Posted on 06/17/2016 4:08:44 AM PDT by expat_panama
Throughout the seven-year old U.S. expansion, as the unemployment rate tumbled from a peak of 10% in 2009 to a low of 4.7% last month, policy makers have been focused on the slack in the labor market. Yes, slack....
...surprise to read this week that the problem facing companies is a shortage of workers, both highly skilled and entry-level.
Why not offer them a higher wage?...
...the Roaring ‘90s? That’s what a tight labor market looks like: signing bonuses; offers of free cars, even for mid-level managers; and a sufficiently attractive wage to entice some criminals...
...plenty of business owners who will tell you that they can’t find workers...
...Janet Yellen on Wednesday cast doubt on a significant interest-rate increase in the near future...
...monthly JOLTS report (Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey) revealed a record number of job openings...
...Can’t businesses tempt labor-force dropouts with a higher real wage? There is no sign of it....
...a wishy-washy attempt to fill the reported number of job openings.
Many economists have been waiting for that beast known as “wage inflation” to boost prices...
...Businesses do not bid up the price of labor (wages) only to find their profits squeezed...
...A more compelling argument to explain the large number of reported job openings going unfilled is that demand isn’t strong enough to support economy-wide price increases...
...6.4 million Americans working part-time for economic reasons...
...wake of the truly awful May employment report, did Yellen concede...
...pointed to the low level of unemployment claims, high level of job openings and modest wage increases as signs “of a healthy labor market.”
Maybe. Until I see signs that businesses are satisfying their stated demand for labor by luring labor-market dropouts with a higher real wage, I remain unconvinced.
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
Thanks; the spin put on the employment situation by both the government and employers trying to mask the decline in pay (and the matching decline in standard of living) is pathetic.
I’ve hired people over 50, and appreciate the work ethic they have that too many younger people lack. If they are willing to learn, they are great assets; unfortunately, they encounter health issues (naturally) sooner than their younger peers. Definitely still a worthwhile trade-off...
That is another issue, also many are not willing to start at a lower position or pay or can’t afford to. Son took the pizza delivery job, worked it for a month in order to move into the manger’s position, he knew from the start, the hiring district manager wanted to fire the incompetent manager. He is a work-aholic despite being a Type 2 Diabetic.
The new age limit is 40 since Obama’s Depression. Lucky to have got the job, but this is a small rural town, no real businesses but fast food. Kroger’s is the biggest employer. And if he’d gone into Memphis, he was the wrong skin color to boot.
Youngest works in a steel cabinet making factory, and most of the blacks get away with not working. While he works his butt off, and can do every job in the plant, he’s the one that gets the larger raises too. I taught them by example that you work if you want things in life. Single mom for a decade, no child support or welfare, just a HS education and a determined will and a lot of commonsense.
The issues for workers over 40 started before the Greater Depression; they just became more visible after 2007/2008.
In my area rather than deal with paying better white workers higher wages than non-performing blacks (which would just get the company sued - successfully), many employers simply don’t hire them - it isn’t worth the hassles. They prevent lawsuits by hiring Hispanics instead, to the point where they even seem to avoid hiring white Americans if it can be avoided.
When you are a burb of Memphis, black is how you hire if you don’t want sued. They are still the majority-minority. They hire a few token whites that will work. Other big issue among this population is prison time, DUI DL losses and Drugs. Even fast food is drug testing now. I’m seeing many of these fast food places with for hire signs up, nearly the entire work force is black except in the more rural areas. Where there is a lack of manufacture jobs. You might see some Service jobs, like H/VAC, but beyond that it’s nail salons, and fast food.
Even the medical is limited. We have to travel into Memphis for that. Which is a 2 hr round trip plus wait time. I need to find a new PCP that does not want to send you to Pain Management. Been through that crap, they are worthless. Current one is not very bright. She replaced mine when he became to sick to work. She will write my Valium, but won’t increase it. Says 20 MG a day is to strong, yet she’d stick me on 375 mg of NASTY side effect Lyrica in a heart beat if I’d let her. So I put up with the Fibromyalgia and Peripheral Neuropathy pain that could be brought lower with just 5 mg more Valium, Pain Management Doc found it worked the best with least side effects. Not had a change in 10 yrs. Could stop if I wanted puke level pain 24/7. BP can’t stand the increase in pain stress. Heck getting near 70. Now she thinks there is a ‘sugar’ issue based on 3 month testing after taking a 1000 MG of C in the AM before she draws blood. DUMB writes a full blown diabetes script with out the proper testing, or a meter, make her give me a meter but then she only gives 1 test strip per day. See the ENDO in Aug. NO sugar issue just a Vit C one. Non professionals are not the only ones not competent to work.
bkmk
We have a “strip-mall service economy” here in NJ as well; McJobs (remember that word that was banned when Otoken took office?) that pay little and don’t offer benefits. Blacks won’t work the jobs, so you see mostly Hispanics with a scattering of white guys doing them. Sadly, blacks are barely in the employment picture anymore in any area that is filling with Hispanics (legal or otherwise); employers are opting for the newer “preferred minorities” with a better work ethic.
I’ve had two dentists close up shop in the past couple of years, and more and more of the healthcare is walk-in clinic stuff as hospitals close; few people can afford real dental care, and too many illegals were using the hospitals for free...
I’m just hoping that as a boss, you go out of your way -not- be the kind of person who once supervised you.
+1
My company has had several job openings that we haven’t been able to staff because we do not get any applicants with the requisite skills.
Same thing I’m seeing, but I didn’t make the H1-B connection. I had a contract house try to recruit me for a senior/fellow level design engineer position. I have an associate’s degree and a lot of experience, but not what would be needed for military level design and development at the level they were looking for. I had previously tried to tell this recruiter that I don’t have a BS degree and am not an engineer, but they keep coming at me with jobs that are clearly beyond my training.
I do believe they are looking for someone way cheaper than what the prevailing wage should be for the position. I have seen a lot of this in the last several weeks since I started looking in earnest.
We have Walgreen’s, Kroger’s with a ‘little clinic’ decent PA runs it, nail salons, barber, beauty salon, and fast food. So far not inundated with illegals. Typical 82-20 white-black mix slightly higher class ones who had the sense to escape Memphis. 1 GP, 1 Pediatrician, 1 so called internist, who has no real office, just curtains for rooms. Hospital down the road rated not fit to take your dog to. Fred’s, Dollar/Family General stores. Most fast food has black workers, white managers. A couple of farm places. We flood easy. Big farm in the back of our house lot. All our Meds come from the Military base 22 miles away. In that we are under DOD MANDATE to get daily scripts from them. Can’t trust Express Scripts, they take to long get things wrong, no choice of generics they are random.
Last year it was a mole invasion, this year to much rain and non poisonous snakes and tics.
You need real medical care you go to Memphis, a 2 hr round trip. Memphis just hit murder 100+ this week. Way up from last year.
That’s a shame, and increasingly the “new normal” as Middle America withers and people are forced into urban settings...
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