help wanted signs in almost every business window. Some of the commercial trucks have signs on them advertising employment.
The economy is not bad here at all.
Even without full employment we have a pretty substandard labor pool. The work ethic is poor or non-existent in many, and the educational level is the same. To put it bluntly there are a lot of stupid and lazy people out there.
I love the classic example of going to a checkout line in the store and asking the checkout person to count back my change. Duh
Another one is paying attention to people and noting how many can do simple percentages in their head. I’m talkin stuff like 10 or 15%, not rocket science.