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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

#91

Post by altotrees »

Recently had a recruiter call me, interview me over the phone once, in-person once, and via skype once. The job seemed to be a great fit, the pay was there, everything seemed to be lined up. The recruiter called me again to tell me that they were going to be taking the next steps with me very shortly. A week of silence goes by, then another.

I email, inquiring about the position. "Oh, we gave that to someone we had been interviewing for months, but we'll keep you in mind for the future." Unprofessional disconnects and other encounters like this have taken place several times, in my experience. It turns out I knew the person who did get the job I was all but promised. After talking to them, the company had contacted them three days after its last interview with me, and the successful candidate had been asking for $10,000 dollars less and had less experience than myself. A month later, that candidate emailed me and told me they were let go for "being unable to meet the requirements of the position."

Anecdotal experience like this really makes me skeptical when I hear employers bemoaning that they cannot find employees. Can they really not find employees or good talent, or do they just not want to pay the wages that people are asking for?

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

#92

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#93

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#94

Post by quantumhobbit »

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'm in a pretty small secondary market and was recently advised by someone who knows what he is talking about to never accept less than $200/hr for contract work. That is the going rate around here and accepting less signals that you don't know what you are doing.

Perhaps the $100/hr isn't as much as you think it is. More so if you are somewhere expensive like San Francisco or New York.

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

#95

Post by seanmcdirmid »

existencebox wrote: post #66
pgwhalen wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What skill sets should they select for?

Having done a good handful of interviews, I tend to look for "generic problem solving" (not in the sense of trick questions, but in the sense of running through ambiguous engineering and mixed social/engineering scenarios to see how they'd move forward) communication skills (the ability to communicate the above effectively, talk about past work, problems, successes) and frankly track record. (this is obviously harder…

Are you hiring programmers/developers or people like sys admins? It sounds like the latter, I can't imagine anyone hiring the former claiming dev skills are easy to pick up.

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

#96

Post by toomuchtodo »

Retric wrote: post #89
toomuchtodo wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If employers were required to pay for someone's time for an interview, you would see this fixed right quick. But because an employer can leave an unreasonable job req out there and interview as many candidates as they want, with the only cost being their own time, this continues.

Sorting resumes and conducting interviews is not free. So, you still need a cost benefit analysis.

Cost of doing business.

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

#97

Post by TuringNYC »

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…

Its all fun and games until you have a family...then it is difficult to have 3 roommates to an apartment, you have massive healthcare premiums, deductibles and you find that 70% of the tech jobs are in a metro area where your salary doesn't pay for more than a 1br apt for your family.

...but yes, our entertainment costs are fairly inexpensive. Too bad there are so many other things to pay for.

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

#98

Post by Kurtz79 »

expertentipp wrote: post #83
Kurtz79 wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

These are salaries much below the market rate. The same companies oftentimes have massive profits in these countries, profits which are tightly funneled out through IE/NL/LU/British overseas regions.

"These are salaries much below the market rate."

Are you really comparing US market rate, which even varies inside the US, with that of Eastern Europe ?

Or are you saying that USD 40K is much below market rate in Eastern Europe ?

In the latter case I'll have to ask for sources, because my experience differs greatly.

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

#99

Post by havetocharge »

owebmaster wrote: post #77
icebraining wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

People are not objects, and your analogy is not accurate (or maybe just unclear). People (at least in our industry) are free not to accept jobs with low pay. You are also free to seek clients rather than employers.

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

#100

Post by quantumhobbit »

I've recently started mentally comparing tech companies that complain about the "lack of talent" to SUV drivers who complain about the price of gas.

There is so much low hanging fruit in terms of improving engineers productivity, but the companies refuse to even consider the possibility. If you offered private offices or remote work and the opportunity to use more productive tools, candidates would line up to apply. And would need fewer workers because they would get more work done.

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