Not enough employees too many jobs -severe labor shortage

originally posted by: Xtrozero

originally posted by: Puppylove
Frank truth is, most people are realizing everything is a sham. Many and I don't blame them would rather live on the street than do nothing but work til they drop to barely cover basic expenses. It's simply not a life worth living.

Maybe they can do us all a favor and just get it over with quickly so we can cull the population now of those who just want to do nothing.

Sounds like something Stalin would approve of.

People need to get off the couch and apply.

originally posted by: Zanti Misfit
a reply to: notsure1

" Self pride doesnt buy my family food."


Oh Really ? I Own a Business , and in MY Business , Pride and Egotism , Used in Positive Ways , become the Means to Provide for MY Family and Co-Workers . Maybe you are just Approaching the Problem in a Different Way from what is Really Needed ?

Pride doesn't put food in the kitchen, he's right. You traded your time for money, and THAT put food in your kitchen. Not your pride. The pride aspect is an entirely different ball of wax slapped on the employee sculpture -- it's secondary at best, behind the goal of being paid for trading your time. Actually, it might come in third, after job security. Knowing you're not going to be pink slipped after a few weeks or months is a pretty damn good incentive to keep clocking in before you ever get to thinking about pride.

originally posted by: Reverbs
a reply to: JAGStorm

Im hiring at 10-11 an hour and cant get anyone in for an interview. In fact when I ask around the people I know in the service industry try and get me to work for them. I joke I will steal their cooks.. starting to not feel like a joke though.. but I did find someone at leat part time.. Id prefer someone at 38 hours but what can ya do?

Its odd..

Sorry, the high school kids are back in school again. How do you think they will work for 11 bucks an hour for 40 hours when they have school?

You know, there was a time in this country when people had the freedom to do their own thing, live on the streets, camp in the woods and live off the land, but now it seems there are many entitled that think everyone should be serving the business class if not, they should be killed off. Sounds like Communism to me.

a reply to: SR1TX

Dont worry bro. I will make sure the fevernt mob passes you by.

Dont argue with idiots. they drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.

a reply to: hopenotfeariswhatweneed

Not all of them, no, but probably the vast majority of them.

originally posted by: Xtrozero

originally posted by: notsure1

!! or 12 an hour is why. average rent in this country is 1200 bucks. People cant live on 12 bucks an hour.

You have to hire a teenager for that..

If you are mid 20s you should not be making that low of an income with some skills in your pocket.

So then who is left if the kids are back in school and unavailable to do those jobs?
The cheap labor express illegals?

a reply to: hopenotfeariswhatweneed

one of the jobs mentioned in the op was driveway sealing...
my husband worked with asphalt back in the 80's for awhile, think he made around $9 an hour. so, I imagine they are still making at least that much, really is sad if they are making less. but it was hard work, and quite dirty work. so dirty that you would make a trip to the laundry mat just to wash his work clothes because you wouldn't want to put them in your own washer.
people now days are more health conscious, if they can't put up with a little bit of cigarette smoke, they aren't gonna put up with coming home with a bunch of stinky (and probably a tad bit toxic) asphalt stuck to their clothing.
and they really don't want to work that hard.

but, I wonder, just how much does it cost to actually be able to live halfway comfortably now days, even for a single person?

originally posted by: lordcomac

originally posted by: Zanti Misfit
a reply to: JAGStorm

The ONLY Solution is Wage Increases Across the Board for All Fields of Work to Encourage People to be Employed . A LIVING WAGE at Bare Minimum should be the New Norm in 2018 Considering U.S. Economic Growth .

Increased wages leads to increased costs- what service do you provide?
Double the pay of fast food workers, cost of fast food has to double to pay for it.
Farmers? food.

Get it?
Double everyones pay, cost of everything doubles.

Maybe look at cutting taxes instead- property tax is outrageous, and for rental properties it's passed off in the cost of rent.
Income taxes are out of control- to pay someone 10 an hour it'll cost a company 15, and they'll only see 7. That means they need to make $15 worth of value for every $7 they take home for a $10/hr job.... which doesn't come close to paying the rent.

The money itself is broken by design- there's no fixing this while under the thumb of fiat currency.

Wall Street seems to be making money, I guess it is time for shareholders to take a paycut.
50 Years ago, most mom and pops did not have stocks on wall street.

a reply to: jacobe001

low paid housewives and welfare moms??

originally posted by: Xtrozero

originally posted by: Zanti Misfit

The ONLY Solution is Wage Increases Across the Board for All Fields of Work to Encourage People to be Employed . A LIVING WAGE at Bare Minimum should be the New Norm in 2018 Considering U.S. Economic Growth .

So what is a living wage and what costs are we expecting people to have for that wage? Is single living a right or a privilege as example... Should a living wage be based on where 2 or more people share expenses or should that be a wage were one person can live on their own, have a car, phone etc.

The wages should be what employers are willing to pay or not.
If they are not getting employees at 11 bucks an hour, then they either raise wages are go under.
Capitalism 101.

originally posted by: Xtrozero

originally posted by: SR1TX


I pay great $ for high quality work, and my team is very motivated to make more based on the enjoyment having $, a tool, brings.

Money is a great motivator. Try not having it sometime.

Give them 5 bucks an hour pay raise and see if they work harder...lol More pay just becomes the new norm and so production will drop back to what it was before.

You still need to pay for skill and the value the position brings you, so yes you could be paying big $$ for a person's skills, BUT they better be bringing profit to offset that pay or you will not be in business very long.

If you are paying peanuts and constantly loosing and training new people because no one wants to stick around, you will not be in business very long either.

originally posted by: jacobe001

originally posted by: Reverbs
a reply to: JAGStorm

Im hiring at 10-11 an hour and cant get anyone in for an interview. In fact when I ask around the people I know in the service industry try and get me to work for them. I joke I will steal their cooks.. starting to not feel like a joke though.. but I did find someone at leat part time.. Id prefer someone at 38 hours but what can ya do?

Its odd..

Sorry, the high school kids are back in school again. How do you think they will work for 11 bucks an hour for 40 hours when they have school?

I did it; when I was in high school I averaged 30 to 40 hours working every week.


As for labor shortages; its time for businesses to get out of the mentality they have developed post the 2008 recession. They have become addicted to cutting costs and in recent years they cut so deep they have started cutting bone now.

I work for an Engineering firm; post 2008 work dried up. Cutting costs starred out as a necessity. But somewhere along the line work started to come in again but the firm did not adjust its practices and kept on cutting. Downsizing was a yearly event, first letting the lazy people go but eventually they started laying off good engineers. Now work has picked up so much that we cant find enough people to fill the jobs ... we put up billboards advertising work (when has that ever happened?)... you know what they aren't doing? Raising wages, increasing the benefits that have been cut down on the last 10 years... it is starting to hurt the business now because we cant meet proposal requirements... but for some reason upper and middle management is stuck in 2008.

... sure hope its not because the writings on the wall for another major crash.

originally posted by: toysforadults
a reply to: bananashooter

same, can't afford it not worth the headache

plus I have to deal with the biggest pile of garbage education system and on top of it properly educate my child while working and dealing with the garbage system

it's not worth it

Same here, kids are to expensive.
I am also against illegal immigrants.
This all hurts the cheap labor express.

a reply to: jacobe001

if we were going with capitalism 101, either the wages would be higher, or the cost of living would be lower, or both... or we wouldn't have an economy. but when you start subsidizing the low wage earners the way we've been doing for the past decades, you throw a huge wrench into the supply and demand theory and everything gets distorted beyond belief. professional moms find their paychecks barely able to pay the childcare costs for their kids and we lose our teachers. middle class families find themselves not being able to afford their healthcare. housing costs become insane.

a reply to: jacobe001

You know, there was a time in this country when people had the freedom to do their own thing, live on the streets, camp in the woods and live off the land, but now it seems there are many entitled that think everyone should be serving the business class if not, they should be killed off. Sounds like Communism to me.

What are you talking about? in the 1840's people were working an average of 68 hours per week! In 1950 people worked an average of 42 hours per week. In 2000 people worked an average of 40 hours per week. In 2017 that's down to 34 hours per week. People have never worked less than they do now!

There are 168 hours per week. That means the average person has 134 hours to themselves, that's 80% of your time. You are free to go live on the street or on the land. You can still homestead in alaska. You can be a beggar in any big city. I camp many, many nights per year (more than I want to, sometimes) and I work 42 hours per week on average. So I'm not sure why you are having such a hard time finding an opportunity to be away from work.

1840
1950-2000
2017

originally posted by: Xtrozero

originally posted by: notsure1
People want you to work 40 hours a week for the rest of your life for shi^^Y pay. Then the government wants 1 fourth of that then health insurance wants another fourth.

It sounds more like a prison sentence to me..

You could be in the old days where you worked for all your needs. Back then they worked 16 hours a day in the fields, barns, kitchen etc...The old 110 a week schedule...lol

Back in the day, they WORKED for themselves, not working to make others richer.
Most people work to make the employers richer, the bankers and real estate investors richer, the healthcare sector richer and have nothing left to show for it.

a reply to: JAGStorm


You open the southern US border and problem solved!

a reply to: jacobe001

They'd kill to only spend 30-40 hours a week working while having well more than their basic needs met. By all means, go ahead and work 16 hours a day and work for yourself. No one is stopping you.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Shouldn't the free market dictate that due to demand, the wages will automatically be higher?