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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.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Geezer on Saturday July 15 2017, @10:57PM (3 children)
I have cancer. The fuckwit's post dismissed my disability as triggered medical stat gaming. Understand now???
(Score: 1) by pdfernhout on Saturday July 15 2017, @11:27PM (2 children)
https://www.drfuhrman.com/learn/health-concerns/26/cancer [drfuhrman.com]
http://theiodineproject.webs.com/cancerandiodine.htm [webs.com]
http://www.prevention.com/health/health-concerns/breaking-news-measles-vaccine-cures-woman-cancer [prevention.com]
https://www.yahoo.com/news/move-over-chemotherapy-personalized-anti-205040586.html [yahoo.com]
https://www.vitamindcouncil.org/health-conditions/leukemia/ [vitamindcouncil.org]
https://thetruthaboutcancer.com/video-benefits-of-intermittent-fasting-cancer-patients/ [thetruthaboutcancer.com]
http://www.chrisbeatcancer.com/dr-gonzalez-dismantles-ketogenic-diet-for-cancer/ [chrisbeatcancer.com]
http://www.chrisbeatcancer.com/category/natural-survivor-stories/ [chrisbeatcancer.com]
Bottom line: almost everyone over age 40 has soem degree of "cancer" in terms of cells gone rogue -- the question is, are our immune systems keeping those problem cells in check? And there are many ways to boost the immune system.
Good luck in making the most of the time you have. Good luck also in making sense of so much conflicting information given so much monetary conflict-of-interest among advice givers who profit from providing treatments.
The biggest challenge of the 21st century: the irony of technologies of abundance used by scarcity-minded people.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 16 2017, @10:41AM
With all respect, stage four cancer is not "some degree...of cells gone rogue". It is the most severe classification in terms of the size of tumours and their spread. Yes, we can all find a miraculous case somewhere in the news of someone who used some or other thing. It only made the news because it was a rare event and lots of other people who didn't make the news tried the same thing. The biggest profiteering fraud is not from orthodox treatments (which I would personally do without in most cases) but from alternative "medicines" which claim to "boost the immune system" or some such thing. Experimental treatments, on the other hand, are experimental precisely because they aren't proven to work. Instead of offering advice on treatment neither of us are frankly qualified to give, let's you and I offer our sincere sympathy to Geezer if he wants to talk about it while leaving the rest to his doctors. (I hope I didn't make you negative when explaining. Not all cases have an equal prognosis, of course. And I do wish you the best of them.)
(Score: 1) by purple_cobra on Monday July 17 2017, @05:26PM
To clarify in the most basic terms possible, there are four possible stages used to classify a cancer and stage 4 is the most severe. Might be worth reading up on cancer staging in articles by oncologists before making such a sweeping generalisation. Having lost my partner a few short months after her diagnosis with a stage 4 cancer, I have to say that it is not something I'd wish on my worst enemy.
Good luck to you, Geezer. I hope the dice roll your way.