Posted on 10/04/2009 5:04:23 PM PDT by BenLurkin
In a brutal job market, here's a task that might sound easy: Fill jobs in nursing, engineering and energy research that pay $55,000 to $60,000, plus benefits.
Yet even with 15 million people hunting for work, even with the unemployment rate nearing 10 percent, some employers can't find enough qualified people for good-paying career jobs.
Ask Steve Jones, a hospital recruiter in Indianapolis who's struggling to find qualified nurses, pharmacists and MRI technicians. Or Ed Baker, who's looking to hire at a U.S. Energy Department research lab in Richland, Wash., for $60,000 each.
Economists say the main problem is a mismatch between available work and people qualified to do it. Millions of jobs with attractive pay and benefits that once drew legions of workers to the auto industry, construction, Wall Street and other sectors are gone, probably for good. And those who lost those jobs generally lack the right experience for new positions popping up in health care, energy and engineering.
Many of these specialized jobs were hard to fill even before the recession. But during downturns, recruiters tend to become even choosier, less willing to take financial risks on untested workers.
The mismatch between job opening and job seeker is likely to persist even as the economy strengthens and begins to add jobs. It also will make it harder for the unemployment rate, now at 9.8 percent, to drop down to a healthier level.
It's become especially hard to find accountants, health care workers, software sales representatives, actuaries, data analysts, physical therapists and electrical engineers, labor analysts say. And employers that demand highly specialized training -- like biotech firms that need plant scientists or energy companies that need geotechnical engineers to build offshore platforms -- struggle even more to fill jobs.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
finally landed a job in Dallas which I start next weekRDCN5 (or 4) building by any chance?
Nursing shortage, as it was explained to me by a nurse back in PA fighting to maintain State requirements for licensing nurses, was not because of lazy Americans lack of interest.
People line up to get into nursing school.
Problem is those with the skills to teach have no incentive to leave their lucrative jobs when the teaching position’s salary barely equals half of their current earnings. That results in fewer nursing classes offered and fewer newer nurses in the field.
Hence, the offshore trained nurses are no longer limited to government hospitals.
That’s how it was explained to me.
Exactly. I’ve had run-ins with HR people who put down a list of buzzwords on a position requirements posting that had not existed for three, much less five years. When I’d inform HR of this, I’d get “well, that’s what management told me they wanted.”
So I’d go talk to middle management and tell them “You know that no one meets this requirement list, right?” Then I’d force them to READ what HR was posting.... and management would blow their tops. Managers would say “That’s what I told them a ‘walk on water candidate’ would have, and I told them it would take a miracle for someone to have those qualifications...”
Why did management come up with this nonsense? Because of how HR prodded them to create their “dream candidate.” The managers didn’t think for a minute that their “dream” candidate didn’t exist, and that they were not in the business of “dreams.”
Right about now, were I in middle management, my “ideal” candidate would not be a specialist - in anything. They’d be a generalist, they’d be smart, a quick study, hard working and they’d show up in the morning, ready to work.
I’ve maintained forever that specialization is for insects.
Sometime, if the context comes up, I’ll regale people with my story of the “day of the 4.0 GPA candidates” — who all quite nearly were defenestrated after the interview team was done with them. After we were done with the candidates, the engineering team had some sharp words for HR... which I cannot reproduce verbatim on FR due to restrictions about obscenity.
My husband was in the hospital a couple of weeks ago, most of his nurses were from the Philippines. (sp?)
I got this once on a job interview, and I was stumped by it as well. I had to ask the interviewer to explain the question. As a computer network and server tech, I've never been in the situation where I "didn't want to do something." Of course I would refuse to do certain things, if I was asked to do something illegal or immoral. But in my line of work, "want" simply doesn't enter into the question. Either I'm capable and authorized to do something, and then it's a part of doing my job, or I'm not. And if I'm not sure, I ask a manger. I don't think the interviewer ever really understood what I meant, but then I wasn't called back for the job either.
Mark
Actually a lot more to it than just pushing buttons. I make the things for a living and besides needing to understand the specific applications required for each type of scan, understanding when the scans need to be rerun due to misposition/patient movement/etc; they also need to deal with the varied personalities of the patients - many scared to death AND the doctors (usually specialists - radiologists, cardiologists, oncologists) etc who are often willing to throw them under the bus since they are soooo unlikely to make a mistake (such as ordering the wrong scan). I’ve thought about going into that side of the biz myself, but I know I’d end up punching some holier than thou in the nose. And yes I overgeneralize, but it only takes a couple to foul the whole lot. Every hospital has at least one. It’s like a requirement. That being said it is cool as all hell what you can see with the darned things.
Try virtual tour pornography, there's gotta be a lot of money in that.
“And then did everyone hate you?”
LOL - But I’m curious, how did you respond. I would
have laughed so hard the tears would have come out.
Perhaps it was some new way of seeing how you respond
to something so bizarre....
Me either and if somebody offers me a job, I'm gonna be p.o.
Happily and voluntarily unemployed for 10 years
I really do feel for those who are looking for work though and thankful that I am outta that rat race.
I was curious (and not much more than that) until I saw you are in California. No way am I going back there, sorry.
Allow me to amend that. I do not "feel" for any jobless person if they voted for the 0bomanation currently residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. They are getting what they richly deserve. Unfortunately the situation affects everyone.
Wrong skin pigmentation?
I got my bachelor's during a downturn where there were very few opportunities. Stayed on two years for my master's and when I got that -- I was able to pick & choose.
I’ve talked to hundreds of recruiters in the last 20 years and I find most of them don’t have a clue on the job requirements because they don’t understand them.
They have long shopping lists that most of the time no one fits exactly.
Associates degree and a training program. It sounds easy to me.
Well good luck to you. Look on the bright side. Times now are really bad. Only the Depression was worse. And they aren’t THAT bad, are they? They can get worse. Gotta do what we can. But we can handle it.
They have to understand that there are
only 10 kinds of people; those that get
binary, and those who don’t.
Are you willing to relocate? There are job openings in DC. A govt job is better than no job.
Not TI
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