Posted on 04/26/2021 4:41:52 AM PDT by Prov1322
Despite increasing numbers of initial unemployment claims across the region, local business and industry leaders say the jobs are available but no one is applying for them. The 60 members of the Greater Rome Existing Industry Association report some 400-plus open positions but say additional federal unemployment benefits and stimulus payments give some possible candidates no incentive to work.
“There are hundreds of jobs here, we just can’t find people to fill them. I was at the GREIA meeting this week and all manufacturers were saying the same thing,” says David Newby, President and CEO of Profile Custom Extrusion in Rome, which has approximately 180 employees.
Profile Custom Extrusion has a ‘Now Hiring’ banner up at their facility along U.S. 27 in Rome. Hometown photo. “In my 40 years here, I have never seen anything like this. We have always had a strong workforce in Rome. We do know the stimulus has created part of the problem. With the federal unemployment, folks can make over $16 an hour not working. They don’t have to search for jobs right now…there is no incentive to work.”
The state’s unemployment benefits top out at $365 a week, while the federal government adds $300 a week. That adds up to the equivalent of $16.63 per hour for a 40-hour week, which in some cases is more than they made when they were working.
According to the latest statistics from the Georgia Department of Labor, the initial unemployment claims increased 29% (32,102) in March to 143,410 compared to 111,308 claims in February 2020. Locally:
Floyd had 1,260 initial claims in March, up 26.8% over February. Bartow had 1,671 initial claims in March, up 22.1% Gordon was up 16.1% in March with 1,018 claims. Polk was down 8.6% with 502 claims in March compared to 549 in February. Chattooga was down 3.5% in March with 136 claims vs. 141 in February. For more: Statistics Pam Powers-Smith, director of Business and Industry at Rome-Floyd Chamber, says she has been surveying both large and small businesses on workforce and labor issues. She says all areas of employers are having trouble finding workers, including restaurants, medical, manufacturing, government and education.
“The types of positions that are available are quite honestly all over the spectrum. I think some people make the assumption that it’s only entry level positions but the survey said it was all…entry level, middle management, top level management, customer service, skilled labor, degreed and certified,” she says.
The chamber has a job site (www.romega.com) that is updated daily. It currently has 122 jobs listed. Powers-Smith says it gets some 10,000 hits each month.
Newby says his company has 12 open positions right now and could bring in more but can’t grow until they fill the immediate openings.
“We have both production jobs and management positions as well. We are having trouble just finding people who will show up. We will bring in seven employees just to keep one of them,” he says.
Jennifer Cole, Human Resources manager at F&P Georgia, says her company has 20 immediate openings and is doing “anything and everything to recruit new employees.”
“We have never had this difficulty staffing before. It is not because of our work environment. F&P is a great place to work; we have great benefits and wages. We have 14 million hours worked without a lost-time accident, so we have a safe environment,” she says.
“We’re finding it hard to recruit when we’re learning people would rather stay home and draw unemployment. As long as people are making $15 an hour with unemployment, they will keep drawing it…that is what we’re fighting against…I have never seen it like this in the 20 years I’ve been in the industry.”
John Cothran, Operations Manager at Brugg Lifting North America and chair of GREIA, says his small company has had trouble filling his vacant shop positions.
“Applicants are almost non-existent. Sometimes it is weeks before an agency sends an applicant our way,” he says. “We are certainly not on the upper end for starting wages. However, even some of those businesses with the higher starting wages have the same problem. I am sure the pandemic has played a significant role here but it seems that since COVID, workers can make almost the same staying at home.
“Fortunately, since we are a small company, we are maintaining by all of us covering all the business needs…we all wear a lot of hats. It is a daily struggle and until we are fully staffed, business growth maybe challenging.”
Manufacturers are not the only ones struggling to find workers. Local businessman and developer Wayne Robinson owns several Bojangles restaurants in Northwest Georgia including locations in Cartersville, Calhoun, Adairsville, Summerville and Hiram. He says it has been “extremely hard” to find employees.
“We have ‘Now Hiring’ signs up at all the businesses and have had no applicants. I think every fast-food and quick service restaurant is looking for employees,” he says.
“It is frustrating to operate with such low staff levels. That’s the reason we haven’t been able to open the dining rooms at Bojangles back up…there is not enough staff on shift to cover both dining room and drive-through. We have even had to close earlier because we don’t have staff. It has made us be creative in stretching employees out.
“Restaurants typically have 35-50 employees and everyone is fighting for same folks. The stimulus checks have taken away the incentive to look for jobs. So many are content not to work. But once the stimulus money evaporates, I look for the job market to return.
Hann with JWH Transport “In the meantime, we are offering higher salaries and entry rates…but it’s very frustrating to be a business owner right now.”
Nick Hann, owner of JWH Transport in Rome, also is having a tough time filling transportation jobs for truck drivers.
“We are not exempt…it’s hitting every industry,” he says. “We are a smaller transportation company with 40 trucks. We typically average at least 10 applications per month but we have had maybe 10 applications in the last 90 days…about a 60% decrease.
“Trucking as a whole is hard to find employees because there are lots of guys that hold a CDL (Commercial Drivers License) but getting them qualified is another story because of a bad driving record or drugs.”
“We are constantly hiring, even when the market is doing well. We need at least two drivers right now.”
Your post makes me think of our friends in Sorrento who invented a product and produce hundreds of them a day, employing locals in tiny Sorrento.
Java is rapidly declining in popularity...why would you advise learning a dying programming language?
While they complain of a shortage of STEM workers, the inflation adjusted starting pay for new graduates in my degree has barely moved and gone down in inflation adjusted numbers since I graduated. Why? Because they can bring someone in on an H-1B who has more credentials and qualifications (on paper anyway) and flood the market. HR departments also get to fluff out their minority numbers by getting H-1Bs since, in my experience, they almost never come from European countries.
My work only tangentially relates to my original degree, but my degree was a lot more work and effort than others spent to get into the same field. It makes me feel like I wasted time and effort and I would not recommend others take the same path.
My advice to kids is: don’t go to college unless someone else is paying. If you do pay, get your gen-ed classes done at a local community college that can transfer those credits to where you want to get your core degree from. Don’t rush into picking a major, figure out what you have an aptitude for and will pay well. Preferably figure out a career path that lets you work for yourself.
Java is number 3. LOL.
I am anti union but it would no take much to convince me if any group need a strong union it would be STEM. Physicians and nurses are next on the chopping wage cutting H-1B block.
...and declining.
I work at a company that buys products to distribute to retailers. Many of our suppliers are way behind on orders because they cannot find people to work when they can get paid to sit on their asses.
And the University pipeline that used to find and develop that talent is no longer functional. Corporations once paid for such things and actively recruited graduates with excellent salaries and working conditions.
That was then. This is now.
Corporations have been strip-mining the work-force for decades, and replacing their staff with cheap, disposable immigrants. It should be no great surprise that there is a "shortage" of skilled workers.
What we actually have a shortage of executives willing to pay for skilled workers.
The market sets wage rates until the government steps in. Like our current state of affairs, workers won’t settle on a reasonable wage as long as government handouts make it more comfortable to stay home.
On the other hand H-1Bs are government interference in the other direction. Government is encouraging businesses to import workers in a way that suppresses the wages of higher salary workers. This hurts American workers. We cannot encourage American kids to get STEM degrees when that time and effort gets rewarded with suppressed wages.
What do you mean by, “the University pipeline...is no longer functional?” It’s perfectly functional, if a bit too “woke.” My daughter is in engineering school right now. You can advise your children not to pursue a BS in a STEM major if you wish, but I am doing the opposite.
Your post makes me think of our friends in Sorrento who invented a product and produce hundreds of them a day, employing locals in tiny Sorrento.
versagripps.com
What we actually have a shortage of executives willing to pay for skilled workers.
Concur. All due to Jack Welch and Bill Gates.
Another Look at Outsourcing (Vanity) (note the date, 2005), and the remarks about Microsoft's cash hoard which they gave to shareholders -- themselves -- instead of increasing salaries, training workers, or expanding the business
(Vanity) A Falling Tide Grounds All Boats (note the date, 2006)
The Government is perfectly OK with your second option. So are many executives from large businesses. Government regulation kills off their potential competitors, and a handful of large corporations reliably collect taxes for the Government.
Corporations can also enforce agendas in ways that Governments are restrained from doing directly. It's all done in the name of "private enterprise".
Everybody wins - except us.
So, what is your point? You’re telling small business owners to suck it up and pay more for labor, and yet you just admitted that this will drive them out of business.
Why do you hate small businesses?
There is no such thing or concept as a “reasonable” wage only the current market wage.
This statement means nothing until it is quantified with the amount being offered in wages.
"Math is racist".
"We need more Diversity in staffing".
That "woke" curriculum influence that you so casually mention is extremely destructive to development of talent. Completely intentional. And hiring practices after graduation are already skewed towards racial, ethnic, and gender quotas, as well as a strong preference for H1-B staff.
Your daughter will gain a fractional advantage from her gender, which will be more than offset by a lack of membership in the "correct" racial, ethnic, national background, or sexual orientation.
That is what "woke" influence really means. And major corporations support this stuff. They have reasons, which they really do not want to share with you, or me.
And meanwhile, the entry-level salaries are not keeping up.
I hope your daughter has a fine career in spite of the pitfalls. I certainly enjoyed mine. The work is useful and necessary. The rules of the game keep changing to benefit people who do not deserve it.
Time to change the game.
That market is heavily skewed by disincentives to work. By “reasonable” I mean a wage workers would agree to in the absence of artificially high unemployment benefits.
On the other hand, with all the money printed in the last year who knows what will be “reasonable” a year from now. By the time inflation slows down a $15/hr minimum wage may look as ridiculous as $3.35/hr (minimum wage when I took my first job) would look today.
I think it sucks. I really do. Especially if you rely on entry-level wage employees.
If there’s a silver lining, then it is that this is a good time to take a long hard look at your processes and employee utilization. Are your systems saving work or making work? Can you be more efficient? Are you getting the most out of your current staff and will they and their experience be lured away by competitors willing or able to pay them more? Can you make their jobs more easily accommodate their lives by tweaking hours, or providing opportunities for working from home, or even small things like making it easier or more pleasant to eat at work, or park. Do you make it easy for employees to refer people they know when jobs open up? Have you asked your employees what would make them want to stay? Have you asked your employees how they could do their jobs better/easier and what are the roadblocks that they face day-to-day?
Obviously not every business can do all of this. Restaurants especially are stuck in a pretty standard model.
In my experience, pay has kept me from taking a job, but it seldom has caused me to leave unless it was stagnant over time and despite increasing responsibility. Having a boss who complains about a small % salary increase but then leases a Mercedes for double your salary goes a long way towards sending employees out looking (one example, but it’s a personal anecdote). Seeing the boss tighten his belt first and then explaining the situation and asking for help builds a tremendous amount of loyalty.
But a lot depends on whether you treat your employees as partners in your success or resources to be utilized.
Maybe I am an evil corporate overlord, rejoicing in the destruction of my competitors whilst I ruthlessly exploit my staff and rent politicians to pass regulations ensuring my permanent monopoly.
Oh wait. I think you got the wrong guy.
Actually, I still run a small business which deals mostly with other small businesses. Many of these were shut down as "non-essential" by Government decree during the recent COVID unpleasantness. Most of them them won't be coming back, so the issue of minimum wages and unemployment compensation is moot.
I don't have any employees or contractors these days. I do pay all my bills. Sorry, it's just the best I can do.
I see first-hand that Government is actively hostile to small businesses. And the "generous unemployment benefits" are being financed with massive inflation which will wreck pretty much everybody except those with insider political connections.
I cannot get too upset about business that cannot keep up with inflation. It is one flame in a much larger conflagration.
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