Posted on 08/14/2013 6:37:24 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
An odd puzzle is taking shape in the labor market: Over the past three years, the number of job openings has risen almost 50 percent, but actual hiring has gone up by less than 5 percent. Companies are advertising a lot more jobs, in other words, but not filling them.
To get some sense of how significant this is, consider that if, since June 2010, hiring had risen a third as much as advertised jobs have (rather than only a 10th), and nothing else were different, job creation would be roughly 500,000 higher each month, and the unemployment rate would already be back to normal levels.
So what explains the yawning gap between jobs open and jobs filled?
One possibility is that there is a mismatch between the work that companies need done and the skills that workers have. As Peter Newland of Barclays Plc has said, “We believe that this divergence between openings and hiring is consistent with our view that some of the loss of employment during the recession was structural, rather than purely cyclical, in nature.”
Such a structural mismatch may well explain part of the gap, yet it seems unlikely that it explains most of it. After all, job openings in the retail trade have doubled over the past three years, while hiring has been flat. Is it really plausible that we lack qualified workers for these jobs?
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonmonthly.com ...
There’s just not enough people who know how to flip a burger or ring up a cash register.
It’s funny that all these “protective” measures taken by the elitists for minorities end up having the opposite effect.
Why would I consider a minority candidate on an equal footing if I can’t get rid of him if he’s not up to snuff?
I can get rid of the white guy a lot easier, so there’s less risk.
RE: One reason is the employers are offering salaries sharply lower than what the same job paid only five or six years ago
In 1993, I was a software developer programming in C/C++ under a Windows 3.1 environment with Microsoft’s first version of Visual Studio. I was on CONTRACT then at $50.00 an hour.
Today, I see the same contract position for .NET C# developers using Visual Studio 2010 in a Windows 7 environment at barely $55 to $60 an hour.
According to this inflation calculator:
http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/
$50.00 should be $88.00 today based on average inflation.
What accounts for the effective DECREASE in salary rate for the same skill?
I would say — COMPETITION.
We now have TENS OF THOUSANDS of software developers (many on H1B visas ) from overseas who can do the same job we can who are willing to work for lower rates.
Just like my tagline, my wish list is to only hire rightwingers but our last go-around where only 2 of us did the interviewing for our film production company, probably my best was the applicant who lived close-by and had the creds’ to do the job.
When we called him up, he explained that his car was in the shop and didn’t want to show up late for the interview. Fair enough, we said, then he says..
“Can you guys pick me up?”
Who’s going to hire with increasing taxes, Obamacare, and bigger regulatory burdens?
Late for the interview .... that's a minus, but it's a plus they called.
"Can you pick me up?" .... ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, lost me there. Thanks for playing. :-)
I took pleasure in scuppering an interviewee who expounded at length on her activities with a "Pro-Marxist Organization" on a local college campus (that will remain nameless).
It was one of those setups that FReepers dream about. She never would have gotten the job anyway, since she was as dumb as a bag of hammers. Which, I suppose, goes without saying. What idiot emphasizes radical politics in an interview?
It’s a buyers’ market, companies are using listings to cycle people through the door, but they don’t really have an opening, unless a real winner comes in, then they’ll find room.
There may be a case for it, but in my 16 years I haven’t seen one.
I take it you are degree-less.
Maybe it reflects a situation of dumbed-down bachelor degrees? So they know the person who went on for a masters was at least somewhat serious?
How right you are....unfortunately employers have convinced themselves that they can obtain first world employees and results while paying third world wages.
There is no shortage of labor. If there was, wages would be going up, not down.
What is “training”? That must be something from a before-time.
True... the “plus experience” matters with school solidity being more and more an enigma today. And it doesn’t need much to get the creds; an internship with a known famous firm can open a lot more doors.
being a C++ programmer and a C# programmer is not the same skill. C++ has a much steeper learning curve. Finding skilled C++ workers is not easy, even foreign born ones. I do agree, though, that competition does play a significant role for salaries.
The companies with the open positions have competition; government handouts are more lucrative than jobs in many cases.
The open positions do not pay what the available workers want for pay. The workers get by on government redistribution. The businesses get a double whammy — they get taxed, then the distribution of the taxes to the workers competes with the businesses for employees.
“Parasitism is a part of every free market.”
Speaking for myself, a degree is little more than a check box. Shows that you can stick with something for four years and have a positive outcome, that's all. What's more important are your capabilities. For instance, I come across guys in IT all the time who got their experience in the military, but don't have a college diploma.
Most of the time, I'd hire them over some instant genius with a four year degree.
Bingo.
I’d also suggest the intern try for contract jobs first. With less risk to the employer, a shallower resume can suffice.
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