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 reading comprehension is apparently even worse than your developer skills. See post #56.
I'm all for higher wages where they make sense and over time, but you just can't compete with $40k/year to do nothing. I make more than 10x amount personally, but if I could guarantee the gov would give me (and my wife) $40k/year combined with my current net worth - even I'd stop working. Why work 80 hour weeks in a high stress environment?
I know you are the resident cheerleader for just saying "Pay more!" on this site, and I agree with you on illegal labor and limiting legal immigration, but the answer to every problem is not "Pay more." A lot of times its get the government out of the way, as is the situation here.
Who gives a flying F'. It is none of your damn business what they do with their money Karen.
Well said.
That’s the point - this isn’t market rate. The labor market is being massively distorted by the government.
But we have eyes....
Yes, he is likely not very good. Apple just announced another new park in RDU NC area with 3000+ jobs with an average starting pay of $188k/yr + benefits. H1B certainly has depressed wages some for IT and I’d like it curtailed or at least changed (wage of H1B must be at 150% of position average or something), but to say it killed it and no white folks have those jobs and success is simply not true.
What small businesses will need to do is try and become mom and pop/family stores instead of hiring. If they can not, then they need to try and offer incentives of some sort.
Overtime will kill the business so...
The only time I really made good money is when I and my wife worked together and had only one employee. The timber industry is a loser, plain and simple.
Sawmill? Now that is another story. But stay to hell away from the logging if one needs to hire. 54.50 out of a hundred for WC insurance alone in Michigan in the logging industry.
Wrong. There may be less hotels paying more and costing the customer more. But there will be hotels. There will be 10 hotels paying $10.00/hr for labor or 7 hotels paying $15.00 for labor.
OR. The government needs to stop paying them to not work.
Companies make hiring decisions at the corporate policy level, regardless of the "talent" of the person involved. Witness the postings on job boards for "must have 5 years experience" for technology X, which has only been out a year or two.
And the recruiting function (which didn't used to exist: more corporate laziness) has been taken over by nepotism supplied by Indians who only hire Indians.
For no talent? Look what happened to Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Patel, and now Intel. They went with India, and it killed them.
Which indicates THEY have no business sense, not me.
I am a developer: at a good salary. But I've seen PhDs in their field, and in other places, forced to train their replacements to get severance, all the while management was crowing about "well, you don't really know the job, that's why we have to replace you."
For business sense, I don't worship money, and I want to keep my soul. I've seen how people become less human as they climb the corporate ladder.
I think we've established that you're a soulless, materialist, condescending prick, though.
Useless executive? Or sales?
Follow up in a year and see how many of those jobs went to white males, and how many to foreigners.
And yes, you are correct the price will go up for goods that do exist - which means the associate and folks in general are not actually making more, which defeats the point of your cheerleading raising wages in first place. If wages go up 25% but prices for everything go up 30-50%, how does that help?
While taking advantage of the relatively equitable justice system (no bribes necessary), higher education and health, and infrastructure in the United States.
Because Business™!
All the government bennies are forcing it to fluctuate upward.
1) Cashier
2) Front office assistant
3) Front office manager
4) Assistant store manager
5) Operations Support Associate
6) Operations Support Manager
7) Manager FP&A
8) Director FP&A
9) VP FP&A and IR
Few other minor roles along the way and I didn't even have a college degree till #7. First 8 of those roles were with a grocery chain and current role is with a hotel company. I agree a lot of executives are useless, but there are good ones out there. I've had less than 5% turnover under me in the last 10 years, which is a pretty impressive track record of treating my folks and their folks below my directs well.
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