The U.S. labor shortage is reaching a critical point

originally posted by: Dfairlite
a reply to: olaru12

Yes, there's going to be inflation in groceries as the wages have been kept artificially low. The solution can't be to continue keeping them artificially low forever, the problem only gets worse with time.

Right, corporate American agriculture is going to raise wages to get the crops harvested. lol.

When Trump feels the heat from corporate America he will green light Immigrants back in over the border so the large production houses can maintain profits.

originally posted by: burdman30ott6
a reply to: 727Sky

This is how wages increase.

That's what they said about tax cuts, too.

originally posted by: schuyler
A nice hefty increase in productivity.

Productivity has never been higher.
Wages, on the other hand, have stagnated since the 70s.

a reply to: olaru12

So you're saying trump isn't hard enough on illegal immigration?

a reply to: Greven

And it worked!

Ah...remember when Obama said the jobs would never come back?

Good times.

a reply to: Dfairlite

They are NOT different in the slightest. It does not matter whether money ends up with an employer because they did not have to spend it, or because they got it back from government, the effect on the economy as a whole is the same, artificial jobs growth is the outcome, and it is not sustainable.

Paying companies to employ someone, is just the same as giving them money off their taxes in effect, and causes the same problems. The problem is that one way around or another, the money being either paid, or not asked for, does not go back into the treasury, does not go into infrastructure projects, does not go into improving policing, training better officers, does not go into improving survival rates for PTSD suffering veterans, does not go into improving schools in districts with poor performance, is no longer available for use by government to do what government alone can do.

Companies should be paying every last cent of their taxes, without fail or exception, and those that cannot, should not exist. It is as simple as that. If that were the case, then your people would have a REAL idea of what a sorry state the United States is really in, and how much they have been screwed over by successive waves of corporatist governance, from both sides of the political divide. The companies operating in the USA, need to be SAVAGELY re-educated as to the purpose of their existence, and their shareholders and executives need to understand the following as a matter of fact, one which will never change:

The purpose of a business is to provide employment and wages to its staff FIRST, with the biggest slice of the pie, being given to the people who actually make its product or provide its services. Waaaaay AFTER that, when ALL possible taxes have been paid, when all employees have been given the wages that will allow them the things of life as well as something to save for a rainy day, THEN the executives, shareholders and owners, can have whatever scraps remain, as they damned well should. The purpose of business is NOT to hand an unbalanced paypacket to the person in the company who has put the least physical effort into the product or service in a given fiscal year, and that is what is going on now.

The balance needs correcting, the worker empowering, and the owner/executive types need putting in their damned place.

originally posted by: TrueBrit
The purpose of a business is to provide employment and wages to its staff FIRST, with the biggest slice of the pie, being given to the people who actually make its product or provide its services. Waaaaay AFTER that, when ALL possible taxes have been paid, when all employees have been given the wages that will allow them the things of life as well as something to save for a rainy day, THEN the executives, shareholders and owners, can have whatever scraps remain, as they damned well should. The purpose of business is NOT to hand an unbalanced paypacket to the person in the company who has put the least physical effort into the product or service in a given fiscal year, and that is what is going on now.

Physical effort is not the litmus test for monetary gain.

Those owners you speak so little of, put everything they had into that business. Monetarily, Time spent, and yes effort to get their business going. THEY took the risk, so they get the lions share of reward. If they don't they have no need to continue, now do they?

If that business doesn't pay well enough, then the employees are free to move on to a job that does, or start their own business.

The purpose of a business is first and foremost to make profit. Period. Everything else is secondary. Everything. No profit, no business.

Managers keep the business profitable, to keep it alive and keep people employed, that's why they get a higher salary, it's brain work. They're paid for their particular skills. If the laborers wish to do that they can, no one is stopping them from advancing themselves, except themselves.

originally posted by: PistolPete
All we need is a tax credit for employers to give someone on the job training for skilled manufacturing work. Business gets a tax break and eventually the skilled labor that they need.

There's no such thing as skilled manufacturing work. Anyone can be trained on any process in days.

originally posted by: SocratesJohnson
Now we need to update welfare and so forth.

Use texhnology, you collect welfare our system says that their is a job 5 miles from your house, you need to apply for that job or you loose your benefits. If you don’t show up to the interview, or it seems like you tanked the interview, you will lose your benifits.

And what exactly, does putting someone in a dead end job do for them, other than ensure they'll never be able to escape a dead end job?

originally posted by: JoshuaCox
a reply to: 727Sky

The only labor shortage is because companies are not willing to pay enough to fill those positions...


Armericans are willing to do whatever..

They just aren’t willing to do whatever for minimum wage..

Most of the labor shortage in the US exists in skilled positions, which we don't have the work force to fill. There's 7 software engineering jobs open for every out of work software engineer in the US. They literally can't fill them all. And those who are out of work, still struggle to find it, because companies have no idea how to look for what they need.

originally posted by: Bluntone22
a reply to: Isurrender73

If you're 25 you better have a degree or 5 years experience at something.
If your 40, wearing a jumpsuit and not climbing into the cockpit of a fighter jet you probably made some bad decisions in your life.

Nobody is owed a living.
Reality can be a bitch.

Degrees don't teach enough. You need at least 10 years of university and 3 degrees for something entry level. Subjects worth studying are broad enough that that is necessary.

a reply to: poncho1982

Those owners I speak little of, are justified in taking the lions share, until the point where they are no longer putting effort into things, but merely earning money because they possess a thing, that thing being the business. At the point where their effort dwindles, there is no need for them to continue to benefit from the rewards of the operation of that business. For example, at the point where more of their day is consumed with trivialities like golfing, and the tendency to involve themselves in "engagements" (galas, charity dinners, and the like) it is utterly unnecessary for them to continue to draw a wage, because they are already in a financial position such, that they could never spend all that they have, even if they made a concerted effort to do so.

As for your assertion that a person no longer drawing a wage from a thing ought to cease doing it, I can say the following... If a business has not yet generated enough that a businessman can draw a wage from it, then no, you are incorrect. It takes time for a business to become profitable, especially if it is run ethically, as opposed to being run in mercenary fashion. Sticking it out is a mark of good character. BUT, when a business has been stuffing the pockets of its owner to the point where they are having to make charitable donations purely for tax purposes, they should probably damned well retire, because they are almost certainly at that stage in their contribution to a companies profitability, where they are playing the aforementioned golf, rather than working all day, taking engagements and dinners with politicians, as opposed to actually running the company. That is NOT work, and should NOT be rewarded. Its ego stroking and prick waving, and nothing else.

Managers do not keep a business profitable. Businesses being profitable relies on the strength, commitment and skill of the people making the product and on the front line of service provision, ALONE. If you do not have that, then you have no business. You can do an awful lot of business without management, but absolutely none without the workforce, thats the bottom line. The only people businesses can do without, are those who do not deal with customers, do not perform the manual labour of production, do not actually WORK for their money at all. Now, lets say the business you are in is that of automotive maintenance. If you are the sort of boss who will still be getting elbow deep in engine bays at the age of sixty, AS WELL as stooping to performing mere administrative functions, THEN you can hang out in your business and take your money with PRIDE, because you still contribute more than the occupation of office space, to the output of your business. But unless you remain hands on and dirty from the very beginning, until your last day, the moment you consider yourself too busy or too "good" to do the 9-5, you should not think yourself fit to take a wage any more. Its damned well time to retire.

This attitude I take to my own life, and my placement of value on certain things, over other things, is developed in response to the history of enterprise. In every circumstance where a person thought themselves worthy of a wage without putting in CONSTANT, ground level labour, as well as performing the executive functions, they were WRONG to do so, and got far too big for their boots, eventually resulting in their becoming a drain on the resources of the company, and a detriment to its staffing levels. It IS more important that a workforce be as large as it needs to be to comfortably get the work done, it IS more important that the workforce be properly compensated for their time, in line with and always tracking above the cost of living, whatever that cost becomes in the region they work in, it IS and always will be the purpose of businesses to employ people, and a happy coincidence if, after wages are paid and bills settled, there is something over for the executive, and it is that way because it MUST be that way. The only result of anything else, is the same boom and bust mentality, the same ignorant, grasping, me, me, me, bigheadedness, that produces walking scum like the current President of the United States, like Bernie Madoff, like Robert E. Murray, a man who was so willing to take profit over proper operation of his mining enterprises, that men died for his precious bottom line.

Every industrial catastrophe, every economic disaster, every single balls up that has either hurt people at their work, or hurt peoples pockets globally, has been a result of the greed of someone who stopped contributing anything useful or tangible to the business they were in, decades before their greed finally caught up to them, and even then, they walked away more often than not, individually, still WELL in the black, without the slightest hint of having to tighten their personal belts. When workforces suffer, their employers notice NOTHING, unless those employers either occupy the same economic strata (which in companies of a certain size, is never the case), or unless, despite their wealth, they see fit to remain dedicated to honest labour and hard work, as well as their responsibilities as an executive. The number of people that this last sentence applies to, in large, powerful businesses, is statistically irrelevant, because there are no where near enough people of that sort out there.

Those people, and those people alone, are worthy of the wage they take. Everyone else is just taking the damned piss.

originally posted by: Aazadan

originally posted by: JoshuaCox
a reply to: 727Sky

The only labor shortage is because companies are not willing to pay enough to fill those positions...


Armericans are willing to do whatever..

They just aren’t willing to do whatever for minimum wage..

Most of the labor shortage in the US exists in skilled positions, which we don't have the work force to fill. There's 7 software engineering jobs open for every out of work software engineer in the US. They literally can't fill them all. And those who are out of work, still struggle to find it, because companies have no idea how to look for what they need.

I think you just highlight the biggest issue is hiring practices

Most companies have no idea about finding and acquiring talent

originally posted by: toysforadults
I think you just highlight the biggest issue is hiring practices

Most companies have no idea about finding and acquiring talent

Which goes back to the individual. If companies don't know, it's on you to stand out and appeal to them which in turn means a better resume.

In technology, it doesn't help matters that there has been a big push for accelerated courses that supposedly make someone job ready in between 3 months and 2 years. I actually just did some interviews for work recently, looking at people who went to some 2 year program in Pennsylvania. 5 people, and all 5 of them got a 0% on the technical test they were given. Just to get a gauge on if this was just this school or if it's related to all these accelerated schools, I gave the test to several students of various bootcamps on the west coast, 10 of them. 9 got 0% 1 got 33%.

For reference, when we made our last job offer to someone, we had 6 potentials who all had at a minimum a 4 year+2 year degree, 2 got 6/6 questions correct (and they both got job offers), 1 got 5/6 correct, 1 got 4/6 correct, and 2 got 3/6 correct.

The disciplines that are in demand take a lot of study and there's no shortcut to filling them.

That said, I do agree that often times, because hiring managers are not experts in whatever they're hiring for, they have no idea how to evaluate what their needs actually are, and therefore no ability to actually hire the right people.