Posted on 05/10/2016 1:10:20 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Something isn't clicking in the US labor market.
On Tuesday, the latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey — or JOLTS — report showed there were 5.757 million jobs available in the US in March, a near record.
Additionally, the number of unemployed persons in the US per job open is down to pre-recession levels at about 1.5 workers per job. In 2010, for example, this number was closer to five unemployed workers per job opening.
And while the abundance of jobs is often interpreted as a sign of strength in the labor market, there's a persistent and growing gap between the number of jobs available and the number of hires being made that points to a nagging skills gap in the US labor market that still hasn't been resolved.
Additionally, the amount of time it takes to hire a worker is still at a post-recession high of about 26 days.
There are, of course, a number of interpretations to be taken from this data.
You could see the gap between hires and openings — as well as the time it takes to fill jobs — as signs employers are being more selective, which would be a drag on labor market vitality.
Alternatively, this data could indicate a lack of available workers, thus pressuring both employers' ability to hire and how long it takes to make those hires, suggesting the balance of power lies with employees rather than employers.
But these trends seem to also point towards a gap in what employers want and what employees can offer.
Simply put, it seems clear there is a skills gap in the US economy that is nagging the labor market.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
I completely believe they do that. Many applications had one last question, which has to be a sorter question. Something like “Have you sold more than 1000 widgets using social media and XYZ Application in the last year, Yes or No?”
In my industry it’s a skills gap issue. We can’t find men or women willing to travel in support of the oil and gas / energy industry who have the technical skill we need. Another big issue is that a candidate under consideration must be able to read and write. We see so many people that just can’t write a coherent report. Public school educated? These are college graduates!
They laid off a lot of their experienced, older workers and they don’t want them back. Then cry about a skills gap. There’s lots of people with job experience that’s transferable to other jobs but can’t get the time of day from HR. Something is not right. Or they’re just beating the drum for more H1Bs which we don’t need.
Stable older people with high degrees (me) and evident intelligence (writing skills) but no recent experience are COMPLETELY UNWELCOME.
“I suspect there are millions who refuse to work. Why work if you can draw thousands of dollars in benefits monthly while sitting at home watching reality tv, eating food funded by taxpayers, and talking on their free phones”
It really disrupts things when the government pays people the equivalent of 30k/year to do nothing...legal or illegal aliens.
I’m simply going to have to start a business. My advanced degrees proved worthless in my life, sorry to say. Though I met one best friend in grad school.
Lack of degrees didn’t cost me that much. After the military, I got into the industry I wanted and rode it to the top. I went to college evenings over the years, going to four different universities, making it to my junior year. By that time, a diploma would have been just a piece of paper to frame and look at, will little affect on salary. All in all, it worked out and I never had any student debt.
I suspect a lot of this shuffling really just enables each company to remove senior staff who they didn't want to keep anyway. I say this because you'd think the scenario I posted above would still result in a job opening at each of the three companies, but that's usually not the case.
See how fast the "hiring gap" disappears if wages go up.
In 2016 America:
“Something isn’t clicking in the US labor market.”
On 1912 Titanic:
“Something isn’t clicking with the deck chair arrangement.”
RE: At a guess there may well be a “skills gap”, but not as it would have been seen in the past -in the past such positions may have been filled from an applicant pool no better than the current one. Employers today however are less willing to take a chance, and the “openings” are far more conditional than before.
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Speaking for the IT industry, You should see the list of skills/experience that many companies require from candidates. Aside from programming experience in multiple programming languages ( all of them have to be CURRENT ), they require you to be familiar with industry specific standards, they all require you specifically to have experience in this particular industry that they are in.
Not only that, they also require that you be familiar with some exotic software tool or package that their company bought from a vendor.
I have been in the IT industry for over 20 years and when I read some of the job specs posted out there... I begin to ask myself if I can even be offered a job given that I only meet some of the requirements that demand.
RE: About one in ten people applying for most part time jobs can pass a drug test.
Where is this? Colorado where Marijuana is legal?
problem is the work is not in Houston. Go where the work is!
Easy answer: why work when government pays you not to work? Even if you want to work the government strongly discourages it. Get a job and you lose Medicaid, food stamps, housing allowance, cell phone allowance, etc. Even the unemployed aren’t stupid and know that unless the job opening is really a high paying job they cannot afford it. Making do with whatever work you can get is contrary to the way government programs work. I don’t remember the exact numbers, but it was something like a person with $7,000/yr income has as much “take home” pay as a person with $22,000/yr in income when you factor in the loss of means-tested benefits. Let’s see, work for $24,000/yr or not work and make $22,000/yr? And they wonder why there is a gap between openings and hires?
This is what is drawing the islamics into western Europe and the United States, the road to hell is wide and easy to travel.
Hardly an high schools have shop class any more and most of the machine shops have closed.
Since you are actively looking for employment, you are part of the labor force and count as unemployed.
I have seen these.
They are meant for only one purpose - to hire a specific individual while complying with whatever internal HR rule or management whim about “posting” a job.
Both of my sons. Both I encouraged to take advanced machining courses in college as a plan B. My oldest graduated last year as a electro/mechanical engineer and now has a kick butt job, but he can always fall back on CNC machine programming and set up.
My youngest is enrolled in a degreed machining program for 2 years after a background year of machining in H.S. After that he will attend a 24 month A/P aircraft technician course. These kids were taught skills at home as well. both are Eagle Scouts, both held jobs in H.S. Both are conservative and have their eyes wide open.
These kids have serious skills. There will be no underwater basket weavers in this family and that was made clear for their entire lives. They were taught there is no free lunch in life and if you want a better life you dig in and make it for yourself.
I believe the reasons companies don’t hire the “stable older people” you describe is related to the assumptions that 1) they’ll need higher pay to deal with potential costs they may face (mortgage, families) that a younger worker more likely wouldn’t, and 2) their superior skills would lead them to move on quickly if the economy improved.
Unfair, but that’s how it appears to me.
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