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U.S. Employers Struggle to Match Workers with Open Jobs

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Re: U.S. Employers Struggle to Match Workers with Open Jobs

#71

Post by jdavis703 »

TuringNYC wrote: post #63
jdhn wrote: post #22

"They're just asking for the moon, and not expecting to pay very much for it," Cappelli says. "And as a result they [can't] find those people. Now that [doesn't] mean there was nobody to do the job; it just [means] that there was nobody at the price they were willing to pay." In my opinion, this is the key paragraph in the article. I see this all the time when recruiters send me job postings, and they want someone wi…

There is a shortage of workers in as much as there is a shortage of BMW 7-series sedans for under $30k. I looked everywhere at that price. Massive shortage.

This is true in certain cases, but not all. I just offered an unemployed family member (and recent computer science grad) a freelance opportunity worth $100 an hour to build out a simple e-commerce site. They didn't want the work.

I think part of the problem is that you can have a lot of "fun" these days for very cheap (video games, YouTube, etc). Maybe it's time for us to reexamine why people don't even want high-paying jobs.

Re: U.S. Employers Struggle to Match Workers with Open Jobs

#72

Post by bitbang »

pgwhalen wrote: post #57
avoutthere wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well said. I've been telling people for years that tech sector interviews select for the wrong skill sets.

What skill sets should they select for?

What skill sets a person has (provided it's related in some way to the open position) is less important than how quickly they can adapt and acquire new skill sets.

Re: U.S. Employers Struggle to Match Workers with Open Jobs

#73

Post by Kurtz79 »

expertentipp wrote: post #7

There is flood of American outsourcing centers in post-Communist EU countries. Top salaries for software devs/eng, including seniors, are USD 40k gross annually. They can treat the employees in the worst "corporate America" ways - their offices, available hardware, policies, laughable benefits, annual leave, create a perfect package for miserable professional and private life.

Given that USD 40K is a pretty decent salary in most of Southern and Eastern Europe, as other people have pointed out, US companies tend to be pretty good employers, and why not ?

They can pay a fraction of what you would pay US based engineers, have more or less the same quality of work done, and still have happy employees.

Re: U.S. Employers Struggle to Match Workers with Open Jobs

#74

Post by quuquuquu »

pilsetnieks wrote: post #36
expertentipp wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What quality are you expecting?! The salaries aside, the policies (VPN only with permission, only Windows allowed, problems with remote working, getting paid to sit on chair 9-5, some weird virtual machine setups motivated by "security") are killing creativeness in the most talented people.

The complaints being so specific, it feels like you're having some discontent with your workplace and feeling that you're trapped there because "there's nothing better out there anyway." Well, don't despair, look around more, you might find that there are places you could actually like. In the conditions you described, it may be worth it to take a small pay cut to get away from a soulcrushing job that makes you quest…

I agree with you, but unfortunately not everyone who is qualified can work for a good employer.

Why?

If x is the number of dev jobs available in the world, and 0.4x is the number of dev jobs that are not laden with bullshit...

I'm willing to bet the number of qualified devs looking for work is more like 0.8x, implying 50% will be SOL

Re: U.S. Employers Struggle to Match Workers with Open Jobs

#75

Post by notalaser »

havetocharge wrote: post #52
notalaser wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But maybe the job isn't economically worth it at the higher salary? As in, their business doesn't even generate enough revenue to afford hiring the kind of people who can keep it running?

The task that they are hiring for does not generate enough revenue to be worth at price X. The business may not stop from operating if these tasks are not done, or not done on a priority basis.

So... the business doesn't even generate enough revenue to afford hiring the kind of people who can keep it running well, or at least not as well as its owners would want it to be running?

Should workers be doing charity work now?

Re: U.S. Employers Struggle to Match Workers with Open Jobs

#76

Post by icebraining »

owebmaster wrote: post #50
kartickv wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But maybe the job isn't economically worth it at the higher salary? You seem to be assuming it's worth doing at any price, as does the article, and that's untrue. Besides, I don't know about others, but I've recently put out multiple job ads for one vacancy. Our app, Noctacam, uses computational photography to take great photos at night. I was looking for someone with computational photography knowledge and/or iOS. A…

> But maybe the job isn't economically worth it at the higher salary? That would means the company is dysfunctional and only desperate people are going to join this wagon.

How does that follow? You seem to be assuming a lot. If they're peripheral, optional tasks, like an extra service you could upsell to your clients for a small margin, it may not provide enough income for a market-level salary.

Re: U.S. Employers Struggle to Match Workers with Open Jobs

#77

Post by owebmaster »

icebraining wrote: post #76
owebmaster wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But maybe the job isn't economically worth it at the higher salary? That would means the company is dysfunctional and only desperate people are going to join this wagon.

How does that follow? You seem to be assuming a lot. If they're peripheral, optional tasks, like an extra service you could upsell to your clients for a small margin, it may not provide enough income for a market-level salary.

So you are incapable of hiring. When you don't have the money for a ferrari, you don't buy a toyota because of the lack of available ferraris.

Re: U.S. Employers Struggle to Match Workers with Open Jobs

#78

Post by notyourday »

icebraining wrote: post #70
notyourday wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they need to fill this job and it is not worth the higher salary and it cannot be filled at this salary or lower then this job should not exist as a job: the owner of the company, the manager of the company, the HR person of the company can either do that job themselves or that job should be eliminated.

But why? Does having the position open harm anyone?

As long as they don't bitch about being unable to buy a Porsche 911 for $100, they are welcome to advertise it.

Re: U.S. Employers Struggle to Match Workers with Open Jobs

#79

Post by krapp »

notalaser wrote: post #41
kartickv wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But maybe the job isn't economically worth it at the higher salary? You seem to be assuming it's worth doing at any price, as does the article, and that's untrue. Besides, I don't know about others, but I've recently put out multiple job ads for one vacancy. Our app, Noctacam, uses computational photography to take great photos at night. I was looking for someone with computational photography knowledge and/or iOS. A…

> But maybe the job isn't economically worth it at the higher salary? As in, their business doesn't even generate enough revenue to afford hiring the kind of people who can keep it running?

>As in, their business doesn't even generate enough revenue to afford hiring the kind of people who can keep it running?

Even businesses which generate enough revenue to be able to afford higher salaries don't want to pay more for labor. They want to pay less for more.

Re: U.S. Employers Struggle to Match Workers with Open Jobs

#80

Post by petraeus »

jdavis703 wrote: post #71
TuringNYC wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a shortage of workers in as much as there is a shortage of BMW 7-series sedans for under $30k. I looked everywhere at that price. Massive shortage.

This is true in certain cases, but not all. I just offered an unemployed family member (and recent computer science grad) a freelance opportunity worth $100 an hour to build out a simple e-commerce site. They didn't want the work. I think part of the problem is that you can have a lot of "fun" these days for very cheap (video games, YouTube, etc). Maybe it's time for us to reexamine why people don't even want high-pa…

"I'll pay you $100/hr but the whole budget is 5 hours"
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