shortage of workers?

catwelder · Sep 6, 2016

As I go into work I keep seeing all the basic jobs are in need to be filled all with pretty good pay. I'm wondering is there just a lack of people who want to work factory and construction jobs. I thought most people would love to get paid to play in the dirt or help build a product:beatsme

Truck Shop · Sep 6, 2016

People just don't want to work with their hands any more.IMO. Ambition levels are pretty low these days. Desk jobs are what it's all about for most people.
Plus getting dirty in a job is definitely not in most young people minds. Jobs these days are all about recognition not about self satisfaction for completing
a tough and dirty job.

I'm a mechanic, and satisfied with that because I'm too old and it's too late to change.

Truck Shop

lantraxco · Sep 6, 2016

Why would you work for $10 an hour when you can lay on your ass and get everything handed to you by the taxpayers (that are left) If you don't need to live fancy you can live work free pretty easy, all it takes is a total lack of morals, ethics, and conscience these days. Oh and around here there are as you say signs everywhere they're hiring, but nobody can pass the drug tests so we got record homeless and crime, and entry level and semi skilled or unskilled jobs going wanting.

Birken Vogt · Sep 6, 2016

Free market says that jobs go begging if there are other jobs available more desirable to the applicant.

Why take a job laying in the mud under a Cat with a torch and hot metal and grease dripping on you when you can work inside an air conditioned office and get off by 5:00 for the same pay?

These types of jobs also do not seem competitive, at least in this market, in the benefits and advancement areas.

I will also submit that one big competitor for jobs in the labor market is the welfare state. Why work when you can lay around instead? Pay is lower but expenses are lower when you don't have to drive to work or buy new clothes so often.

Men hustled harder when starvation was an option for them.

Brodiesel · Sep 6, 2016

Nobody wants to do this crap, I have a couple friends with real jobs the rest think they can play in bands and trim weed for the rest of their lives and not develop any REAL skills. Good luck!

Tones · Sep 7, 2016

Read a little while ago in the US 50% leave job interviews when they are told they will be drug tested. Pretty sad hey

DoyleX · Sep 7, 2016

Think of it as a bird feeder. If there is magically always food in it would you leave?
This up and coming generation will put this country under.

If you find young help you cant tell them the easy way to to the job, they know everything and your the a hole. I already know i'm a a hole.
They want to sit in the seat like the big cheese and make the "easy bucks" third day on the job. How can you run the big shovel if you cant run the little one efficiently?
Do not trust the grease job, once the gun is empty the machine is good to go.

Machine manufactures are making the tools more and more comfortable and simpler to operate. To the point where they run their own grade... The day is coming where we wont need them. Replaced with a machine? Someday. Our own infatuation with technology and easy everyday life will be the downfall of us. :usa

Truck Shop · Sep 7, 2016

Four years ago when I had to run through a chain of doctors before I could get surgery on my lower back. While discussing my work and back issues with one doctor his reply to me was
[That's what immigrants are for] I felt like rearranging his jaw.

Truck Shop

hetkind · Sep 7, 2016

Or it shows that the economy is doing well and there is an actual shortage of qualified workers for the job. If the wages for that type of work was increased, I suspect we would see folks quitting their retail and fast food jobs for it. Why pay an American worker if Congress keeps granting visa for foreign workers? In my opinion, it is the companies trying to get the maximum work for minimum pay.

Howard

jprefect · Sep 7, 2016

Define worker for me. Lol. We have a bunch of people that show up and collected a check. I think a couple people hint on the head with why work hard when you can get it for free from the government. Or the fact that it's a job for the other people

catwelder · Sep 7, 2016

jprefect said:
Define worker for me. Lol. We have a bunch of people that show up and collected a check. I think a couple people hint on the head with why work hard when you can get it for free from the government. Or the fact that it's a job for the other people

Right now I think my company has about 15 openings all form watching the machines and making sure nothing breaks to being a electrical engineer the lowest paying job is 13 dollars an hour for someone with no skill or experience.

hetkind · Sep 7, 2016

I hate to ruin your fun of bashing the unskilled, the unmotivated, the young and inexperienced, but I think we are seeing something not seen since Bill Clinton was president...a good economy with real "wage inflation". Yes, we are entering an era where the DEMAND for qualified workers (folks who show up in the proper clothing, right frame of mind, skilled for the job at hand and ready to produce) exceeds the SUPPLY. So either wages go UP to get people to shift jobs to where they are needed or we keep wages low by bringing in folks outside the normal labor pool, like people from other countries who will work for the existing wage. This is not a political post, but an economic analysis. Some of us get confused at time between economic theory and political theory.

Howard

lantraxco · Sep 7, 2016

hetkind said:
I hate to ruin your fun of bashing the unskilled, the unmotivated, the young and inexperienced, but I think we are seeing something not seen since Bill Clinton was president...a good economy with real "wage inflation". Yes, we are entering an era where the DEMAND for qualified workers (folks who show up in the proper clothing, right frame of mind, skilled for the job at hand and ready to produce) exceeds the SUPPLY. So either wages go UP to get people to shift jobs to where they are needed or we keep wages low by bringing in folks outside the normal labor pool, like people from other countries who will work for the existing wage. This is not a political post, but an economic analysis. Some of us get confused at time between economic theory and political theory.

Howard

I would beg to differ. We're in no way fully recovered from the debacle of 2008, yes there are some jobs going wanting, but the upturn is still part of that recovery and only reflects the fact that over 90 million potential workers have effectively left the work force, either voluntarily, or not. A large number of highly skilled workers exited into early retirement if they could, or a lower paying job. Now that things are possibly off life support those skilled jobs are either crying for lack of qualified workers or being filled by qualified folk moving back in from whatever lower wage schtick they could get, creating the vacuum at the lower end of the wage scale. Wages do need to go up, but corporations will move heaven, earth, and congress (hell) to prevent that from happening.

hetkind · Sep 7, 2016

lantraxco said:
I would beg to differ. We're in no way fully recovered from the debacle of 2008, yes there are some jobs going wanting, but the upturn is still part of that recovery and only reflects the fact that over 90 million potential workers have effectively left the work force, either voluntarily, or not. A large number of highly skilled workers exited into early retirement if they could, or a lower paying job. Now that things are possibly off life support those skilled jobs are either crying for lack of qualified workers or being filled by qualified folk moving back in from whatever lower wage schtick they could get, creating the vacuum at the lower end of the wage scale. Wages do need to go up, but corporations will move heaven, earth, and congress (hell) to prevent that from happening.

I think you might have things a tad out of order...I think CONGRESS is why wages haven't gone up!

And where do you get the 90 million? that would be over one person out of four in our population.

Here is the BLS data, http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm, and at 4.9% we are approaching the structural unemployment level.

Howard

Howard

movindirt · Sep 7, 2016

38 out of 100 able to work Americans don't have a job, there is plenty of work around, most are used to being spoon fed from the tax payers pocket so why work? Why would a kid want to work out in the heat and dirt for $10 a hour when they can work at the restaurant on the corner for $10 a hour and be in the A/C doing a much easier job? Raising minimum wage isn't going to help anything either, $15 a hour just means we will all be paying $6 for a gallon of milk and paying more taxes. Everyone wants the $130k a year engineer or doctor job but nobody wants to move the dirt or lay the block or frame the building they work in! I know a guy who runs a factory, he said they usually go through 20 applicants just to find a guy who will last a couple months and pass a drug test. Make it so these people need to pass a daily drug test for a month before they can get on welfare, I don't need to bust my butt just to feed your drug addiction!

dirthog · Sep 7, 2016

Not sure where you see all this great economy because it is not around many parts of the country especially with the number of people holding jobs at a all time low close to only 50%.

lantraxco · Sep 7, 2016

hetkind said:
I think you might have things a tad out of order...I think CONGRESS is why wages haven't gone up!

And where do you get the 90 million? that would be over one person out of four in our population.

Here is the BLS data, http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm, and at 4.9% we are approaching the structural unemployment level.

Howard

Howard

Yes, congress, at the bidding of their moneyed masters, are indeed why the good citizens are constantly shorn like sheep.

4.9% is the number of people currently enrolled in unemployment benefits, and in some states those signed up with the employment service as "Actively seeking" the true unemployment rate can only be estimated as of course there's no way to count people not in the system. Some estimates are over 12% actual.

90 million is the number of people that can work, but are not for one reason or another. The labor participation rate is at something like a 40 year low:

http://money.cnn.com/2016/02/06/news/economy/obama-us-jobs/

thepumpguysc · Sep 7, 2016

ok.. just for kicks.. I would like everyone who responded to this thread to go to your local craigs list site..
Now, I KNOW that's just a small portion of job postings and more over, a lot of reputable employers don't use such a site.. BUT..
Type in> diesel< in the master search box on the left..
Click JOBS.. and check out the wages, if listed at all..
ALOT are 15.00 listings with 5+ years of experience, own tools, computer skills and a list of requirements that would make an experienced tech cringe..
Certs in trailer rebuilding, hydo rebuilding, complete engine o/h experience, electrical diagnosis, brake o/h, experience in Cat, JD, New Holland, MF, Ford required.!! Throw in 200K worth of tools and you too can have a J O B for 15.00 hr in the mud, snow and heat..
and lets not forget about, MANDATORY weekend shifts and road work on the weekends..
Sorry.. got alittle off track from the original posters subject.. But seriously.. check it out..

lantraxco · Sep 7, 2016

thepumpguysc said:
ok.. just for kicks.. I would like everyone who responded to this thread to go to your local craigs list site..
Now, I KNOW that's just a small portion of job postings and more over, a lot of reputable employers don't use such a site.. BUT..
Type in> diesel< in the master search box on the left..
Click JOBS.. and check out the wages, if listed at all..
ALOT are 15.00 listings with 5+ years of experience, own tools, computer skills and a list of requirements that would make an experienced tech cringe..
Certs in trailer rebuilding, hydo rebuilding, complete engine o/h experience, electrical diagnosis, brake o/h, experience in Cat, JD, New Holland, MF, Ford required.!! Throw in 200K worth of tools and you too can have a J O B for 15.00 hr in the mud, snow and heat..
and lets not forget about, MANDATORY weekend shifts and road work on the weekends..
Sorry.. got alittle off track from the original posters subject.. But seriously.. check it out..

You are correct. Top dollar for a damn good experienced tech with a handful of certs and 10 years or more experience around here is about $25 an hour, maybe a bit more if you stay a few years after hiring. This is just about EXACTLY what it was in 1980 when I started out! Off road diesel was $0.55 a gallon and a new TLB was around $40K. One ton dually was around $10K as I recall.

hetkind · Sep 7, 2016

lantraxco said:
You are correct. Top dollar for a damn good experienced tech with a handful of certs and 10 years or more experience around here is about $25 an hour, maybe a bit more if you stay a few years after hiring. This is just about EXACTLY what it was in 1980 when I started out! Off road diesel was $0.55 a gallon and a new TLB was around $40K. One ton dually was around $10K as I recall.

Yes, price inflation, but no wage inflation. This means that there are too many workers with the right skills so the positions don't have to pay much. And why does clean, easy fast food work pay the same as a mechanic? That should be the first thing we should look at. And where is Congress in all of this? Oh yea, on vacation for the last seven weeks.

Howard

shortage of workers?

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