“I do not believe for a minute the 10% unemployment...”
I just used a couple of part-time helpers. They both said that while they are not employed and are looking for work, they have not had a job for so long now that they are off of unemployment and are not counted as unemployed anymore!?
I did some work at a government site, where work is fairly steady (of course). My contact said that he knows that it is way different in the “real world”. He said the contractors that work there don’t use their company vehicles (HVAC, plumbers, etc.) to run errands to the supply stores anymore as they get mobbed by folks looking for even a day’s worth of work.
I am one of the under employed, I have a job working for $8.00 an hour. I lost my job that I had for over 6 years last August making $24.00 an hour. I am thankful to have a job in these times. I sold my home in a short sale that took 7 months to go through. Just closed it last week.
I belive that the unemployment numbers are much worse than what we see/read. A friend of mine with a plumbing business is working on his first set of plans for the year right now. Our econmic conditions are much worse than what is being reported.
“contractors that work there don’t use their company vehicles (HVAC, plumbers, etc.) to run errands to the supply stores anymore as they get mobbed by folks looking for even a day’s worth of work.”
21twelve, I have to tell you, your contact speaks the truth. Our guys fill up their trucks on monday morning, our supplier meets us here at the shop and restocks them, but they have to make runs for non-inventory parts during the week, and I bet you, 1 out of 5 runs results in a call to my wife asking “hey, some guy here wants to know if we are hiring, he’s got 20 years in the trade....”
etc, etc.
We get all sorts of calls of guys willing to work for $10 bucks an hour cash, all very qualified folks.
The ONLY reason we are in business right now, is because we are a merit shop, non-union. Despite the efforts of all our surrounding municipalities to require us to be union, our guys work year round, we pay them year round, and we get repeat business based on our reputation.
They may not be doing their chosen field year round, right now our tin guys are doing work on one of our vans, exhaust, brakes, and new tires rims. Sometimes they sit around tearing apart all the old A-coils we stockpiled from old installs to take to the recycler. We painted the floor to our shop (small building, 5,000 square feet) and built wooden shelving a couple weeks ago. But, if we were union, they wouldn’t be allowed to do that, and they would have been laid off.
There is also a downside too, if the crew takes too long on an install, I don’t pay them overtime if it is because they forgot parts, or they had to redo something because of their mistakes. Its straight time. But at the same time, if they get a job done fast, and the job was quoted as say an 8 hour install, I pay them 8 hours, and let them go home early to their kids, or make dinner for their wives, or whatever.
I say this, because many of the folks we encounter who want to do “cash work” are union members who are laid off, and we want nothing to do with them. They are bad apples, who once hired, no matter how desperate now, will likely spread their infectious union rant to other employees, and with the Card Check thing looming, if our guys ever voted to go union (they wouldn’t at this point), we would just close up the doors, and they too would be out at the suppliers begging for work.
Yeah, my wife and I are real jerks some here would say, oppressive types, who think our business should be OUR business, not the unions, but our guys make more hourly than the union slackers, and more yearly. The only difference is we offer Blue Cross Blue Shield (not as good of a health plan as the union), and we offer a 401k as opposed to a pension. Its up to our guys to invest their money.