There Are Plenty of Jobs Out There, America • Hacker News Board

Re: There Are Plenty of Jobs Out There, America

#111

Post by falcolas » Fri, Dec 16, 2016, 3:21 PM UTC

dabockster wrote: post #109

caseysoftware wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And location. If you're 30/40, odds are you have a family, roots somewhere, and maybe a mortgage. Your ability/willingness to move - especially after being out of work for a while - is near zero. * I'm late 30s with all of the above.

> If you're 30/40, odds are you have a family, roots somewhere, and maybe a mortgage. Your ability/willingness to move - especially after being out of work for a while - is near zero. This is also true for someone like me as a recent grad with an older vehicle, a student loan to pay off, and lack of sufficient savings to move too far away from my hometown. One of the large issues of the education crisis that I don't…

One important thing to add to this, is that in the US, halfway across the country is somewhere around 2,000 miles, which can easily result in $2-3000 in moving costs alone. I just bring this up since I had a conversation about a very similar topic with a friend in the UK - where halfway across the country can mean a leisurely 4 hour drive.

Re: There Are Plenty of Jobs Out There, America

#112

Post by falcolas » Fri, Dec 16, 2016, 3:36 PM UTC

MarkMc wrote: post #95

maxsilver wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So this job pays $12/hr. Which is $1,555.05/month after tax, assuming 40hr work week. And the average 1-bed apartment rents in North Charleston, SC is roughly $1100/month (according to Zillow), leaving the employee $450/month to cover all food + medical + debt + transit + utilities and any other expenses. I can't imagine why no one is taking the position. It sounds like a fulfilling opportunity to install auto glass…

$12 per hour is somewhat less than the median personal income in the US [1], so I would not expect the auto glass worker to pay median rent. There may also be an option to live in a cheaper area outside North Charleston. I agree it's not a fulfilling job, but I wouldn't characterise it as "living on the poverty line". The job pays $24,000 per year but for a single person the official poverty line is $11,770 [2]. [1]…

Personally, I'm not sure I'd like to live in a 1 BR apartment where the cost was around half[0] the going rate. Something would have to justify the lower cost - poor condition, a poor neighborhood, a large commute...

[0] Based on the recommendation your housing cost you around 30% of your gross income.

Re: There Are Plenty of Jobs Out There, America

#113

Post by fweespeech » Fri, Dec 16, 2016, 6:04 PM UTC

yummyfajitas wrote: post #75

fweespeech wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't know what's a fair price in every area of the country for all of these jobs, so beats me if $12 is good or bad, but beyond this one anecdote, people have been saying for years that there was a shortage of skilled labor in the country. So aside from whether this one guy is paying fairly or not, it does appear to be a real issue. If I say something and I make $N per year for believing that. Why would they sto…

If a shortage genuinely existed, you would see substantial wage growth. We don't have such wage growth. Actually we'd have growth in compensation (wages + benefits). And we do, in fact, have that growth: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/COMPRNFB

I don't think you understand "substantial" in that context.

The fact there is a consistent 50+ year trendline of compensation growth is simply caused by a combination of productivity gains and inflation.

You'd see a 5%+ jump in a single year if a legitimate shortage existed.

https://www.bls.gov/lpc/prodybar.htm

2007-2015 : +1.3% (nonfarm productivity gains)

2007-2015 : +1.8% (manufacturing productivity gains)

2007-2015 : +1.2% (total compensation)

Notice how similar these numbers are? That is a sign of normal compensation growth.

Re: There Are Plenty of Jobs Out There, America

#114

Post by dllthomas » Fri, Dec 16, 2016, 11:17 PM UTC

antisthenes wrote: post #94

logfromblammo wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People aren't stupid. They don't just want jobs ; they want careers . Training makes sense for a job that has a career path. If you learned to drive a road tractor, you started by working for a transport company until you save up enough to buy your own rig, then you were a contractor for one of those companies until you got an agent to get you the loads you wanted on the routes you liked. Maybe eventually you got off…

Generally people don't give a shit whether you call it a job or a career as long as it helps them achieve their life goals. The reality is that unless you're doing something related to IT or got a cushy management job through nepotism, or getting massively subsidized by your parents, you're unlikely to progress to major life goals, like house ownership and starting a family, both of which require the ability to save…

I don't think people care what you call it, but the parent's point was that they care whether there's opportunity for advancement (internal or external).

Re: There Are Plenty of Jobs Out There, America

#115

Post by chasing » Fri, Dec 16, 2016, 11:37 PM UTC

mdellavo wrote: post #13

chasing wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"...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!

Median household income in South Carolina (where they're located) is, according to Wikipedia $43,916.

So.

While you and I might scoff at whatever amount $70k is before bonuses, if you're unemployed in South Carolina you could do a lot worse.

Re: There Are Plenty of Jobs Out There, America

#116

Post by brianwawok » Sat, Dec 17, 2016, 3:35 PM UTC

diyorgasms wrote: post #108

brianwawok wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a good deal! Thats why I code. But that is how some working class people make enough to sound their kids to private school. Working their tails off.

I see that they have to do that as a moral failing of capitalism, both that public schooling is insufficiently good for their children and that a worker's base wage is insufficient to provide for that worker's child's education.

I mean your child gets an education either way, its do you get top 5% private school or public school? You can't give everyone free access to a top private school, or it is no longer a top by definition ;)