i tried applying for a welding job a couple of weeks ago. i have a welder and i have welded before (self taught, not that great, but at least i tried).
anyway i got absolutely nothing back.
i figure that the company (imho a first rate local small construction company) is making good profits in an high cost of living area by charging a high price and paying undocumented immigrants relatively low wages and pocketing the substantial difference as profit. any legal american who happens to need a bit of training is automatically rejected as potential trouble maker or high cost employee (training or whatever).
i am thinking that federal and california regulations hold back hiring americans in some cases (esp. older non-minority males).
also a measure of the economy for older non-minority males at least is whether local businesses are willing to HIRE AND TRAIN them if they present themselves as responsible potential employees and the training period is reasonably low (say comparable to post WWII levels).
In turn I am thinking that the economy therefore continues to be relatively weak and that the illegal immigration rate continues to be relatively high, regardless of what the MSM (and anyone else for that matter) says.
IOW, IMHO a healthy economy is an economy in which a person — any person— can get a decent job including on the job training if necessary. We have not had such an economy in a very long time, possibly not even within the lifetime of many millenial job seekers.
I further imagine Trump is well aware of this and is continuing the pressure on the various government and quasi government agencies (eg the federal reserve) to modify policies to provide a healthier economy for all Americans.
(Walmart type and grubhub type employers ask for my resume and typically laugh me out of the store, saying i should go seek high tech jobs commensurate with my experience. High tech companies no longer get back to me, presumably because I am older than the desirable high tech demographic job seeker.)
I’m totally with you on this — immigration, especially at the lower skill levels, but up the ladder too, has been used to gut wages. Employers have got used to an employer’s market whereby they are unwilling to train even jobs that don’t require heavy training.
With a drop of 1-2% from when Trump correctly said our current unemployment stats are bogus and the real numbers are closer to 20%, he now goes along with the farce about the unemployment being the best ever, we need more workers, etc., etc.