Small Businesses Have Big Job Openings, But Can’t Fill Them

Investors Business Daily ^ | 5/10/2016 | ED CARSON

[expat_panama]

Small-business owners were more upbeat in April, with job openings matching a cycle high, but finding qualified applicants remains a major problem, according to the National Federation of Independent Business on Tuesday.

NFIB’s Small Business Optimism Index rose 1 point last month to 93.6. This ends a three-month slide to a two-year low in March. The gauge remains below historically normal levels.

A net 11% of smaller firms plan to add staff, up from March’s 9%,...

...46% of small businesses said they had few or no qualified applications...

,,,24% of NFIB respondents said in April that they planned to increase compensation...

...18% of firms expect the economy to get worse vs. 17% in March. A net 1% see sales rising vs. unchanged before. But actual sales have only been positive in one month in the last four years.

A few more businesses (a net 8%, up 2 points) say it’s a good time to expand, though the share of respondents planning capital spending was steady at 25%.

[papertyger]

It’s absolutely not true, as you stated, that the labor available today can fit the available openings, if it only weren’t for the greedy capitalists who only want to exploit labor.

Neither is it true that he said that....but you are fitting the stereotype quite well!

[freedomfiter2]

People will get the training for jobs that make it worth their while.

[central_va]

The lack of welders or Scotch today (TODAY) can’t be fixed by the market.

Yes it can. Pay more and you get the welders. If not then your project goes on hold. Train your own people. Both life and economics are competitive. In the weeks after Katrina the price of a gallon of milk was $20.00 in New Orleans. Should we have forced a price control on milk then? Were those milk guys price gouging? No, those milk providers had to drive hundreds on miles to get that milk and they had to buy it at a high price and ship it back into New Orleans. It is the way it works.

[freedomfiter2]

It’s just faux conservatives that think like that.

[EVO X]

Look I know how to survive these cut throat bastards. The trick is to take a low ball offer and collect a pay check and spend 90% of the companies time finding a better offer/job.

Ditto that. Had to do that once...

[Hugin]

Yep. What they should say is they can’t find qualified workers who will work the hours they want them to for what they want to pay.

[ASA Vet]

1. Diversity - The push to hire people just because they’re not white—even if they can’t do the job.
2. Skills - Trying to acclimate a group of young people who are: a) entitled [want $15/hr or more to start], b) have short attention spans [for anything other than their smart phone] and c) often lack the discipline to learn.
3. Cover their bodies with trash tags, and piercings. Normal customers won't want to buy anything from them.
4. Can't pass a drug screening.

[central_va]

Actually the trick is to find the welder at a price that still keeps you competitive. Unless you somehow have a business that has no competitors.

It is hard to be competitive when your product isn't being welded together.

[SoothingDave]

I don’t disagree with you on a micro basis. We’re simply talking about two different things.

[central_va]

Then someone else needs a welder. The supply doesn’t increase when one welder moves from company A to company B.

Then wages go up. That will cause an increase in supply.

[cuban leaf]

Yup. There are plenty of qualified people. They nust cant find people that will do it for the price they are willing to pay for it.

There is a serious hamburger shortage. I’ve looked all over town and can’t find a good burger for a quarter.

[central_va]

As opposed to a hypothesis that too many people in this country are unqualified for the jobs that are open.

Increasing wages begat increasing supply of skilled labor. It also causes a shift of labor. My guess there are a glut of welders in South Dakota right now. But maybe there is a shortage of welders in Texas. If wages rise in Texas for welders they will come.

[Repeal The 17th]

Job Openings VS. Job Applicants

Opening will not accept Applicant because:
Applicant education/training/skills do not meet requirements
Applicant does not have enough experience
Applicant can not pass drug test
Applicant can not pass security background screening

Applicant will not accept Opening because:
Opening does not pay enough
Opening does not offer desired benefits
Opening requires relocation

[Flintlock]

First point: NOBODY seems interested in training anybody.

Second: A lot of job openings seem to want ten year’s experience on jobs that did not exist ten years ago. It is really a lawyer’s SCAM to “prove” that they must go outside the country and hire H1b’s.

Notice that VIRTUALLY ALL of the ‘new’ jobs for the last eight years have gone to (illegal) alien workers????
Wonder why?

[central_va]

All of these types of stories are simply globalist propaganda hit pieces used to fuel the misinformation campaign going on in congress and on K St. It is the “excuse” to justify the import more people to wash out the USA’s labor market.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Guess there just aren’t that many people under 40 with 15 years experience out there.

[central_va]

There is a serious hamburger shortage. I’ve looked all over town and can’t find a good burger for a quarter.

Surprising isn't it?

[central_va]

Agree, AGREE , AGREE!

[NonValueAdded]

Age bias is a factor.

[papertyger]

Age bias is a factor.

Ain't that the truth!

One of the things I used to love about working for engineer-managers is that you could never get an engineer to believe 2+2 can ever equal anything but 4.

Not anymore.

If you get an engineer that's 25 years old as opposed to 45, have him report to a "business" guy that's 50, and soon enough you'll have an engineer that can "compartmentalize" with the best of them.