Posted on 06/14/2018 8:00:10 AM PDT by Alas Babylon!
A labor shortage issue is increasingly weighing on small businesses around the country. This comes despite record-high confidence on Main Street.
In May, one-third of small-business owners reported job openings they could not fill, and 12 percent reported using temporary workers.
Mike Fredrich shows off unmanned presses in his Manitowoc, Wisconsin, company. They're ready to start production at MCM Composites, a 55-person enterprise that makes custom thermoset molding.
The only problem? Fredrich has no one to operate them.
"These tools are heated to 300 degrees," he said. "But we're not running them. Had we had the people for the first shift, we could have been running this all day. But we don't, so they sit here heated, ready to go, with no action."
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
Stop most student loans and replace them with work/study programs. Let them earn their degrees with work and academics combined. A lot of college students are just hiding out there to avoid becoming part of the capitalists' oppressed work force, anyway!
Signing bonuses or other perks can work wonders as well.
That’s a good point, to. I am a creature of my own experiences. I was in the military in the late 70s, so a fixed income. Jimmy Carter and the democrats controlling Congress wouldn’t give us a raise so we fell behind quite a bit in those years.
When Reagan came in, we got an 11.7% raise in 1981 and a 14.1% raise in 1982. And he beat stagflation.
Yep. I am working for a bank right now doing a project. In the section of office I am in as I type this, there is me, one Black guy who is obviously an American and FOUR Indians. This is not unusual in this big bank. No, they are not doing tech intensive jobs.
So.....why are there so many working here? Are you telling me they can’t find Americans to do a lot more of these jobs? Baloney! Yes they can! They may have to take slightly less experienced finance and accounting grads. They may not be quite as cheap as the Indian contract workers they stuff the offices with. So what? It would be far better for America to curb H1b visas and have more of these roles filled by Americans. Lots of grads a few years out of college would LOVE to do a white collar job for a big bank even if the pay was only “OK”. That looks great on a resume.
I received two responses with the same reply: "we don't think you'd be a good fit for our firm."
So be it, all's well that ends well. I took a part time job at UPS working in their package sort operations. I'm basically getting paid for working out 4-5 hours five days a week. I've dropped 20 pounds in four months, my BP is ideal (104/64) and I feel great.
I'd venture to say that 90% of these companies that say they can't hired qualified people discriminate against workers over 50. They seem to think that if they hire someone in their 20s, they'll have 'em for decades, though experience says they'll be gone in months.
IMHO, all of that doesn't matter. Take away the benefits. A hungry stomach, regardless of one's intellect or lack thereof, tends to get one moving.
The problem with many of these people, except those mentally deficient, is that they have never had a reason to be motivated to survive. We, who have worked and paid the taxes to support these shirkers, have done it all for them. Even to the point of destroying their self-esteem.
Lots of “safety sensitive” positions (e.g., rail transportation) go wanting due to people not being able to pass required drug tests.
As states “legalize” recreational marijuana use, this situation will only get worse.
Wages are rising quite rapidly at the lower end of the payscale. We operate 600+ locations nationwide and our labor cost was up 5% in 1Q. Largest increases were on the west coast and “hot” cities like Austin, Nashville, etc. Ultimately, you do solve labor with wage increases, but that does put limits around economic growth as expected returns are lowered on new projects (offset in part or fully by increased consumer spending).
Don’t believe a word of it.
Even FDR agreed...
"A large proportion of these unemployed and their dependents have been forced on the relief rolls. The burden on the Federal Government has grown with great rapidity. We have here a human as well as an economic problem. When humane considerations are concerned, Americans give them precedence. The lessons of history, confirmed by the evidence immediately before me, show conclusively that continued dependence upon relief induces a spiritual and moral disintegration fundamentally destructive to the national fibre. To dole out relief in this way is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit. It is inimical to the dictates of sound policy. It is in violation of the traditions of America. Work must be found for able-bodied but destitute workers."
Our next challenge is to get our own population off of the Obama couch.
I’ve talked to hiring managers with jobs like this who said something like 60% of applicants were failing their drug test.
You want to fill that spot?
In a tight labor market you aren’t owed cheap labor, just like in a market with lots of unemployed, labor isnt owed a high salary.
UPS does a pretty good job for shifts they have trouble filling. My work week ranges between 16-23 hours, depending on volume. They pay a bonus of $100/week if you show up on time every day. That's a good motivator, if you ask me.
We need more migrant workers or our indigenous workers will have to come off welfare.
Another great point!
How many go to college who really have no business doing so?
I’m not going to say they’re too stupid or too lazy, but in way too many cases, degree programs in higher education are just terrible nonsense that will do nothing for that individual financially.
They might as well go to work now, collect money, and use some of that to go to night school.
But seriously, who gets a degree in Lesbian Transgender Studies, for example, and expects to make anything off of that except be a professor teaching the same racket (which is probably 1 in 1000) to young minds full of mush?
I understand...... wage inflation is coming because the commodity supply is unequal to the demand
Freeper sentiment likes to devalue education because they got by with out.
If the kid learned to write, then he received valuable lessons.
And many are senior technicals that no one wants because they look expensive.....more than likely million+ to be more exact. Those who do find work are grossly underemployed.
Another great point.
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