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.
While hourly wages in the broad category of maintenance and repair workers rose 6.4% from 2007 to 2010, increases were 10% in the subcategory of heavy-vehicle mechanics and 15% for specialists in electrical repairs on commercial and industrial equipment.
Not only rude but ignorant of the laws of supply and demand. Boob.
What, exactly?
The Wall Street Journal (which this article references) mentions some — Welders, Machinists, Plumbers, Electricians, Cable installers, Mechanics.
One really competent teacher that I remember MADE us learn the skills so we would have the skills to do a really practical job in our lives. (My typing and shorthand teacher; granted shorthand became obsolete within about five or six years of graduating - but was still useful for jobs within that time frame. After that, it made things easier taking long phone messages. The typing has remained very useful.)
She recognized that some of us thought we were going to skate by on our looks and charm. Ha! - I feel sorry for the football players who thought they were going to be professional football players all their lives; or the cheerleaders who thought they’d make a career out of cheerleading (that was before there even were professional cheerleaders much).
Unread post A lesson in Obama Socialism
“SOME IDEAS ARE SO STUPID ONLY INTELLECTUALS BELIEVE THEM.”
George Orwell
An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Obama’s socialism worked (same as our PM taxing everything and giving it to the “disadvantaged”) and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.
The professor then said, “OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama’s plan”. All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A.... (substituting grades for dollars - something closer to home and more readily understood by all).
After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.
The second test average was a D! No one was happy.
When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.
As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.
To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.
It could not be any simpler than that.
Remember, there IS a test coming up. The 2012 elections.
These are possibly the 5 best sentences you’ll ever read and all applicable to this experiment:
1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.
2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.
3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.
4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!
5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.
I posted this on some other threads but it also applies to our unemployment situation, with no rewards come no incentives. If they truly need more skilled workers then offer some incentives. And get rid of the slackers and driftwood.
Can someone tell me what skills she is looking for? Welding? Machining? If so I have a suggestion, pay more for those skills and more qualified applicants will show up.
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Exactly what is “MORE”? The article mentions that these jobs are well paying, secure and with good benefits. If those adjectives are BS, then let’s see a figure that will be considered satisfactory.
Do you honestly believe that unemployed electricians with experience working on diesel engines (according to the WSJ column) are sitting around on their asses waiting for Union Pacific to raise its payscale?
Based on the information you provided in post #21, it looks like MontaniSemperLiberi is onto something.
Most employers know very little about managing people and they don’t want to either. They know the cost of everything and the value of almost nothing.
They want top shelf people for bottom dollar price and then they wonder why they are unhappy and leave for the next better opportunity.
The skilled labor market is stating what it considers unsatisfactory - and apparently isn't swayed by what others deem "well paying."
My favorite teacher was a Marist Brother and refuge from Cuba, who took his Ph.D. in Chemistry at the Sorbonne and arrived in this country around 1962, with a death sentence from Castro hanging over him and not speaking a word of English. He picked up enough English fast enough to teach Chemistry by the time I had him. He was the most demanding teacher and one of the most popular, at least among motivated students.
Second favorite was a whitebread Ben Stein lookalike history teacher who at least knew his subject and engaged the students. He was also not bat guano crazy, like most HS teachers.
I just brought on an entry-level person. On the whole, the hiring experience was much better than that of 3-5 years ago. All of the people that we brought in showed up on time, wore appropriate attire, and (most important) didn't curse at me (really, that has been a problem in the past). Additionally, we only needed to talk to 3-4 people - all of whom were qualified - to find the candidate. I'll be honest, it was nice to have a choice, rather than "I hope he'll do".
IMHO, having employment tighten up has improved the people that we've gotten, and (conversely) my company has been more willing to hire as a result.
I can buy the fact that it's hard to find good people, though, having fought that battle in the past.
Sounds like the “Technology” company that I am doing some contract work for until something else comes along or early Jan rolls around when it ends.
I drive a supply van plus install computers, wipe computers, install printers, servers, etc at night all across the state. I have asked for a credit card or fuel card a few times and the most coherent answer I got is “we are not setup for that.”
The van is the cheapest vehicle Enterprise rents for the purpose as the Enterprise guy confirmed for me later. It is an E85 burner so I have to map out stations.
The first out of town overnighter was a couple weeks ago and I was asked if I wanted to stay at the hotel or go home.
I elected to go home. I found out the next day in the next city which nowhere near the city last night or that day’s that it was a nightmarish sandfleatrap. It felt good to know I made the right call.
The lying recruiter said initially that you can get a room and you will be reimbursed for it. That changed a couple weeks later as people will be assigned rooms and people to share with. Most of this crowd is OK to work with but as for sharing, no thanks.
Besides I want quiet which means no drunks, no screaming at ESPN for hours, bad hygene, and lots of other stuff that annoys the hell out of me.
Who knew? Seriously, who knew? Who knew that FR is populated by maintenance and repair workers, heavy-vehicle mechanics, and electrical repair specialists complaining that their wages are not rising quickly enough during the worst economic crisis since the Depression?
Pick yourself off the floor and ask, “Do I really think Union Pacific Corp. can’t find qualified electricians with experience working on diesel engines?” I think you know. There is something more going on here, obviously. Again, I’d like to know what is written behind the pay-wall.
So what you are saying is this: if Union Pacific raises their rates they still wouldn’t get candidates. Let’s say they raised their rates for electricians to $1000/hr. You are saying those wages wouldn’t attract anyone. You really are stupid about economics.
Ask the head nurse to up the dosage. You might want to stay off the day room PC for awhile.
Don’t forget that, in direct contravention of the Third Amendment, those free trade agreements allow those guest workers to stay in your home and sleep with your wife.
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