Worker shortage?

[tn1911]

Well where is everyone e getting money to live?
.

You honestly think these folks aren’t working?

They are they took warehouse jobs that are now paying $17+ hr. They took entry level manufacturing jobs that had no choice but to up their starting pay to complete with Amazon et al...

And I’m just using Amazon as a general example of a wide swath of businesses that quickly adjusted pay to grab people.

These low paying jobs that once had a pool of people to pick from have two choices, go out of business or adjust their business model to accept lower profit margins in order to pay competitive wages.

No one wants to work... yeah, ok... no one wants to work shit jobs for shit pay when big box warehouse or gorilla manufacturing is hiring folks at nearly twice the pay.

People are gonna eat, people are gonna put some kind of roof over their heads. The idea these people just magically stopped working and all live on grandmas couch is laughable at best.

[Coal Dragger]

Agreed.

Employers, especially large ones, still want to operate like it’s 2009 and they can fire at will, treat employees like shit, pay people peanuts, and easily replace anyone who won’t play by their rules.

That ship sailed. Not only due to economic conditions like a tight labor market, but also because Gen-X, Millenials, and whatever we call the newest generation are sick of getting shit on by the people we work for.

[AKDoug]

As a small business that treats it's employees well, we aren't having any real issues hiring people. The market for class A CDL drivers is really tight, so we're just training up guys from within the company.

[Todd.K]

The idea these people just magically stopped working and all live on grandmas couch is laughable at best.

I say the data disagrees.

https://www.bls.gov/charts/employmen...ation-rate.htm

The USA has become fat and lazy, and too few parents and grandparents are willing to kick their kids out of the basement.

[SteyrAUG]

I am not convinced that everyone is hiring, and no one is applying.
Somone tries to get a job at a bank, gets a recruiter interview but recruiter never calls at appointment time, weird. Burger king knows it can close the dining area (learned convieniently from covid) and operate with only drive thru and cook.
Any business can give crappy service with minimal staff and help wanted signs, under the guise that no one is applying.
Why? Expecting superinflation and trying to keep pricing under control while maintaining training profit.
Service industries like restaurants will hire but collapse the hours of operation, but ARE staffed.
You telling me people will serve food but UPS can't find people?

Spider sense tingling

So problems on both sides. They are still paying for all that square footage of dining area and every time they close the doors and run a drive through only setup, they lose customers. Most people on a lunch break don't want to eat in the car and they don't want to bring take out back to the office.

If you think any fast food / sandwich shop is winning anything by running a skeleton crew and drive up window only when they have a full service dining area available, then you've never run a business like that. I have a lot of friends who owned a local franchise or mom and pop who absolutely didn't survive the Covid "drive through ONLY" restrictions even though they had been in business for 20 years.

Nobody WANTS to run that business model.

[BangBang77]

OP - your Spidey sense is whack...

No grand conspiracy on the part of businesses or corporate America. We literally can't hire people to fill positions at every level, from entry level production to management to engineering to directors, etc.

If you can fill a hole, it's typically with a crackhead.

[utahjeepr]

We try to treat people well, they are valuable investments. Our core people tend to stick. Its getting folks in the door to grow that is proving impossible. They quit and go back to significantly lower paying jobs cause the trades are "too hard, too dirty, too hot, too cold,...) That or the "whatever in training" quits after a week cause he "knows the job" and gets hired as an "experienced whatever" for more money (which he/she would deserve IF he/she was actually experienced and competent) by a soon to be disappointed new employer.

Meh, part of the cycle. It's tough now, but labor markets move like the tide. Do your best now, then when it shifts try to take advantage and add quality hires to the team. I actually feel bad for the good core folks cause in this market it's hard to keep them compensated fairly and not be hiring lesser workers for more money.

[Dusty T]

You honestly think these folks aren’t working?

They are they took warehouse jobs that are now paying $17+ hr. They took entry level manufacturing jobs that had no choice but to up their starting pay to complete with Amazon et al...

And I’m just using Amazon as a general example of a wide swath of businesses that quickly adjusted pay to grab people.

These low paying jobs that once had a pool of people to pick from have two choices, go out of business or adjust their business model to accept lower profit margins in order to pay competitive wages.

No one wants to work... yeah, ok... no one wants to work shit jobs for shit pay when big box warehouse or gorilla manufacturing is hiring folks at nearly twice the pay.

People are gonna eat, people are gonna put some kind of roof over their heads. The idea these people just magically stopped working and all live on grandmas couch is laughable at best.

Many took early retirement, one of the easiest examples is the field I work in, aviation. When the mandatory vax stipulations came pilots fled the airlines so fast the doors are still swinging. Pilots that had say 20 years in and would have happily worked until mandatory retirement said "to hell with this" and took retirement. I fly EMS so I have seen/heard the medical side of it as well from my coworkers, massive labor shortages and very few people wanting to fill in the empty slots no matter how much money is being offered

As for grasping at the low hanging fruit... blaming "low wages". Well thats pretty much been disproven with reality. Yes there is massive inflation but that is in large part driving by INCREASING wages trying to attract people. Entry level grunt work HAS massively increased wages/benefits yet they still aren't getting people in, and the few that do don't want to work. Local to me one can walk into Walmart and be working the floor the next day at $16/hr with benefits including insurance, profit sharing, etc. That is about 50% hire wage than five years ago. Show up every day and do the bare minimum that same worker can in less than a year be earning $22/hr. No skills, no education, not even a clean UA needed.

[Twilk73]

The auto tech trade is so bad I’ve had employers try to poach me. Fortunately for my current employer of 11 years he’s always taken great care of me so I’m sticking it out with him. I had a really good offer at a close by location that I told him about which in turn got me a raise. Getting a competent tech that is a great worker is hard to come by even when the pay is good.

Closing a dining area to cut down on workers isn’t happening. I don’t know if Burger King was just an example or what but my Burger King has the dinning open. It’s the only fast food joint in town that seems to keep employees and is efficient.

[SteyrAUG]

You honestly think these folks aren’t working?

They are they took warehouse jobs that are now paying $17+ hr. They took entry level manufacturing jobs that had no choice but to up their starting pay to complete with Amazon et al...

And I’m just using Amazon as a general example of a wide swath of businesses that quickly adjusted pay to grab people.

These low paying jobs that once had a pool of people to pick from have two choices, go out of business or adjust their business model to accept lower profit margins in order to pay competitive wages.

No one wants to work... yeah, ok... no one wants to work shit jobs for shit pay when big box warehouse or gorilla manufacturing is hiring folks at nearly twice the pay.

People are gonna eat, people are gonna put some kind of roof over their heads. The idea these people just magically stopped working and all live on grandmas couch is laughable at best.

BINGO. The local Taco Johns in IOWA is paying $14 and hour to start, and that is just for folding tacos.