Posted on 06/19/2012 12:15:12 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Last week’s disappointing unemployment report has refocused attention on the question of why, despite modest signs of economic recovery in recent months, American companies aren’t hiring.
Indeed, some of the most puzzling stories to come out of the Great Recession are the many claims by employers that they cannot find qualified applicants to fill their jobs, despite the millions of unemployed who are seeking work. Beyond the anecdotes themselves is survey evidence, most recently from Manpower, which finds roughly half of employers reporting trouble filling their vacancies.
The first thing that makes me wonder about the supposed “skill gap” is that, when pressed for more evidence, roughly 10% of employers admit that the problem is really that the candidates they want won’t accept the positions at the wage level being offered. That’s not a skill shortage, it’s simply being unwilling to pay the going price.
But the heart of the real story about employer difficulties in hiring can be seen in the Manpower data showing that only 15% of employers who say they see a skill shortage say that the issue is a lack of candidate knowledge, which is what we’d normally think of as skill. Instead, by far the most important shortfall they see in candidates is a lack of experience doing similar jobs. Employers are not looking to hire entry-level applicants right out of school. They want experienced candidates who can contribute immediately with no training or start-up time. That’s certainly understandable, but the only people who can do that are those who have done virtually the same job before, and that often requires a skill set that, in a rapidly changing world, may die out soon after it is perfected.
(Excerpt) Read more at business.time.com ...
My point is, the marketplace involves not just willing buyers but willing sellers. The price mechanism is not one-sided.
Because a generation of MBAs thinking they had some “meta-knowledge” that trumped real-world experience are COMPLETELY INCOMPETENT at hiring people.
Another thing we have run into is qualified applicants who have turned down job offers at our manufacturing plant because they have not yet exhausted their 99 weeks of unemployment. Some of them have actually told us that!
Check the whole parking lot and look at the average, not just a couple junkers out of dozens/hundreds.
But you just confirmed my own statement for me. By offering cut rate salaries, driving the experienced people out of the running, they’re getting inexperienced people instead, which is a form of cutting one’s throat. And, by your own admission, those cut-rate salaries aren’t the going rate; simply by being cut-rate.
My whole point is based on business offering salaries at the ‘going rate’ for said position, and applicants having to accept the going rate. Applicants don’t set that rate. It’s set by the marketplace.
“can be fired at the drop of a hat”
It’s the regulations and the red tape. I know there are Americans who are willing to do these jobs, but once an employer gets down to that 9, 10 dollar an hour range, the American is costing the business owner another 5.
So unless the American can add 15 dollars worth of work to the business, they are going to hire whomever they can.
This is why right to work laws are so crucial.
Exactly so! Thanks for your post. :)
Supply and demand to a degree. But the ‘going rate’ for any given skill isn’t something that’s set by the applicant. That’s my point. He may ask for a price he feels is competitive, but the decision isn’t his. And, like you say, he then has to adjust. You can demand all you want, but somebody else will decide. And today, the supply so greatly outstrips the demand, the ‘going rate’ is going to be lower.
You are probably looking at a bunch of car payments. Look for the stickers on the car. You want to see a lot of college and soccer decals. Avoid ones with lots of “Git r done” and racin’ decals.
Aaah. Pennsylvania. Explains it all. You have my sympathies!
ND is paying better than most areas, and is sucking all the qualified people. Which is going drive the price up, eventually. Or they will hire H1Bs
Most of the programmers I hire have built servers. I won’t hire pansies. I’d fire “your” programmers on the spot if I encountered such incompetence.
Offer crap wages, get crap applicants.
Apparently you grossly misunderstood my post. I suggest you read it again.
I'm not 'offering college graduates $9. per hour' but referred to people without degrees that have decades of work experience and will not accept a wage of that type.
I did not say that college graduates are 'entitled' to a starting salary of 60k per year but that some believe they are entitled to that kind of compensation, regardless of their degree or 'skill set'.
I regret the confusion but thought I had made myself clear. Obviously, it's a complicated issue and ones opinion may well depend on whether you are an employer (I am not), an employee or are seeking employment as well as what your field is and what kind of education & experience you possess. I believe that getting rid of Obama and his economy-killing policies and his 'czars' will change everything, although some folks may never regain their former salary or position.
Good for you.
“I’m not ‘offering college graduates $9. per hour’ but referred to people without degrees that have decades of work experience and will not accept a wage of that type.”
Which bring us up to the logical question. What are you offering college graduates fresh out of the box?
“some believe they are entitled to that kind of compensation, regardless of their degree or ‘skill set’.”
And some believe that Obama is the first African-American president. I agree, some believe this, but again, there’s a large gap between 9 dollars and hour and 60k a year. Arguing that “some want this”, ignores the real issue as to what offers these college grads are actually getting.
“I believe that getting rid of Obama and his economy-killing policies and his ‘czars’ will change everything, although some folks may never regain their former salary or position.”
My experience is that most employers here are offering wages in the 9 to 10 dollar range for college graduates fresh out of the box. Hence my comment. Do you feel that’s an appropriate salary?
I’d say women being more prominent in the workforce is a fairly small part of the issue. You touch on it in your second paragraph. Less educated workers, less skilled workers, less motivated workers. An economy that has tanked, with businesses trying to make ends meet, let alone hiring additional personnel. Not knowing what the future will hold based on government intrusion and regulation. Need I go on?
Throw it all together, and it’s no longer business as usual. We no longer have a thriving economy. It’s become anemic. So, it’s really no wonder why the ‘going rate’ for a given skill isn’t what it was, say, 10 years ago. We live in a different age. A far less settled age. But I stay with my fairly simple point. The ‘going rate’ is set by the marketplace; not the applicants. Sure, applicants, based on their skills and experience, can and do expect a given wage, but the final arbiter is the business or corporation doing the hiring.
In the 6 years I have lived in Texas, I put 52 resumes in with one company for a Project Manager job. They finally called me in for an interview. It was for a major Infrastructure implementation that would impact hundreds of their clients as well as the industry.
The interview lasted 6 hours. I met with every Product Manager, Application Manager, Infrastructure Manager and PMO Manager and their directors. 15 people in all.
The next day I get a call from HR. They loved me. Want me to start right away. Only thing is, they didn’t feel I was strong enough on the technical side so instead of putting me in the higher grade, they would start me at the lowest grade and go from there. It was a signficant difference in pay. Also, I would still be working a minimum 60 hours a week. And I would be on probation for 6 months.
Today that offer letter hangs on my wall as a reminder of my perserverance. Needless to say, I decided to stay where I was at and am very happy.
You can’t fire them when they are up on retirement age. Age discrimination.
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