Posted on 08/27/2018 4:24:23 AM PDT by reaganaut1
Brian Friend sat at his kitchen table nursing a Friday-night beer this spring when he realized he would need to cancel $80,000 in landscaping contracts because he couldn’t hire enough workers.
“It was a low point,” said the 42-year-old Mr. Friend, who runs Sylvan Gardens Landscape LLC in Pittsburgh.
Like landscapers across the country, Mr. Friend has faced a severe labor shortage this year, spurred by low levels of unemployment and high demand for visas under the foreign seasonal-worker program known as H-2B. Higher wages and added bonuses haven’t attracted more workers, some landscapers say.
Richard Cafaro, owner of family-run Lawn Maintenance Services Co. outside Pittsburgh, said he was forced to shut down the 48-year-old company because it didn’t receive any of the seasonal foreign-worker visas it requested. For 17 years, the company had relied on those for the majority of its field crew.
“I just had no path forward,” said Mr. Cafaro, 47. “It’s so frustrating.”
Customers weren’t happy. Theresa Dozzi used Mr. Cafaro as her landscaper for 20 years. Ms. Dozzi, 64, watched this spring as the grass grew so high it became “unsightly” around her 10,000 square-foot brick home set on 3 acres in Fox Chapel outside Pittsburgh.
“It was a nightmare,” she said.
The tight labor market and visa shortage are hurting all kinds of industries that rely on seasonal workers, from Maryland’s crab-picking industry to New England restaurants to Michigan fudge shops. But the $82 billion-a-year landscaping industry is the largest user of the visa program that allows employers to bring workers from abroad for temporary positions, accounting for 50% of all such visas certified by the government this year.
The visa program, which has a cap, was oversubscribed quickly this year, leaving landscapers across the country unusually short-handed.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Growing up my father had a business and would hire some older teens or young adults for help over the summers and I don’t recall him ever struggling to fill the jobs.
Now that Cindy McCain's in line to be the next Arizona Senator, I wonder if she'll continue to pay Paco slave wages to mow her estate's lawns - and Consuela to cook her meals?
Oh, who am I kidding! When has that ever made a difference to the constituents!
“How about high school kids?”
They would need a joystick to run a mower.
My point is that if you are the business owner, and find your own customers, you don’t need to take a salary. You get all the money after expenses.
My brother’s customers were loyal because he did the best job possible. They were very disappointed when he went off to college at RPI.
Too many teenagers are only good at snapchat and video games.
My own son, 18, lives at home and says it’s too hot to cut the grass. I then keep reminding that it’s not to late for me to cut the power cord for his Xbox.
It’s gonna be a struggle to get him a job, too. He just graduated high school. No plans for college. And here’s a skill he already knows!
I’m going to make him read this article!
She could always get a flock of sheep...
Tell the kids to earn the money for Fortnite by doing a real virtual job simulator with an actual lawmower.
I’ve noticed some of that, too.
Wages must be going up for a heavier white woman to have joined the trash pickup crew.
I’m 74 and I mow my own four acres of grass. I would run a mower for a landscaper if he will pay the inflation adjusted equivalent of what a dollar fifty an hour was in 1960. I do good work too, don’t drink or do drugs or even smoke and I come to work on time, have my own transportation and a valid driver’s license.
“Adjusting for inflation, he would be taking in $1400 a week in 2018.”
I think it takes more than $1400 to equal $300 in the seventies.
Fox Chapel, which this article cites, is one of the tony suburbs of Pittsburgh where John Kerry has one of his dozen or so homes. I, on the other hand, live in one of the working class suburbs. When our high school kid joined the Air Force, my wife found another high school kid in our neighborhood who was delighted to take over the lawn mowing chores. His Dad said it was nice to find someone who still paid for that kind of thing because just about everyone else either (a)mowed their own or (b)hired one of those professional services. Kids actually do enjoy earning money if you ask around. $25 for 45 minutes of work (plus the cost of gas and mower maintenance) isn
is not bad for a high school kid no matter how you slice it.
Yes, when I was in college a lot of guys worked landscaping, construction and moving in the summer.
Turn off the welfare ... adjust their attitudes.
You are being very naive.
I know when I hired American labor to build my house, Workmen's comp insurance demanded the ability to audit my cash bank withdrawals to see if I was paying anyone under the table, and the IRS looks at bank deposits to determine if people are cheating on taxes.
A cash payment to a landscape company goes directly into payroll, without any bank involvement, and allows cheating in both areas. Of course they will give a discount for that.
Baloney.
There are plenty of Americans to do these jobs.
We just aren’t going to do them for sh!t wages.
This piece is nothing but another WSJ backdoor plea for open borders.
Yeah it seems that immigrants take a lot of jobs that used to be held by teenagers and college students.
“I just had no path forward,” said Mr. Cafaro, 47. “It’s so frustrating.”
Customers weren’t happy. Theresa Dozzi used Mr. Cafaro as her landscaper for 20 years. Ms. Dozzi, 64, watched this spring as the grass grew so high it became “unsightly” around her 10,000 square-foot brick home set on 3 acres in Fox Chapel outside Pittsburgh.
“It was a nightmare,” she said.
Please... I live in this area, there are no shortage of folks willing to cut grass.... sounds like a trust fund baby that doesn’t know how to get things done if it requires any real effort to me.
I got into hiring lawn care due to property line wars with the jerks next door.
He was sort of right but acted like a super spoiled child.
After that, I lost interest as I usually didn’t mind my own yard work. Paying someone else worked better.
A friend of mine who has several big medical problems finally had to start paying for lawn stuff. It was tough for him for a while since he kept a super meticulous yard.
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