Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Despite record high confidence, Main Street businesses can't find the workers they need
CNBC ^ | 14 June 2018 | Kate Rogers

Posted on 06/14/2018 8:00:10 AM PDT by Alas Babylon!

A labor shortage issue is increasingly weighing on small businesses around the country. This comes despite record-high confidence on Main Street.

In May, one-third of small-business owners reported job openings they could not fill, and 12 percent reported using temporary workers.

Mike Fredrich shows off unmanned presses in his Manitowoc, Wisconsin, company. They're ready to start production at MCM Composites, a 55-person enterprise that makes custom thermoset molding.

The only problem? Fredrich has no one to operate them.

"These tools are heated to 300 degrees," he said. "But we're not running them. Had we had the people for the first shift, we could have been running this all day. But we don't, so they sit here heated, ready to go, with no action."

(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: jobs; needed; smallbusiness; workers
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-95 next last
To: bert
So, pay more to suck the detritus out of the scum at the bottom of the barrel. Is that your solution?

Stop most student loans and replace them with work/study programs. Let them earn their degrees with work and academics combined. A lot of college students are just hiding out there to avoid becoming part of the capitalists' oppressed work force, anyway!

21 posted on 06/14/2018 8:20:11 AM PDT by JimRed ( TERM LIMITS, NOW! Build the Wall Faster! TRUTH is the new HATE SPEECH.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: Nateman

Signing bonuses or other perks can work wonders as well.


22 posted on 06/14/2018 8:22:38 AM PDT by cgbg (Hidden behind the social justice warrior mask is corruption and sexual deviance.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: kosciusko51

That’s a good point, to. I am a creature of my own experiences. I was in the military in the late 70s, so a fixed income. Jimmy Carter and the democrats controlling Congress wouldn’t give us a raise so we fell behind quite a bit in those years.

When Reagan came in, we got an 11.7% raise in 1981 and a 14.1% raise in 1982. And he beat stagflation.


23 posted on 06/14/2018 8:22:51 AM PDT by Alas Babylon! (MAGAMarchOnWashington.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: thoughtomator

Yep. I am working for a bank right now doing a project. In the section of office I am in as I type this, there is me, one Black guy who is obviously an American and FOUR Indians. This is not unusual in this big bank. No, they are not doing tech intensive jobs.

So.....why are there so many working here? Are you telling me they can’t find Americans to do a lot more of these jobs? Baloney! Yes they can! They may have to take slightly less experienced finance and accounting grads. They may not be quite as cheap as the Indian contract workers they stuff the offices with. So what? It would be far better for America to curb H1b visas and have more of these roles filled by Americans. Lots of grads a few years out of college would LOVE to do a white collar job for a big bank even if the pay was only “OK”. That looks great on a resume.


24 posted on 06/14/2018 8:23:14 AM PDT by FLT-bird (..)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: thoughtomator
I got out of the rat race at the beginning of the year. To make some extra money, I applied to over 30 ads for tax preparers with a resume and a cover letter that described my experience of over 20 years of preparing tax returns for individuals and businesses.

I received two responses with the same reply: "we don't think you'd be a good fit for our firm."

So be it, all's well that ends well. I took a part time job at UPS working in their package sort operations. I'm basically getting paid for working out 4-5 hours five days a week. I've dropped 20 pounds in four months, my BP is ideal (104/64) and I feel great.

I'd venture to say that 90% of these companies that say they can't hired qualified people discriminate against workers over 50. They seem to think that if they hire someone in their 20s, they'll have 'em for decades, though experience says they'll be gone in months.

25 posted on 06/14/2018 8:23:36 AM PDT by Night Hides Not (Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad! Remember Gonzales! Come and Take It!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Erik Latranyi
"Many are incapable of getting a job due to drug use. poor edication or just plain laziness."

IMHO, all of that doesn't matter. Take away the benefits. A hungry stomach, regardless of one's intellect or lack thereof, tends to get one moving.

The problem with many of these people, except those mentally deficient, is that they have never had a reason to be motivated to survive. We, who have worked and paid the taxes to support these shirkers, have done it all for them. Even to the point of destroying their self-esteem.

26 posted on 06/14/2018 8:23:57 AM PDT by Parmy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Alas Babylon!

Lots of “safety sensitive” positions (e.g., rail transportation) go wanting due to people not being able to pass required drug tests.

As states “legalize” recreational marijuana use, this situation will only get worse.


27 posted on 06/14/2018 8:24:17 AM PDT by Arm_Bears (Hey, Rocky--Watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: thoughtomator

Wages are rising quite rapidly at the lower end of the payscale. We operate 600+ locations nationwide and our labor cost was up 5% in 1Q. Largest increases were on the west coast and “hot” cities like Austin, Nashville, etc. Ultimately, you do solve labor with wage increases, but that does put limits around economic growth as expected returns are lowered on new projects (offset in part or fully by increased consumer spending).


28 posted on 06/14/2018 8:25:32 AM PDT by rb22982
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Alas Babylon!

Don’t believe a word of it.


29 posted on 06/14/2018 8:26:39 AM PDT by JPJones (More tariffs, less income tax.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Parmy
The problem with many of these people, except those mentally deficient, is that they have never had a reason to be motivated to survive. We, who have worked and paid the taxes to support these shirkers, have done it all for them. Even to the point of destroying their self-esteem.



Even FDR agreed...

"A large proportion of these unemployed and their dependents have been forced on the relief rolls. The burden on the Federal Government has grown with great rapidity. We have here a human as well as an economic problem. When humane considerations are concerned, Americans give them precedence. The lessons of history, confirmed by the evidence immediately before me, show conclusively that continued dependence upon relief induces a spiritual and moral disintegration fundamentally destructive to the national fibre. To dole out relief in this way is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit. It is inimical to the dictates of sound policy. It is in violation of the traditions of America. Work must be found for able-bodied but destitute workers."

30 posted on 06/14/2018 8:26:51 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: Alas Babylon!

Our next challenge is to get our own population off of the Obama couch.

I’ve talked to hiring managers with jobs like this who said something like 60% of applicants were failing their drug test.


31 posted on 06/14/2018 8:27:40 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: bert

You want to fill that spot?

In a tight labor market you aren’t owed cheap labor, just like in a market with lots of unemployed, labor isnt owed a high salary.


32 posted on 06/14/2018 8:27:46 AM PDT by VanDeKoik
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: cgbg
Signing bonuses or other perks can work wonders as well.

UPS does a pretty good job for shifts they have trouble filling. My work week ranges between 16-23 hours, depending on volume. They pay a bonus of $100/week if you show up on time every day. That's a good motivator, if you ask me.

33 posted on 06/14/2018 8:27:53 AM PDT by Night Hides Not (Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad! Remember Gonzales! Come and Take It!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: Alas Babylon!

We need more migrant workers or our indigenous workers will have to come off welfare.


34 posted on 06/14/2018 8:28:02 AM PDT by bk1000 (I stand with Trump)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: JimRed

Another great point!

How many go to college who really have no business doing so?

I’m not going to say they’re too stupid or too lazy, but in way too many cases, degree programs in higher education are just terrible nonsense that will do nothing for that individual financially.

They might as well go to work now, collect money, and use some of that to go to night school.

But seriously, who gets a degree in Lesbian Transgender Studies, for example, and expects to make anything off of that except be a professor teaching the same racket (which is probably 1 in 1000) to young minds full of mush?


35 posted on 06/14/2018 8:29:09 AM PDT by Alas Babylon! (MAGAMarchOnWashington.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: VanDeKoik

I understand...... wage inflation is coming because the commodity supply is unequal to the demand


36 posted on 06/14/2018 8:29:41 AM PDT by bert ((K.E. N.P. N.C. +12 ..... Greetings Jacques. The revolution is coming))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: Alas Babylon!

Freeper sentiment likes to devalue education because they got by with out.

If the kid learned to write, then he received valuable lessons.


37 posted on 06/14/2018 8:31:44 AM PDT by bert ((K.E. N.P. N.C. +12 ..... Greetings Jacques. The revolution is coming))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: bert
Just like generals can't defeat General Winter and General Mud, you can't beat the immutable law of supply and demand (Economics 101).
38 posted on 06/14/2018 8:32:11 AM PDT by Night Hides Not (Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad! Remember Gonzales! Come and Take It!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: Erik Latranyi

And many are senior technicals that no one wants because they look expensive.....more than likely million+ to be more exact. Those who do find work are grossly underemployed.


39 posted on 06/14/2018 8:33:16 AM PDT by fuente (Liberty resides in three boxes: the ballot box, the jury box and the cartridge box--Fredrick Douglas)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Parmy

Another great point.


40 posted on 06/14/2018 8:33:46 AM PDT by Alas Babylon! (MAGAMarchOnWashington.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-95 next last

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.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson