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.”
I was promoted a month before i was laid off from my computer job.
I imagine some indian is doing it now..
Again the concept of a “reasonable” wage is moot and does not apply or exist in any economics book that I ever read. There is the market wage for all commodities including labor and that is it.
The government is NOT the free market BY DEFINITION. The rest of your rambling is irrelevant.
That is another very good point.
Remember Disney, laying off all of their American IT people, hiring H1Bs from India, and having the American ones training their replacements?
I see why you might have trouble finding employees.
And it was true for a while, until employers started to discover well educated IT people from India they could hire much cheaper on visas.
The government, including US Chamber of Commerce Repubs with work visas causing the screwing of the American people.
I would actually argue rather than mostly immigrants, it’s been more offshoring + combining companies and then eliminating overlapping positions than cheap immigrant labor but all 3 have certainly occurred and hurt US workers thanks to folks just like the two you mentioned. They also get an added bonus over time through M&A of effectively creating oligopolies, duopolies and even occasionally monopolies. Enforcement of anti-trust laws in the US would be a huge boon to US workers.
My average direct makes, with bonuses and stock grant, about $200k/year. Their directs make about $100k/year. That market is still acting normal + I haven't had anyone leave my team in over 2 years so I'm personally fine. For my company as a whole, the majority of our associates are field employees making between $12 and $25/hour just like all hospitality and retail industry. This is also where the bulk of income levels are for US workers across the country with median individual income around $40k/year (household about $65k).
When the government starts not only distorting it (which is already does thru numerous social safety nets), but effectively killing it by paying people effectively at what they are making, you will ultimately have society collapse if it continues - either through hyper-inflation or worse.
But redefining the definition of the free market to include government is ridiculous and you know it.
Food for thought. “Synergies” == “eliminating departments”
I’m just a few years away from retiring once I hit mid 40s so even in the unlikely event I get laid off anytime soon, I will be just fine. That said, I took Java in high school and college, as well as C++ and visual basic and made a few websites a long time ago and plan to do a travel/person finance blog in retirement so I may indeed brush up on programming languages (plus want to brush up on Spanish).
He IS a traitorous lying sack-of-whale dung. He has repeatedly said he absolutely loves Indian “talent” and regularly whines about Americans not being qualified.
My carping that the government is paying $40k a year to do nothing is why RINOs won’t close the border? That is quite the stretch, even for you, but go on.
Yep. Some people think that small businesses have a money tree growing behind their building.
Absolutely - the vast majority of synergies are cost cuts which means either associates at your firm or associates at some other firm that you pay to provide a service or product. There are revenue synergies in some cases, but those are usually small and less relied on during M&A negotiations. My company is being acquired currently and I was on the deal team on our side, plus took several M&A classes during B school 10 years ago. Fortunately, we aren’t being acquired and merged with another firm and the mgmt team is staying, but any costs related to being a public company will be cut - roughly $5-6 million a year in costs - 1/3 of which are our associates and the rest are external costs that will be cut (eg: auditors) at other firms.
You have a problem with social skills don’t you?
I explained what I meant by “reasonable”. This is not a college economics class and I am not writing to a professional audience. “Reasonable wage” is much shorter if a bit more casual than “prevailing wage in the absence of government transfer payments creating a disincentive to work”. We are done now.
I agree, it's a real concern of mine. Between printing in the last 15 months, plus what's coming to fund both huge deficits plus more new spending by the Biden administration, plus now a lot of folks are now used to having the equiv of a UBI with these massive UE checks, I worry quite a bit about inflation which is why I am largely investing in real assets and stocks and avoid bonds / cash.
Ok hero. "retire" in your mid 40s.
Automate!!! Automate!!! Automate!!!
“well educated”
Uh-huh. Fake credentials. Fake experience, Fake education, and a culture of copying and cheating
“Ringers” for interviews and exams, and the most racist people on the planet as recruiters/ hiring managers.
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