Posted on 11/28/2011 9:40:09 AM PST by SeekAndFind
We hear so much these days about the unemployment figures and the lack of good paying jobs for the disappearing middle class that it’s almost become the new normal. Combined with that, the plaintive cries from the OWS occupiers about the heavy burdens of oppressive college loans for graduates unable to find work have become a regular fixture in political discussions. Which is why it’s odd when we see the Wall Street Journal reporting on employers looking to fill relatively high wage jobs and having little to no success in finding takers.
Ferrie Bailey’s job should be easy: hiring workers amid the worst stretch of unemployment since the Depression.
A recruiter for Union Pacific Corp., she has openings to fill, the kind that sometimes seem to have all but vanished: secure, well-paying jobs with good benefits that don’t require a college degree.
But they require specialized skills—expertise in short supply even with the unemployment rate at 9%. Which is why on a recent morning the recruiter found herself in a hiring hall here anxiously awaiting the arrival of just two people she had invited to interviews, winnowed from an initial group of nearly five dozen applicants. With minutes to go, the folding chairs sat empty. “I don’t think they’re going to show,” Ms. Bailey said, pacing in the basement room.
Moe Lane jumps on this opportunity with a decision to send the kids to electrician’s school.
Or maybe it’ll be plumber’s school. Or welding. Doesn’t really matter: until people don’t have to spend tens of thousands of dollars a year to get poorly educated for white-collar jobs that don’t actually exist, some sort of technical training is looking more and more attractive. We’re always going to need electricians and plumbers, and they can improve their minds on their lunch breaks. Which they’ll get, because we’re always going to need electricians and plumbers.
It’s a valid point which we’ve made here before and always draw criticism for it. I’m not saying there’s no value to a college education. Having the right sheepskin and a willingness to work hard is absolutely a solid course for those with the ability to pursue it. But not everyone can and – increasingly – fewer and fewer are willing to look at lower cost but potentially productive alternate paths.
I’ve told this story before, but it bears repeating. Right in my neighborhood there is the son of one of my neighbors who finished high school several years back and went into an apprenticeship and technical school training program for heating and air conditioning. Within six months of graduating high school he had a secure, full time job which is bringing in some seriously good pay and benefits. Yes, the job involves hard work, finds him coming home covered in dirt and dust, and he frequently has to deal with irate, if not panicking homeowners. But he had no outstanding debt and at the age of 25 was already purchasing his first home. As his father tells it, he got a terrific rate on it, putting down a very substantial down payment.
The point is, there is still blue collar work out there to be done. And unlike many white collar jobs, a lot of it will never be able to be outsourced to other countries, as so often happens to computer programming jobs and others in related fields. Nobody is going to be able to log in to “the cloud” from Brazil and dig a new foundation for your home, wire it up, install the plumbing or put on a new roof. Those jobs will remain here at home.
I would once again suggest taking a look at Matthew B. Crawford’s wonderful book, Shop Class as Soulcraft. In it, he examines what he describes as “the value of work.” He also notes with dismay the decades long trend of high schools abandoning shop class and any other training for skills requiring the use of your hands. When schools began to push everyone to go to a university, they also seemed to scorn and delegitimize the trades, much to our detriment. And now we see jobs which could help rebuild the middle class going empty because we’ve forgotten the value of good old fashioned work.
I wonder if UP is going to the WSJ to complain so they can make a case to get Congress to allow them to bring in foreign slave labor. I’m not surprised that they treat their employees like rented mules.
Mostly in the IT space. They would take resumes and then tweak the job description so they could say there were no qualified applicants. Changes had nothing to do with the actual job they needed filled.
They needed people in seats, and senior managers would not authorize salaries for the going rate. Instead of taking less qualified people they decided that H1Bs were the answer. Of course in most cases the H1B person wasn’t any more qualified but they lied well on their resume.
And you have to have the money to pursue it, which the unemployed often do not have. So, a lose-lose/no hope situation.
Sorry but that is just not true. I interviewed for one of those kinds of jobs. you have to have a pristine internet connection (if youre throttled/capped, FORGET it). The kind they have in South Korea. Most ISPs in the U.S. are capping or throttling (mandatory, no way out of it) their customers to price-gouge them.
That was well said. Some thirty years ago, a lot of people looked down their noses at me because I chose military and trade school over a 4-year college that many of my high school classmates went on to (usually to major in some vague area of study such as "liberal arts" or "communications").
Instead of college, I went straight to the U.S. Marine Corps after high school and got four years of electronics training and experience. I then went to a 10-month trade school for electronics and computer repair (this was back in the mid 1980s) and before I even finished that school, I was recruited for a full-time job and had to finish my trade school at night.
So I never got the sheepskin to hang on my wall, nor do I have fond memories of college keg parties and Saturday football. However, I can say that I have no idea what it is like to be unemployed. I've never been fired or laid off and if I wanted a better job than the one I had, I had no problem finding one (while I was still employed at my old job). Haven't made less than six figures in over 15 years. Zero school loans and Zero credit card debt. Just took a two-week trip to Hawaii and Las Vegas that I paid cash for. No I'm not rich but I'm in better shape then most of those college graduates who think they are too good to work blue collar jobs. The sad reality is however, that most of those college grads are not qualified to do skilled work (i.e. electrician, plumber, carpenter) and now that they've moved most pencil pushing and computer jobs overseas, they don't know what to do with themselves.
Dude, if you consider that a a tough work schedule, all I can say is you work for the government....
Yep. You work oilfield, I work oilfield. 60-70 hours a week, I finally found a company that is DOT hours....70 hours max. $18 an hour and time and a half over 40 is GOOD money, apparently FR is littered with old coots with government jobs and hippies....
Must be nice to skip over the rest of the work conditions that are listed as part of the job.
Pass a dope test....outside work....safety glasses, ear plugs and hardhat....have to travel down tracks....welcome to one of the best blue collar jobs in America.....the railroad isn't the Marines.
I saw this article but couldn’t post until now. I have a pending application with UP for a train crew position at a terminal less than 2 miles from where I live. I am fully aware that that job involves risk and that serious injury or death can occur. They were also up front on the application that this job will involve totally irregular hours and an “on call” routine. I am more than willing to take my chances because this is something I’ve wanted to do since I was little. My kids are all grown up and the irregular hours won’t be a concern as far as that’s concerned.
The flip side? I’m 40 and have been working at lower level accounting clerk positions for the last 17 years (I have an associates degree), but do have prevous manufacturing experience. The HR people will probably think I’m nuts for wanting to make that kind of change but I’m hoping to at least get the chance to interview.
? Bro. I'm 50 and was laid off from Lockheed (engineering) after 17 years. Got a CDL and drive in the oilfield now...you'll love it. You aren't going to die....enjoy....;)
Thanks for the encouragement. Unfortunately an out of state move isn’t possible at this time. Another thing I forgot to mention is that I’m blind in my right eye (since birth) but just had cataract surgery on the other eye and can now see better than I ever remember.
Here in NJ, a lot of that work has either dried up as building stopped or been farmed out to illegals (1 skilled Yanqui with a crew of illegals). Workers who worked in those trades could always move to a part of the country where a boom was underway, but that hasn’t been the case in the “he”-cession; the slowdown is national.
“I find a lot of these employer complaints are from companies wanting something for nothing above their idea of market value.”
You’re right; a lot of them want workers who will settle for the “new normal” wage of working for food.
“That is why most on construction sites do not speak English. This is a ploy. The goal is to justify hiring illegal aliens.”
You’re absolutely right; it was done to justify the import of Asians for tech work (leaving many skilled Americans unemployed), and now it is being done with the skilled trades (since they’ve finished removing Americans from the unskilled labor pool). Someone pointed out that this work couldn’t be done from Brazil; it will instead be done by Brazilians imported into the US to keep wages down.
“you throw in an obsolete programing language and a combination of talent/skills that are unlikely to be all in one person.”
A close friend working as a programmer explained the exact same thing to me; just another gimmick to avoid hiring an American.
“This type of scheduling is wreaking havoc on the health of these people, and any planning they do for family events is always tentative. They are not earning that much money to go through this.”
This nonsense has now spread into the part-time job market. Rather than supplementing a standard income, a lot of part-time positions don’t allow for any other work; the hours (both working and “on-call” make it impossible.
Not sure which ISP’s you’re referring to, but the thousands of people my employer employs had no trouble getting the right speed connection.
Change in shift at the last moment. Change of location to anywhere in their system at the last moment. Constantly away from home. Work outside in the snow and ice. I'd rather work in the oil fields with similar requirements (a bit better in my opinion) for three times the pay.
During the housing building boom, contractors around here would often let go an American who was a trained and experienced electrician/plumber/etc. because he would hire on an illegal who underbid the American.
I think some employers were spoiled into thinking that 3rd world pay scale was the norm and thus can’t find anyone willing to train and work for that wage level.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.