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Blue-collar wages are surging. Can it last?

economist.com

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Re: Blue-collar wages are surging. Can it last?

#171

Post by humanrebar »

Density wrote: post #127
seibelj wrote: post #30

I keep reading that AI is going to eliminate all the jobs. Yet unemployment is at record lows and wages are rising across the board. Could it be possible that AI will instead free people to work on new jobs in new industries? Amazing! It’s almost like this time is not any different from any other time.

Overwhelming number of jobs created in the last decade are very low quality gig economy jobs. People work, but they're severely underemployed.

> ...very low quality gig economy jobs...

Gig jobs are fine if people can provide their own emergency fund and pay out of pocket for their own benefits. That is, the difference between "gig job" and a "successful sole proprietorship" is how much money one makes.

Re: Blue-collar wages are surging. Can it last?

#172

Post by runeks »

thanatropism wrote: post #29

This comment (not by me; the poster name isn't even visible anymore): > Illegal border crossings on the southern border are down 78% and blue collar wages are rising. Of course correlation does not equal causation, but when there are fewer available workers to hire/train and demand remains constant, wages tend to rise. was marked dead. Why? Is the illegal crossing number wrong/fake news?

> Is the illegal crossing number wrong/fake news?

Given that they’re illegal, how could we ever know if the number is down or if they just found some other way to cross the border?

Also, it would be quite foolish to think there is only a single factor affecting wages. There are a multitude of factors, and a reduction in the number of illegal immigrants might be one of them, although it’s hard to be sure.

Re: Blue-collar wages are surging. Can it last?

#173

Post by bluGill »

dionidium wrote: post #17

I work at a medium-sized software company. We've had similar problems with younger employees. Guys literally posting in company-wide Slack channels that they're "feeling a little sleepy this morning, gonna be in later." Can you even imagine somebody saying that to their boss in some black-and-white movie from the 1940s? "Hey, how about instead of coming in later you hit the bricks and never come back?" The culture ha…

In the 1940s most jobs did depend on coworkers being there. If even one person is missing the entire assembly line is down and nobody can start. As such being a minute late for work affects all your coworkers, it isn't just you have leaves at 5:05 instead of 5:00 it is everybody else you work with. And yes everybody did leave on time (or everybody worked late). Of course that means you hire extra people to cover people who are sick, but lateness cannot be tolerated.

Things are very different. My first meeting is at 9am, and nobody has any reason to care if I work 4am - noon or 9am-5pm, or more likely 8am-5pm with a one hour lunch break.

Re: Blue-collar wages are surging. Can it last?

#174

Post by opportune »

pedrosorio wrote: post #159
opportune wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always read these ridiculously high salaries and laugh. Your average HVAC worker is not making $400k. I do know people in construction/HVAC/plumbers/electricians and it's the bosses making that money, not the grunt workers. The people on the front lines still make good money, for some easily approaching $100k/year, so there's not really a need for embellishment. That isn't to say that it's unattainable, but it's ak…

"tenured engineering managers"? http://thestartupconference.com/2017/03/25/the-350k-google-s...

That's an even more specific case, because again, most software developers aren't working at Google/FB/Airbnb/Uber/Snap. And those are figures for experienced workers to boot, and "Staff Engineer" is typically a managerial role IMO, if not directly by delegation/HR-type stuff, then in a technical sense.

The total comp is in practice also generally a bit lower because most of those companies backload the vesting

Re: Blue-collar wages are surging. Can it last?

#175

Post by jerkstate »

toyg wrote: post #96
alextheparrot wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great! There’s an opportunity for same day rental delivery here too

And in the end you'll have spent more than you would have with a regular plumber, you'll have a bunch of tools you won't need for another 10 years, and the job will look terrible. Source: had to retile a bit of a floor, too small to interest a real tiler. Guess how it looks now?

I'm not a professional but I cracked a tile on my kitchen counter and replaced it and you can't tell. Likely difference between you and me? My uncle is a tile man and he walked me through the whole process (remotely), from finding a matching replacement tile and grout to what kind of tile glue works best for this kind of tile to grouting and cleaning.

Re: Blue-collar wages are surging. Can it last?

#176

Post by monocasa »

toyg wrote: post #96
alextheparrot wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great! There’s an opportunity for same day rental delivery here too

And in the end you'll have spent more than you would have with a regular plumber, you'll have a bunch of tools you won't need for another 10 years, and the job will look terrible. Source: had to retile a bit of a floor, too small to interest a real tiler. Guess how it looks now?

> And in the end you'll have spent more than you would have with a regular plumber, you'll have a bunch of tools you won't need for another 10 years, and the job will look terrible.

That part of the business model worked well for Home Depot.

Re: Blue-collar wages are surging. Can it last?

#177

Post by technofire »

danielvf wrote: post #9

I worked with small / medium manufacturers in the prosperous part of the Southeast. Hiring is brutal currently. Last week one company setup interviews with 20 possible new workers. One showed up for his interview, and one wandered in the next day. 18 nonshows. Another local company is seeing 50% of new hires failing their first drug test. Anecdotaly, about 20% of new hires under 30 don’t understand the concept of sho…

> the prosperous part of the Southeast

For those of us who are unfamiliar or ignorant about this, which parts of the Southeast are most prosperous?

Re: Blue-collar wages are surging. Can it last?

#178

Post by noobhacker »

moduspol wrote: post #132
rainbowmverse wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's almost as if extended poverty has ruined people's ability to function in a job market that wasn't there for them sooner. Poverty is called a trap for a reason. It's a self-reinforcing cycle as much as it's an income bracket.

Is there a case at all to be made for personal responsibility when such a large percentage don't even bother to show up? How can one possibly ever get out of poverty if s/he can't even make it to an interview?

You are right that this is a problem with personal responsibility.

Your parent comment is also right that this lack of personal responsibility is cultivated or exacerbated by poverty. Personal responsibility is as much a skill as it is a trait. Therefore, if one has neither work experience nor a role model for responsibility, one tends not to have good work ethics.

IMO, the solution is thus both to praise personal work ethics and to break the trap through social programs at the same time.

Re: Blue-collar wages are surging. Can it last?

#179

Post by opportune »

moduspol wrote: post #132
rainbowmverse wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's almost as if extended poverty has ruined people's ability to function in a job market that wasn't there for them sooner. Poverty is called a trap for a reason. It's a self-reinforcing cycle as much as it's an income bracket.

Is there a case at all to be made for personal responsibility when such a large percentage don't even bother to show up? How can one possibly ever get out of poverty if s/he can't even make it to an interview?

Sure, but personal responsibility is learned/cultural. It could take a while for people to break the cycle when they grew up seeing their parents make poor decisions, who also grew up seeing their own parents make poor decisions, etc. Not saying that all poverty is a result of poor decisions but that the two feed on each other

Re: Blue-collar wages are surging. Can it last?

#180

Post by itkillsbrnsells »

skellera wrote: post #139
logfromblammo wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not just give an automated field-sobriety test for alertness, judgment, and reflexes at the start of each shift? Pass the test, and you can clock in and get to work. Fail the test, hit the nap room (unpaid) for a while, and try again when you wake up. It would catch people who are drunk, high, having a stroke, or just sleepy, rather than just the guy who used cannabis two weekends ago and is perfectly capable of…

No one is required to give you a job. The increased cost to do that everyday is not worth it to the company if they can weed out possible irresponsible workers from a drug test. It’s work, not a babysitter. All everyone is talking about is weed which I’m sure most of us agree shouldn’t be tested for but we don’t even know what the failed tests failed for.

> All everyone is talking about is weed which I’m sure most of us agree shouldn’t be tested for

Speak for yourself, pothead.

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