Posted on 04/06/2025 5:26:30 PM PDT by untenured
President Trump proclaims his tariffs will bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. Good luck finding workers to fill them. A common lament among employers, especially manufacturers, is they can’t find reliable, conscientious workers who can pass a drug test. Single women might commiserate: A good worker, like a good man, can be hard to find these days.
Blame government, which showers benefits on able-bodied people who don’t work while at the same time subsidizing college degrees that don’t lead to productive employment. The result is millions of idle men and millions of unfilled jobs—what an economist would call a deadweight loss to society.
Forty percent of small business owners in March reported job openings they couldn’t fill, with larger shares in construction (56%), transportation (53%) and manufacturing (47%), according to last week’s National Federation of Independent Business survey. The Labor Department’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey of businesses tells a similar story. There are twice as many job openings in manufacturing than in the mid-2000s as a share of employment. Save for during the pandemic, America’s worker shortage is the worst in 50 years.
Decades ago, productivity-enhancing technology and, yes, inexpensive imports caused men who worked on shop floors to lose their jobs and drop out of the workforce. But this generation is sailing into the sunset, and there are many fewer young Americans who want to work in factories.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Or whine about often desperately impoverished foreigners “cheating” us.
WSJ still pimping importing slave labor to do the jobs Americans won’t.
Get a new act losers.
Yep, the WSJ doesnt care about the dignity of the American worker, its Jobs Americans wont do and other lies.
Actually, it’s reality. No one wants to work a factory job. The WSJ got this. one right.
Pass a drug test? That’s crazy talk.
Government money has made it possible to live workfree for millions.
cut off the government gravy train, wait for hunger to set in and VOILA! plenty of people will want a job.
They expect the rest of society and the worker to bear the cost of education and training and then use this capital interest free as a kind of gift and the lay off or outsource production whenever they see a slight advantage.
US manufacturers used to hire out of high school and train workers, often in journeyman programs with labor unions. Now they expect skilled workers to show up for free.
This will only change when macroeconomic policies like immigration restrictions and tariffs force management to do so.
We do what we have to, we just have to create the “have to’.
The franchise owner of the local Zakby’s told me that they can’t find anyone who wants to manage their store. Nobody wants to commit to the responsibility. They will sell the store during this year.
And the aging work force isn’t wanted by big corporations.
over 65, forget about it. They don’t need your 40 years of manufacturing experience. They would rather have a 22 yr old that can’t spell Hastalloy, much less machine it.
alysia has trouble finding a date
Mom lives on alimony and gifts from her new boy toy.
Dad is in rehab.
There are a great many young people who think the American Dream has been lost to them. Sure, Boomers got the big house in the suburbs — it was easy for them. Gen X may have had to struggle a little harder — but it wasn’t all that hard. Millenials and Zoomers? Everything seems stacked against them. Why bother trying? You won’t get anywhere.
But offer On The Job Training and good wages, and it’s a whole new ballgame. Work and get rewarded — what a concept! The workers are there if business leaders give a fair deal.
Yes, and then they will immediately vote for socialists.
Yeah, if you don't mind have two or three to survive.
Those manufacturers who trained those workers (and I was one) no longer exist.
They moved their plants overseas.
We need a new generation of business leaders and entrepreneurs who will reinvent the businesses once run by the Watson and Fords and past giants.
So...years ago they offshored most of our domestic manufacturing and closed said facilities, and now complain that there’s not a reservoir of skilled manufacturing employees available?
Clown world, indeed.
Stop paying McDonalds wages and provide benefits worth having...
Oh no , quick open the borders! We need more 3rd world labor !
“WSJ still pimping importing slave labor to do the jobs Americans won’t.”
The March 2025 Bureau of Labor Statistics report shows:
*. The civiilain non-institutionalize labor force is 170.7 million people. Of those people 164.4 million are employed and 7.2 million are unemployed.
* There are 104.2 million working age Americans who are considered by the government as not in the labor force so their non working status does not appear in the unemployment statistics. Of those 104 million not in the labor force, the government believe 5.6 million would like to have a job. The remainder do not wish to work.
The problem is obvious. Nearly 100 million people could potentially be employed but do not want to work. The nation has plenty of potential workers. It has a shortage of people who are willing to work. End the incentives to drop out of the workforce and there will be people clamoring to work
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