Posted on 08/12/2014 5:49:15 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
At 6.2%, the unemployment rate remains uncomfortably high.
And yet, companies are increasingly saying they're having a hard time finding workers.
This statistic from the latest NFIB small business optimism survey really drives home the disconnect. Note the highlighted part of the text below:
NFIB owners increased employment by an average of 0.01 workers per firm in July (seasonally adjusted), the tenth positive month in a row and the best string of gains since 2006. Seasonally adjusted, 13 percent of the owners (up 1 point) reported adding an average of 2.9 workers per firm over the past few months. Fifty-three percent of the owners hired or tried to hire in the last three months and 42 percent (81 percent of those trying to hire or hiring) reported few or no qualified applicants for open positions. Twenty-four percent of all owners reported job openings they could not fill in the current period, down 2 points, but a solid reading. Fifteen percent reported using temporary workers, up a point. Job creation plans continued to strengthen and rose 1 percentage point to a seasonally adjusted net 13 percent, the best reading since September 2007. On a seasonally adjusted basis, job creation plans improved and job openings held at a solid level. Actual job creation remained positive, although modestly so.
81% (!) say they're having trouble hiring workers.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
The other problem is the learning curve now because of the explosion in tech. A high school girl I know was taking college classes to become a nurse. One day was talking to her and she had her books with her. She was saying how hard the classes were, so I started to look thru them to see what exactly she was learning.
After skimming most of the book I said ‘Abbie, do you realize that alot of this stuff we didn’t even KNOW 20 or 25 years ago!?!’ Told her that what she was studying would have been cutting edge knowledge back then just being pioneered by the best specialists in the land, and she would be studying to be a doctor if this was back then.
She smiled after that and gained some pride in what she was doing. But the point is, what even low level skilled jobs require today sometimes is absolutely INSANE to what they would have wanted even 10 or 15 years ago. It’s nearly humanly impossible to actually get the skills to meet the expectations of what some of these companies want to hire, much less the experience.
But it’s never been easier with the Internet to gain knowledge on your own.
But nobody is going to tell you what to learn, you must take the initiative.
True, but 25 years ago a person would have to have had to know X about a skill, because frankly that’s all we knew about it. Now they have to know 10 or 20X of that, or more. They would know more walking into a job now than what a person with 50 years experience would have known walking out 25 years ago.
The knowledge is indeed out there, but the learning curve is huge and getting bigger every day, just for traditional low to moderate skill level jobs. At some point even a bright person gets priced out of the market so to speak.
Biggest reasons we can't hire qualified production workers:
Spot on. See my post #24.
A good friend was ‘downsized’ from HP after 18 years on the job.
He has been offered every job he has been interviewed for, at half the salary he made right out of collage.
An unlimited number of criminal immigrants who will work for $7 an hour has pushed down everyones wages.
Just like the employer class and the political donor class wanted.
not a lot of midlevel jobs out there now, I know, I am looking for one in IT. All I am finding in my is very Senior positions that keep getting reposted because they can’t find anyone or low level jobs that pay peanuts. Very annoying and has been going on all summer. Some of it is local, but I am hearing the same out of other locations.
People have learned that you can “work” the welfare system and make a lot more money than you can by working an entry-level job and not have to bother with working.
Give-me-dat beats I’ll work for that.
Sloth is one of the deadly sins.
The trouble is that most employers have little minds that care more about pedigrees than knowledge, aptitude, and talent.
Agree and when the economy is like this, employers have all the leverage. There’s not much competition for people.
> This is about there not being enough people willing to accept dirt pay.
Bingo! Game. Set. Match.
Qualified applicants = No English
I could be missing something; I’m not a business owner. There have been good points raised on this thread but I think a very simple and obvious point has been overlooked.
I don’t know what kinds of businesses are represented in this survey, as it’s not clear, but it seems to me these jobs that are difficult to fill could very well be low paying jobs, that wouldn’t advance one’s career. That is, it’s one thing to take a low paying job if you think you’ll be able to advance in the company with it. It’s another to be in a dead-end job. I suspect these hard to fill jobs fall into the later category.
Another point I think has been overlooked is that even if these jobs pay “well”, they very well may themselves be jobs that, while “permanent” on the books, do not offer medical benefits because the employer doesn’t want to deal with Obamacare.
I know myself I can go out and get five jobs that pay the same as I make now but they don’t have health insurance. So in reality, they DON’T pay as much.
This is another hidden “gift” of Obamacare: sure job salary hasn’t changed much but in actuality it has, as employers no longer offer health care plans to their employees, which is actually (until recently) a significant portion of one’s salary. So really, under Obamacare, many have taken a pay cut, because their employer no longer offers health insurance.
This also makes job offers less attractive. Hence (maybe) this “crazy” statistic. We are seeing the labor market correcting itself because the supply of cheap labor is actually much less than what was predicted when Obamacare was crafted.
Funny that: people are actually not willing to work for $15,000 a year (which is what it works out to if you factor in the loss of health care benefits at work) if they have a college degree. Whoda thunk?
Of course, this is all fits nicely with the apparently strange collusion of democrat and republican when it comes to the issue of immigration. Tons of cheap labor there to exploit! Only downside: the average American worker gets the shaft. Shafted onto substandard Obamacare while stuck in low-level paying jobs for the rest of their life, working alongside Hector and Maria who never knew of anything better.
It works out great. If you’re inside the Beltway. But that’s another topic (I guess).
At my work, employees must be finerprinted and have clearance with FBI, DOJ and Child Abuse Index. Most do, some don’t due to a conviction of a felony.
Many employers require too much book learning. I have a 30-year career of continuous employment and increasing responsibility in my field which includes management experience in my last four positions.
When I lost my job in January, I spent five months looking for work because employers with positions commensurate with my level of experience all wanted Masters degrees. Practical experience counted for nothing. They all wanted the degree.
I was too busy busting my rear end for my employers to go and get one. So now, the job I have is lower level and I have to “pay my dues” yet again. It’s depressing.
Well Fargo analysis in a client note just sent out:
“Labor Market Tightening
· The June JOLTS report showed firms are increasingly ready to hire. Job openings rose to the highest level in 13 years and indicate continued strong job gains in the months ahead.
· The surge in job openings in recent months is another sign of a tightening labor market. The number of unemployed workers per job opening has fallen to 2.0 from 3.0 a year earlier and suggests less labor market slack than the unemployment rate.
Churn Improving
· Opening rates for the leisure & hospitality and professional & business services industries have turned up sharply in recent months, suggesting continued job gains at both ends of the wage spectrum.
· Quits continue to account for a rising share of separations as workers view more opportunities in the labor market, while gross hiring climbs steadily higher.”
Or there’s this:
Federal Reserve’s vice-chair warns of long-term damage from recession
Stanley Fischer warns lower productivity growth and labour force participation rates are now permanent features of the economy
and this:
Yellen resolved to avoid raising rates too soon, fearing downturn
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/12/us-usa-fed-yellen-insight-idUSKBN0GC1SA20140812
Who should we believe?
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