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There Are Plenty of Jobs Out There, America

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Re: There Are Plenty of Jobs Out There, America

#11

Post by bradb3030 »

onion2k wrote: post #5

If we're generous and say that the auto-glass installer job pays a bonus of $10,000 a year that leaves $60,000 earned at $12/hour ... which is about 96 hours a week. I can think of plenty of reasons why you'd have trouble finding people to do that job.

Or a realistic interpretation of what was intended by having content after "starts at $12 hour" would be that they demonstrated they could both do the work and demonstrate customer service skills, and began earning more like $25/hour to get to that "up to 70k/year" more easily.

Re: There Are Plenty of Jobs Out There, America

#13

Post by mdellavo »

chasing wrote: post #7
onion2k wrote: post #5

If we're generous and say that the auto-glass installer job pays a bonus of $10,000 a year that leaves $60,000 earned at $12/hour ... which is about 96 hours a week. I can think of plenty of reasons why you'd have trouble finding people to do that job.

"...pay starts at $12 an hour and goes up to $70,000 a year including overtime and bonuses..." So let's call it $24k (not including bonuses) up to $70k (including bonuses). That's my interpretation.

I'm also assuming that 70k figure is heavy on overtime and bonuses are meager. Such a shock they can't find labor!

Re: There Are Plenty of Jobs Out There, America

#14

Post by twoquestions »

As someone else has already said, the biggest shortage is skilled labor, not unskilled.

Trouble is, it's unwise to dedicate months/years of training for a single job that may not be there when you graduate, and it's unwise to train someone when they could get poached by the next company not willing to shell out for training.

I also wonder how sticky their wages are. If a business can endure not filling a position until they can find their person willing to work for peanuts, why offer more? It's amazing how little bargaining power workers have even in this extremely tight labor environment.

I'd be shocked if the Republicans that now control most layers of government will be willing to step in and help this situation, and I doubt they'd know what to do to help even if they were willing.

Does anyone here know a good way out of this situation?

Re: There Are Plenty of Jobs Out There, America

#15

Post by brianwawok »

onion2k wrote: post #5

If we're generous and say that the auto-glass installer job pays a bonus of $10,000 a year that leaves $60,000 earned at $12/hour ... which is about 96 hours a week. I can think of plenty of reasons why you'd have trouble finding people to do that job.

I doubt the 70k makes $12 an hour. Likely a supervisor making say $20 an hour.. comes to a base of 42k.

Other 28k he would make in 17 hours of overtime per week (Remember you get time and a half for overtime), for a total of 57 hour weeks.

Not out of the question hours in a busy factory. I did some of those in college summer days...

Re: There Are Plenty of Jobs Out There, America

#16

Post by goodcanadian »

_cbsz wrote: post #3

I feel like I've seen a lot of articles about people who can't find jobs or who are worried about their increasingly-outdated jobs going away in the short term. This article says we also have a lot of jobs that can't find people. What's the missing piece? Re-training? What does that actually look like for a 30- or 40-year-old person who has a family to support and doesn't much care for government handouts?

It's speculation, but my take would be that there are two missing pieces:

1) Inadequate pay.

2) Unwillingness to train.

If you don't have the exact skills that the company wants, they won't hire you. But they will complain that they can't find anyone even though they are really only offering unskilled level wages.

Re: There Are Plenty of Jobs Out There, America

#17

Post by madengr »

niftich wrote: post #2

I'm trying to reconcile these two quotes: > a few good auto-glass installers, no experience necessary and, > commissioned a study of company shortages. Energy, water, and land came up, but the No. 1 answer around the world was skilled labor Perhaps no experience is necessary for the auto-glass gig, but the metal stamping and machining? Are these all trades one can pick up on the job, by walking in from the street? Be…

For a machinist, generally not, as there is usually a formal training program, either company based or through community colleges. Though an enthusiastic person with good technical aptitude could definetly pick it up via on the job training.

Re: There Are Plenty of Jobs Out There, America

#18

Post by brianwawok »

niftich wrote: post #8
_cbsz wrote: post #3

I feel like I've seen a lot of articles about people who can't find jobs or who are worried about their increasingly-outdated jobs going away in the short term. This article says we also have a lot of jobs that can't find people. What's the missing piece? Re-training? What does that actually look like for a 30- or 40-year-old person who has a family to support and doesn't much care for government handouts?

I'm hypothesizing, but I imagine a lot of it has to do with geographical mismatch. How many auto-glass installers do you need in Elkhart, Indiana [1]? Or Casper, Wyoming, or Lafayette, Louisiana? EDIT: to expand on my point, in metropolitan areas that are experiencing a population boom, demand creates opportunities for businesses, and therefore opportunities for prospective workers. It's a virtuous cycle. Meanwhile,…

Funny you mention Elkhart because I live right next door.

Their main industry is RV manufacture. When the economy is rocking, RV sales go up, the Elkhart has a big lack of workers. When the economy is rubbish, they all get laid off and move elsewhere.

The metro area here has over 550,000 people. Not New York City, bit big enough that there SHOULD be enough glass installers, or at least a pool to train enough glass installers form.

Re: There Are Plenty of Jobs Out There, America

#20

Post by moxious »

twoquestions wrote: post #14

As someone else has already said, the biggest shortage is skilled labor, not unskilled. Trouble is, it's unwise to dedicate months/years of training for a single job that may not be there when you graduate, and it's unwise to train someone when they could get poached by the next company not willing to shell out for training. I also wonder how sticky their wages are. If a business can endure not filling a position unt…

There's no fast way out of the situation. Training and education is ultimately the answer, but to fill today's jobs, that needed to happen 2-4 years ago. So today, I think we're up a creek in any case.

Still, best get to training and educating people ASAP, because 2 years from now is coming sooner than most people think. We could complain about how much it costs to do this, or we could just shut up, do it, and then enjoy the sweet, sweet tax dollars that those high educated, high earning workers throw off.

The article talks a lot about under-investment in infrastructure like roads and bridges. I guess I'm making the same argument in the end, I'm just pointing out that people are infrastructure, in that you can't do business without them, just like roads. So maybe we should invest in them.

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