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Signs of a Strong Economy: Hedges Are Overgrown and Lawns Need Mowing
Wall Street Journal ^ | August 26, 2018 | Shayndi Raice

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 ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS: aliens; h2b; immigration
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To: reaganaut1

Directly a result of Trump being President and fewer people breaking into the country.

Do you still want someone else in 2020?


61 posted on 08/27/2018 7:14:05 AM PDT by Lurkinanloomin (Natural Born Citizen Means Born Here of Citizen Parents__Know Islam, No Peace - No Islam, Know Peace)
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To: Paladin2

“Needs to buy some equipment manufactured in the US and cut her own yard. Or move to an apartment.”

My fiercely independent 85 year old mother still mows her own 1.5 acre yard weekly.
Whenever I try to mow for her she gives me “The Look” and asks “do you think I’m some kind of crippled old lady?”

Ms Dozzi needs get off her butt and mow her own damned grass.


62 posted on 08/27/2018 7:22:06 AM PDT by oldvirginian (American by birth, Southern by the Grace of God and Virginian because Jesus loves me)
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To: reaganaut1

This story was on our local news stations. The owner had a auction and sold a few of his trucks and other equipment. He stated in the local news he only got one reply to his want ads.


63 posted on 08/27/2018 7:24:07 AM PDT by 4yearlurker ("There stands mother under the oleanders,open the windows." A dying cowboys last words,1879.)
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To: reaganaut1

“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.”

You know what? You’re two years older than me. I get in the best shape pushing a crappy a$$ed lawn mower around twice a week in the spring and once a week in the summer. Get off your saggy a$$ and do it yourself. Get a riding lawn mower if you need to do that.


64 posted on 08/27/2018 7:24:25 AM PDT by WKUHilltopper
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To: reaganaut1

“the grass grew so high it became “unsightly” around her 10,000 square-foot brick home set on 3 acres”

10,000 sq. ft. home? Poor baby.

Maybe she has a grandson or two who don’t want to be cut out of her will.


65 posted on 08/27/2018 7:27:58 AM PDT by MayflowerMadam (Have an A-1 day.)
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To: reaganaut1

Many teens need a job; many teens need to work, whether they or their parents admit it or not. Citizen teens in my day filled most of the part-time and short term jobs.


66 posted on 08/27/2018 7:30:08 AM PDT by Wuli
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To: RedStateRocker
So, you think an urban American slacker in Philadelphia is going to Pittsburgh to mow lawns? You think a jobless person 50 miles away from Pittsburgh is going to drive a 100 miles per day to mow and weed eat?

The topic is local, not national. You assume that there are Americans in Pittsburgh that are available, able, and not druggies or those that can't be depended on to come to work every day.

The testimony of the company is that there are not

The answer always proposed is inflated wages. There is no real evidence inflating wages at the bottom will solve the problem of laziness

67 posted on 08/27/2018 7:35:53 AM PDT by bert ((K.E. N.P. N.C. +12) Muller..... conspiracy to over throw the government)
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To: bert

‘What Americans? There are no Americans to do these jobs.

You assume a local labor pool that apparently does not exist.’

That is true in many areas. Our grand kids and grand nephews and nieces this past summer had at least one job getting @ least minimum wages. Some had two or three jobs.

Their parents told them, like we told their parents and were told by our parents: “You want spending money or gasoline money, get a job and pay for it!”


68 posted on 08/27/2018 7:43:18 AM PDT by Grampa Dave ( Out of about 6 million people in the DC area, Trump is the only one not colluding with anyone!!!)
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To: Gay State Conservative
I was in Greenwhich and Darien,Connecticut a couple of weeks ago and saw absolutely no evidence of overgrown hedges or unmowed lawns.

I live in that area and I can attest that the lawns are looking pretty nice for late August. Usually this time of year, the lawns are getting burnt and yellowish as August is usually dry and hot but we've had heavy rains all summer and coolish weather so everything is as lush as it was in June.

My landscaper comes as scheduled and I've never heard of any kind of landscaping shortages.

69 posted on 08/27/2018 7:49:34 AM PDT by SamAdams76 ( If you are offended by what I have to say here then you can blame your parents for raising a wuss)
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To: reaganaut1

Today’s American kids are in so many sports activities that go year around and every day, that they do not/cannot develop simple skills such as working for neighbors, like cutting lawns, clearing snow, etc.

We would have enough people to do low skill jobs if our kids were allowed time to earn a bit of money as young entrepreneurs. Of course, it wouldn’t fill in for regular jobs like landscaping, but it would solve some other problems.


70 posted on 08/27/2018 8:38:41 AM PDT by Gumdrop
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To: ClearCase_guy

Buy a lawn mower and cut it yourself


71 posted on 08/27/2018 8:49:06 AM PDT by Citizen Soldier ("And I was born to pull turnips!" Demelza Poldark)
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To: bert

If someone is so damned concerned about ‘druggies’, to hell with them. Zero sympathy for anyone who both bitches about not being able to find people and drug tests, they can go the hell out of business for all I care.

Yes, combine decent wages with work requirements. Able to work and won’t? Starve.

The testimony of that company means no more to me than anything Hillary ever said. Just another person who doesn’t want to pay Americans a fair wage.


72 posted on 08/27/2018 8:50:33 AM PDT by RedStateRocker (Nuke Mecca. Deport all illegals. Abolish the DEA, IRS and ATF,.)
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To: reaganaut1

Just another excuse to party.

73 posted on 08/27/2018 8:53:13 AM PDT by deadrock
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To: EdnaMode

I cut grass while I was in college. Acres and acres and acres of grass. I got exercise, fresh air, made really good money for that time, and by Friday and Saturday nights I was too exhausted to go out and get into trouble.


74 posted on 08/27/2018 8:57:54 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: RedStateRocker

See, you are a worker and don’t matter. Employers seek people that will work. I expect that down deep there is a union backgroud

Those that are druggies are worthless as employees as are those who don’t come to work and those that are just plain lazy.

Just because they are American doesn’t mean they are worth a damn as employees


75 posted on 08/27/2018 9:01:44 AM PDT by bert ((K.E. N.P. N.C. +12) Muller..... conspiracy to over throw the government)
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To: Paladin2

There have to be high school & college kids who would love the summer jobs.

Are we raising a country of lazy sissies or what?


76 posted on 08/27/2018 9:05:53 AM PDT by ridesthemiles
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To: Alas Babylon!

The grass is there at dawn when it is cooler. Cut it then.

IF town ordinances prevent that, he needs to realize that he is heading for a lifetime of jobs ‘where it is too hot’.

Good luck with him. You are going to need it.


77 posted on 08/27/2018 9:10:44 AM PDT by ridesthemiles
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To: RedStateRocker

ALL the insurance companies are demanding drug tests. Too many ‘accidents’ with drugs involved.

I would NEVER hire someone who cannot pass a drug test.

I don’t need the Liability headaches.


78 posted on 08/27/2018 9:15:39 AM PDT by ridesthemiles
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To: bert

People who are concerned about if someone is, or isn’t a ‘druggie’ need to go out of business and go to hell. Good riddance. None of anyone’s business what someone does after quitting time.

Don’t use, but have more respect for partiers than jack boot licking busybodies.


79 posted on 08/27/2018 9:17:00 AM PDT by RedStateRocker (Nuke Mecca. Deport all illegals. Abolish the DEA, IRS and ATF,.)
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To: ClearCase_guy

Best comment, thank you!


80 posted on 08/27/2018 9:21:24 AM PDT by Moleman
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