Posted on 02/17/2005 9:25:25 AM PST by qam1
What's wrong with this picture? Looks like a fresh new start to me.
we have plenty of smart americans. but when opportunities and compensation levels for jobs in the sciences and engineering are being diluted by the use of offshore labor who will work for far less, what incentive do people have to enter into those fields. you can make more money in the US as a mercedes benz mechanic then as an engineer. this is why american parents of college aged children, are piling their kids into law school as fast as possible.
Not a problem, President Hillary will pass The Americans With No Abilities Act which will recognize every American's right to take up space. This will allow them to go on SSDI which will be funded by the 401K Seizure Act which Laura D'andrea Tyson proposed in x42's Administration.
Unfortunately, many "government" employees, include scientists at the Lawrence Livermore, Los Alamos, and Sandia labratories...among many other places.
When they retire, we can let the kids with Ethnic studies and fine arts degrees design and develop our high tech future.
One of my contractors just quit to go work for Deloitte Consulting. He had to move to California for the job.
Small world.
I recently had a conversation with a plant manager on his factory floor.
In response to my "How's business" question he said sales are booming but he can't find anyone to work.
He has had his signs up since early December and has interviewed over 80 applicants. He hired several but all are gone. Half of those hired failed the drug test. The others would come to work a few days and then either not show up or come in late.
He has fairly nice and clean facilities with no really obnoxious jobs. He pays above average wages and has good benefits. He even slacked off on his requirement for a highschool diploma.
The cost for a medical exam and drug screen is nearly $200. He has spent several thousand with nothing to show for it. He has a very bad problem with no good solution in sight.
Right, the baby boomers just can't anyone as good as themselves.
They say obesity is deadly. There's your proof.
What you say is certainly true. But the problem is that the U.S. now lacks enough highly trained people in specialized fields of the hard sciences. We have a plethora of business, arts, and the likes of educational degrees.... but not enough in the hard sciences.
For many years we have been "borrowing" this talent from China, Japan, and India.
The reason for the shortfall you might ask?...Answer..The teachers Unions who have dumbed down both the teachers themselves, the curriculum, and as a result, the children they are entrusted to educate. There are other reasons as well but this is number one.
Of course this has always been true, even if the Baby boomers are creating a more urgent situation, management has always considered interaction with employees to be a necessary chore to be avoided if at all possible. This is because talant in management has been considered not necessary for most management positions as managers attempt to surround themselve with useful idiots who will present no serious competition to their own rise.
Good managers have always known that they must stay in touch with their employees and find ways to keep valuable employees happy. This flies in the face of Political Correctness and Multicultuirism that states that almost any minority is qualified for nearly any position that they want. Enough managers with no talant and the workforce will realize that their needs will not be satisfied at any time in the future. Then they start looking.
In my firm, it was standard practice to immediately accept the resignation of any individual, regardless of ability and critical tasks performed if said individual implied that if they would resign if some action beneficial to them were not taken by management.
Dark Wing tells me that this retirement wave is much worse for the federal civil service.
I know a guy that has been a machinist for 25 years.
He is proficient on CNC maching and has kept up with technology.
However he is 58 years old and no one wants to hire him because of his age (the company he worked for went out of business).
Also the cnc machine jobs are being sent overseas and the ones being offered here now in the states are paying $10 hour. Many machinist jobs in my area start out at $8 hour.
Why go to school for this profession anymore for $8-10 hour?
they might have to hire those "mean, nasty, white males"...
"What all these idiots fail to account for the the very large labor pool in the 40+ year old age group who are unemployed or underemployed. Generally speaking, this age group is savvy, seasoned, with good skills learned in school and in 20 years of being in the workforce, yet they are cast aside or not called back for the second interview because of their grey hair."
Well worth repeating.
Excellent post.
what talent shortage? just look at how many people are dying to get on "American Idol", "Apprentice", "Survivor", etc, etc.
Here, here! Many executives are in their posts because of inheritance or nepotism. They are basically out of touch with the current situation, or think that cheaper is always better. I predict the precipitous decline of US corporations in the next 25 years. We have eaten our seed corn.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.