Posted on 10/01/2012 8:32:58 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
It isn't just high tech positions in American manufacturing that aren't being filled. The consultant company Deloitte surveyed the industry and found 600,000 perfectly good jobs going unfilled because of a lack of "soft skills."
What are soft skills?
Wall Street Journal:
At a recent dinner in Washington, D.C., with representatives from major American manufacturing companies, I listened as the talk turned to how hard it is to find qualified applicants for jobs.
"What exactly are the skills you can't find?" I asked, imagining that openings for high-tech positions went begging because, as we hear so often, the training of the U.S. workforce doesn't match up well with current corporate needs.
One of the representatives looked sheepishly around the room and responded: "To be perfectly honest . . . we have a hard time finding people who can pass the drug test." Several other reps gave a knowing nod. Applicants were often so underqualified, they said, that simply finding someone who could properly answer the telephone was sometimes a challenge.
[...]
American manufacturing has become more advanced, we're told, and requires computer aptitude, intricate problem solving, and greater dexterity with complex tasks. Surely if Americans were getting STEM education, they would have the skills they need to get jobs in our modern, high-tech economy.
But considerable evidence suggests that many employers would be happy just to find job applicants who have the sort of "soft" skills that used to be almost taken for granted. In the Manpower Group's 2012 Talent Shortage Survey, nearly 20% of employers cited a lack of soft skills as a key reason they couldn't hire needed employees. "Interpersonal skills and enthusiasm/motivation" were among the most commonly identified soft skills that employers found lacking.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
At my 30 year HS reunion (some time back, unfortunately), a number of the most successful people there had not graduated from college.
Realizing of course that for the most part B’s and C’s in 1969 suggest a whole lot more learned than A’s do today.
Well there's the problem, what's needed now are degrees in Trans Gender Social Justice, and Climate Change Prescience.
“A friend told me one problem he had was that a lot of people he hired had their wages garnished for one reason or another and it cost him extra to to pay the garnishment, and keep accurate records of it”
Our payroll company charges a few dollars a week and we pass the cost onto the employee. Many employees with garnishments have so much taken out of their check for child support that they quit after a short time because it’s not worth it for them to work. Of course they always think we should pay them more, but by the time taxes and garnishment are deducted, I don’t know how they live. Definitely cheaper to stay be your babies momma.
Dead on. Companies treat employees as hired slave labor to be tossed aside at any moment but expect total personal commitment. It’s the MBA mentality to treat employees as “Human Resources” but then get pissed if those humans only act like resources.
I’d give you all those except the fourth one. I’m not the only child of the Eighties to see what company loyalty got my parents. If a company wants me to work masses of overtime so I can do the jobs of three people, they darn well better have advertised the position as such, and compensate commensurately....
True story here..
I was working, making decent money, and wanted to work for another company..
I went through 5 or 6 interviews with the owner of this company, and he told me I fit what he was looking for..
He asked me how much I wanted to be paid.. I told him just slightly more than I was currently making..
At the time I had 7 years experience in my field at the time..
He looked me square in the face and said “ I would never pay someone without a bachelors degree that much” and proceeded to offer me 10K less than I was currently making.
I stood up, looked him square in the face and said “ So, you want me to take a pay cut for the priveledge of working for you? You have done nothing but waste my time. Good day.”
This guy went apeshit!!! started screaming and yelling, cussing and swearing at me.
I walked out with a smile on my face.
Less than a year later, his company was out of business.
Gee, I wonder why?
We all need a growing and expanding economy and skills set in order to prosper. As companies leave and DO NOT START. Our entire country slowly and inexorably slips further and further towards third World status.
Maybe these companies should hire HR people that can actually interpret a resume and conduct a decent interview. Soft skills arepretty much subjective and a lack or strength in them wouldn’t be known until an interview. Perhaps they should review their hiring requirements for certain jobs and adjust them accordingly.
“The reason Third World countries are Third World,” he says, “is because nothing works. Basically, that’s where we’re headed.”
Hits the nail on the head.
...And once again most responders here don’t read the full original article.
Pretty sad that’s the business model since companies have made use of so many illegals. They don’t even have to be in the positions they’re looking to fill. They just say well i only pay this guy so much so why should i pay you much more?
We've let the family be broken apart. Where we once had multiple generations in the same house, looking out for one another, now kids often come "home" to an empty place and wait for a single parent to come back from one of their jobs.
Before the progressives fixed the workplace for us, all generations worked, even kids with after school jobs or working in the family business. We used to grow up seeing how things are done and being a part of the work hierarchy. Now, instead of the next rung up in a familiar world, "work" is a often a foreign place for which few are prepared.
Before progressives fixed the schools, students were given a more rigorous and comprehensive education that better prepared them for work and life in general, rather than their passing a test designed to justify the teacher's and the school's competence and continued subsidized existence.
With any luck and some common sense, we'll realize that this progressive insanity we've inflicted upon ourselves is very expensive slow motion societal suicide and we're about to pull the trigger.
That shock will make it easier to get the country into detox and shake off this progressive addiction to socialism we've let ourselves get hooked on.
How would a public school teacher actually go about teaching discipline and motivation? What should they tell the parents, when they don’t like the way the teacher is teaching?
Make them think never give them the answers and never let them use a calculator. If I can do their problems in my head so can they, I explain how to approach a problem it is up to them to get the answer.
What do these companies have to say about paying for apprentice programs?
Some people may think that’s a joke but it’s not.
I once saved and Exxon Engineer from getting crushed to death.
He honestly thought he could stop about 7000# of 9 5/8” steel casing coming at him.
After I saved his life he even tried to get me fired.
My Kid and I were taking apart vehicles from the time he was three. Today he can work on any thing with an engine, Magic hands.
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