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 ...
BLAME OBAMACARE!
You’re not supposed to believe your lying eyes, dp.
Really? Name one.
The employer doesn't really drive wages. Customers do. If a customer is only willing to pay $X for an iPhone, then Apple doesn't have the flexibility to build wage inflation into the production process without making cuts somewhere else.
Again BS. If a supplier raised the price of a chip set they raise their price. Labor is like any other commodity.
The problem is corporate loyalty and long term employment went out the window 30 years ago. Corps wanted to start to treat labor as a commodity. But they cant seem to get a grip on the concept. The want cheap loyal workers but treat them as commodities at the same time. Well all commodities are subject to the laws of supply and demand. Labor is just another commodity now. That is the way they wanted it.
I heard that from a manager at Lowe’s - so many people show up with drugs in their system. One problem with American retail is the abysmal training. They throw you in on a Saturday in summer and expect you to do the job properly and are furious when you ask questions!
So, do you pay enough to attract and keep good employees? And you are willing to hire a person with a good work ethic and train them on the job, right??
When my husband lost his job a few years ago, I got a job as a book-seller in Barnes & Noble. I was extremely impressed with the workers - all literate, smart, savvy and good with computers. It was the training of newbies that was appalling.
I have sent people to training. What is the point?
I hire people all the time and I will tell you there ia a whole different level of work ethic out there today!!! I have to babysit these people constantly!! Self motivation is out the window!!!!
“Your number 3 is dead on. What is lacking is reliable labor.”
Unfortunately many businesses will not hire extremely reliable and experienced mature workers aged 45+ even when those workers are willing to work at entry level wages. The logic when hiring a mature jobless individual for a lower salary position seems to be:
1) There’s something wrong with the person, otherwise they would have a job or wouldn’t have been unemployed so long.
2) She’ll leave the first time something better comes along
3) [whispered] He isn’t adaptable to today’s world
Meanwhile the same company will hire a freshly minted college grad, with a major in urban social studies and zero real world experience or skills, for the same job. The company will tolerate an irregular work schedule, complaints about not moving up fast enough, and poor performance.
From what I’ve seen, for most lower to mid level administrative and management jobs I’d bet on the silver haired experienced job seeker who needs the work and is willing to work at what is likely a much lower salary than he/she has in the past, than the high energy self-centered 20 something who must be trained and coddled. The mature profession will begin contributing from day 1 and is more likely to be a reliable and loyal worker if he/she can tolerate a 30 year old boss who knows everything about everything.
Drug use is a big problem in W.V. too. My husband is waiting for a contractor to finish work on a building. The contractor can’t finish on time because his employees get stoned during lunch. Many people are getting some type of government assistance. So they work 5 or 6 months then quit because the cost of living is low and government pays half the bills.
A 20 year old renter of ours in Cleveland says she can work as many hours as she wants because her employer can’t keep help. No one is willing to make cookies for $11 in a non air conditioned kitchen.
This topic really does require some thot. The easy mindless rant is the old "lies from the gov't" ploy and it just doesn't wash. Folks that say the BLS is the great Satan because of the headline unemployment turn right around and strut out the Gospel of the BLS participation rate.
Reality is that all the stats are true but we got think, and understand that our problem is the war on business --cutting profits which cuts wages.
I am sure that coupling health insurance to employment doesn’t help with that either.
No, we just have to hire Muzlums and make sure they have all the armaments needed to k@ll off our company and families.
Just got off the phone with a friend. He ran an eight man well (gas) tending crew here in WV over the winter. Thirteen men hired and fired in six months...on a single, eight man crew. They were clean for hiring, but failed the random tests. Said he never had a problem with any of them in the field, but once they failed the random, they were gone.
Boy our local Lowes is full of Q-tips. Retired people working there part time.
Bankers, construction guys, teachers.
quote “Americans lack even three basic attributes an employer wants to see in any prospective employee: a sense of self-respect, a good work ethic, and a desire to learn and improve on the job. “
wow those are pretty high expectations.
I would just settle for :
actually shows up.
actually works if they show up.
doesn’t steal from me.
It’s almost impossible to find someone who meets those 3 criteria.
This. Television and liberal education really did a number on the generation that came of age after the mid-Eighties. Businesses - especially smaller ones - are not capable of running re-education camps to "fix" the sense of entitlement and poor work ethic that were absorbed by too many Americans during the "good" times of 1984-2007.
It's not that the potential labor pool is too large or too small - it's too polluted.
“You ought to be in business for yourself so you can show all of us how to run a business effectively. “
Exactly.I’ve been part of around 10 business startups over 40 years. Right now I’m trying to start up three businesses. It is a bitch, margins have evaporated. I will not hire anyone other than family, everything else will be outsourced.
I wonder to what degree the “record number of job listings” is because of the software tools that let you enter a job and post it on 20 job boards. Now it looks like 20 job openings.
As to the pickiness of employers, they are only hiring who they really need and screening diligently for skills they want among desperate job seekers and ensuring they can’t get sued in the process. So delays to hire for the few positions they have.
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