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.
Giddy up! I was thinking of taking a welding class in January. I guess wimps have no need of applying . . . .
More from the article - apparently “good pay” is $48K for physically demanding work that takes one away from home half the time. And note that the “desperate” UP won’t even pop for the $25 aptitude test.
‘When the railroad had openings for diesel electricians earlier this year, it took [Ferrie] Bailey 10 hiring sessions to fill 24 jobs [...] Known as “installation technicians,” the workers are responsible for putting in and maintaining a sprawling network of cable, microwave relays and related equipment that enables the railroad to monitor 850 trains running daily along its 32,000 miles of track.
‘This doesn’t require a bachelor’s degree but demands technical skills gained either through an associates’ degree or four years of experience in electronics. And it is grueling work. Technicians have to climb 50-foot communications towers, clamber up utility poles and work outdoors through Wyoming winters and Kansas summers. They put in 10-hour days, in clusters of eight or ten days, and are routinely away from home more than half of each month.
‘[...] Standing at the front of the room, Ms. Bailey described the deal. As installation technicians, they would earn $21.64 an hour, or close to $48,000 a year for the railroad’s regular work schedule.
‘[...] After a website job posting, Ms. Bailey initially drew 58 applicants. Of them, she deemed about two dozen sufficiently qualified so that she invited them to take a $25 aptitude test, at their own expense.’
You just solved our unemployment problem!
My great grandfather died working for the railroad. My grandfather started working on the railroad at the age of 13 and retired after forty years. Some time after he was married, he got fairly regular routes and the time away from family was about two weeks at a time. Not an easy life but it was a good one and he enjoyed a long retirement after commandeering a small town in rural New England which he would pass through on the rail.
Trains will always be around. Fundamentally, rolling metal on metal is about as frictionless a means of transportation there is and won’t be outdone by any other means. The high tech will come to those wheels. I don’t think your nephew need to worry as long as he works hard and maintains his relationships.
Which J-school educated Jazz Shaw?
You're projecting.
Suffice it to say, when wages are rising in sectors of the economy when wages in other sectors are falling, it indicates that employment in the sectors where the wages are rising is in demand.
I never said nor implied it wasn't in demand - that's a figment of your own imagination.
If you are arguing that wages are not rising quickly enough to your liking (or out of some metaphysical belief that UP should offer more--according to your liking), then you have little idea of the current job market.
Nothing to do with "my liking" - the wages offered evidently aren't to the labor market's liking. You and UP can go whine at it.
You are not entitled to a higher wage because an employer cannot find someone with your skillset.
If I were a skilled laborer (rather than the skilled white-collar technology worker I am) I would be entitled to hold out for whatever minimum pay I wanted - and employers who wanted to hire me for less would not be entitled to my services.
UP: "Nobody wants to work for the wages we're offering."
Thank you for the view from Zucotti Park.
You've got it backward - LevinFan stated basic free-labor-market economics, while you and UP are crying about not getting what you want on your terms.
That’s part of it.
Another large part is the liability insurance costs for dangerous machinery and equipment.
Schools and parents have raised a generation of pussies who don’t know how to preserve life and limb around machinery as a result.
Well I supplied objective facts. That tends to win an argument even over children. I’m not sure what is wrong with you today but I think even you can see you’ve made a mess of posting this morning.
If I were a skilled laborer . . . LOL . . . an expert!
Here in Wyoming, the starting wages for a machinist or welder at the shops that support the coal/oil/gas industry are $20/hour, with bennies. Six month probation is typical.
You’ll need to get your MSHA card on many of them.
Usually you’ll get more than 40 hours per week, (often up to 60) and everything above 40 is time-and-a-half pay rate. There’s often additional pay for being in the field overnight (which is very frequent for both welders and machinists) and a per diem for being out on the road (eg, coming in off the job to town to get a decent night’s sleep and shower at a motel).
Top end for welders in the oil/gas patch are over $30/hour, with rig rental that can run upwards of $20/hour, and the company supplies the rod and diesel for you.
Not enough of a mess where I fail to distinguish opinion from fact. [hint]
Clearly, if those jobs go unfilled, the employer is not paying enough. /s
What the article doesn’t detail are the bennies like the railroad retirement system, their health plan (pretty good) and the opportunities for advancement (supers or managers in the RR’s are usually selected from within, and are paid pretty well).
The trouble with college graduates is that they seem to think they should start out as king and boss... because “they have a degree.”
What reasons have I supposedly neglected?
but simply assume that the workers are there--based on no evidence at all.
If a ceiling had been hit, there'd be no reason for wages to rise during a recession - but by your own evidence wages have risen. QED.
If I were a skilled laborer . . . LOL . . . an expert!
Being a skilled laborer gives one no special insight into basic economics such as "supply rises with price."
Thank you for your comments. I’ll show them to my nephew; I know he’ll apprecieate them.
Since I’ve actually talked with some hiring managers recently, it has more to do with how pussified we’ve become as a nation.
Some of these jobs involve real physical risk. Nothing untoward or extreme, but there are inherent dangers in working with big steel, big machines, welding machines, etc.
There are lots of people today who, when you put them into these situations, don’t have the common sense God gives a cockroach - ie, get out of the way of death.
I don’t know why you’re in such a bad mood. I think you’d fail the employment qualifications on,
“Communicate with others, verbally and in writing, technical information, job procedure recommendations, and other work-related information.
Assist other employees as needed.”
One can’t alienate people and keep a good job.
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