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posted by martyb on Saturday July 15 2017, @03:29PM   Printer-friendly
from the Stockholm-Syndrome dept.

I saw an story in Slate about stagnant wages in an economy that is growing otherwise:

There's a disturbance in the force of the U.S. economy. An airline canceled flights because it couldn't find enough pilots to steer them. Despite high demand, homebuilders in Colorado are throttling back activity because they can't find the workers to erect frames. Farmers in Alabama are fretting that crops may rot in the ground for a lack of workers to bring in the harvest.

[...] There are a whopping 5.7 million job openings (well over twice the level of eight years ago). Meanwhile, baby boomers are aging out of the workforce at a rapid clip and Mexicans, many of whom crossed the border to work, have been leaving the U.S. for years. The demand for workers is high.

Given these conditions, wages should be rising sharply. But look at this chart from the Atlanta Federal Reserve: They haven't been, and they're not. … Last week, the New York Times featured a Columbus, Ohio, cleaning company owner mystified that he couldn't find applicants for his $9.25-per-hour jobs ("I sometimes wish there was actually a higher unemployment rate," he actually said) and a Nebraska roofer who couldn't figure out why nobody applied for the $17-an-hour jobs she was offering. "The pay is fair," she said.

Actually, if not a single person applies for your job, the pay probably isn't fair. But that's where America remains stubbornly stuck: Employers won't pay enough, and workers either won't or can't demand more. There are likely a lot of reasons, but the biggest, or least most fixable, may be psychological: From an economic perspective, both sides of the hiring market should have the power to increase overall wages in the current climate—but they aren't.

[...] There could be a skills gap in which the workers out there simply don't have the training necessary to fill the open jobs. Or it could be that, as Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times ventured on Twitter, that "a lot of American businesses have lost the muscle memory of how to compete for workers." That is to say, they have literally forgotten the words to use, and the tools to deploy, when workers aren't lining up in droves to fill their positions.

I also found this in the Daily Caller. It discusses the shortage of H2B workers this year. Most folks here know about H1B workers... H2B is program for low skill seasonal workers which has seen rule changes and cuts this year.

Businesses in Bar Harbor, Maine are turning to locals to make up for a shortage of foreign guest workers that normally fill summer jobs in the bustling seaside resort town.
Because the H-2B visa program has already reached its annual quota, Bar Harbor's hotels, restaurants and shops can't bring in any more foreign workers for the rest of the busy summer tourist season.

[...] The shortage is so acute that companies are sweetening incentives for local workers. Searchfield says some businesses are offering flexible schedules that might appeal to older workers who might be interested in working only a day or two each week. And other companies have gone so far as to offer higher wages to entice locals.

Imagine that.


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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 15 2017, @08:11PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 15 2017, @08:11PM (#539638)

    ...and just plain assholes.

    ...and, in so many cases, when they say "job", they're NOT talking about fulltime employment; they're talking about "The Gig Economy".

    Regarding the cleaning company mention in TFS, for those who don't like giving NYT pagehits, I read about that in another place:

    Jobs You Can't Afford to Take [counterpunch.org]

    He is looking to add two or three part-time workers to his 20-member staff.
    [...]
    1) Thompson is looking for multiple part-timers, rather than full-time. Sounds like someone doesn't want to pay benefits like Obamacare, Workman's Comp and unemployment.
    [...]
    that's $12,987 [Annual Gross Income for his hires]
    [...]
    2) The job is being a janitor--cleaning offices after hours. So it's very likely that his workers don't even get 20 hours. A lot of these places have people working Monday through Friday, three to four hours a night.
    [...]
    3) Needless to say, these hours mean forget about seeing a spouse who works--or your kids. But, more importantly, the schedule Thompson requires means that employees can't take any other job.
    [...]
    4) Did I say five-page job application? Why yes, I did. Among other things, it warns you that if you don't "provide legible, complete and accurate answers to all application and interview questions", you won't be hired.

    (Question: Why does he require an educational history--including "Major / Subjects studied"--in order to hire a fucking janitor?)

    5) The application requires giving consent to do a full background check and a pre-employment drug screen. Since the job sends people into the offices of companies that might have cash--and certainly have valuables--this is necessary for bonding and insurance. But it also tells the applicant the following things:

    * Even if we decide to hire you, you won't start for at least 10 days (that's how long background screens and drug tests normally take to process).

    * You will have to drive to the lab where you're going to be screened. You might (depending on the background service) have to drive to their office for photographs, fingerprints--and sometimes lie detector tests or DNA screens.

    * The five page personal history, employment history and educational history are a complete waste of time. We're going to get the information from somebody else--and if there are any discrepancies between what you wrote and what it says, we'll assume you are lying, not that the service screwed up.

    6) There's going to be a lot of driving--all of it unpaid. Responsibility #12 requires you to "be able to use very reliable transportation to report to specified work locations when scheduled or with little notice."

    Translation: He doesn't have vans to take people to jobs (meaning you just have to figure out a way to get to company HQ). You have to go wherever he schedules you on your own. The company is in Columbus, but you might be working anywhere in Franklin County--or maybe in Delaware, Fairfield, Licking, Madison, Pickaway or Union County.

    You have to cover your car payment, insurance, fuel and repairs out of that $8,417.50 (before taxes) per year. Even the New York Times article admits this is ridiculous; it quotes a VP at Manpower (a temp service that treats people only a tad better than a sweatshop) as saying "You can't have a car on $10 an hour."

    Thompson is offering $9.25.

    7) If the travel isn't bad enough, Thompson adds two other onerous requirements for people struggling to survive:

    * "Must have an active personal phone number at all times." Meaning, he wants to be able to call you at any time and tell you "Don't go there--go here." So that's $20 a month for cell service.

    * "Direct deposit of paycheck is required." Many unskilled labor services--face it, Mr. Thompson, that's what this is--pay in cash or check--often on a daily basis. Also, 30% of low-income workers don't have bank accounts--they can't afford the fees.

    I'm guessing Thompson is just clueless. His employment application is a PDF; he wants applicants--who almost certainly have access to the internet only on their phone (if at all) to download and print it, then either fax, email, or mail it back.

    8) But wait, there's more. Rule #8 says "wear appropriate uniform and personal protective equipment". He doesn't say who pays for the clothing--when the employer doesn't say, it usually means the employee.

    Rule #10 says workers have to "Attend and participate in meetings or training as requested by the Team Lead, Supervisor, or President." You might think this time would be paid. You would be wrong. In 2014, the "Dread Pirate" Robert Court ruled that employers don't have to pay you for time they require.

    Oh, and the job requires using "equipment such as wearing a 12 lbs. backpack vacuum, upright vacuum, floor machines, carpet extractors, or autoscrubber, etc." and lifting 50 pounds.

    Thompson wonders why nobody shows up. I certainly don't.

    -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Saturday July 15 2017, @09:42PM

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Saturday July 15 2017, @09:42PM (#539661) Journal

    "(Question: Why does he require an educational history--including "Major / Subjects studied"--in order to hire a fucking janitor?)"

    Maybe the same reason that larger employers require some very specific education? So they can reject any application they don't like. For instance, "nationality". If you're not an Indian H*b then you're fucked. In this specific case, the employer may be a racist, and he's going to use lack of education to block any black males, especially if they use ghetto-speak gangsta-talk. There are jobs that do require some specific levels of education, sure, but there really aren't that many of them. Janitor services are most certainly not one of those jobs.

  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by kaszz on Sunday July 16 2017, @12:14AM

    by kaszz (4211) on Sunday July 16 2017, @12:14AM (#539703) Journal

    If you pay someone more than X per year, you have to pay 12 987 US$/year in addition for Obamacare?

    Anyway, this seems to be the costs as outline by OriginalOwner:
      * Time for five-page job application.
      * Time for meetings or training.
      * Travel (by car?) for interview and drug screening.
      * Little notice = other activities can't be planned.
      * Car loans, insurance, fuel and repairs.
      * Cell service 20 US$/month.
      * Bank account fees.
      * Maintenance for a desktop PC + printer to deal with PDF retrieval and return.
      * Personal protective equipment.
      * Heavy equipment carrying risks for future backpain and thus medical cost and sickleave.

    I don't know what the specific costs would be. But it sounds darn expensive to work. Normal business is done to make a profit and not charity. So what they are looking for really is a charity to help their profit making business. They are not even looking for slaves because such people can't take on debt etc.