I first became aware of worker shortages in the Midwest earlier this summer when I was visiting the Minnesota north woods - an area whose economy is heavily dependent on tourist trade to fishing resorts. Owners of those resorts rely heavily on immigrant labor for what amounts to seasonal employment. The positions do not require skilled labor - waiting tables in restaurants, cleaning cabins, servicing the docks. Few Americans want such jobs for a six-month period, but lots of students in Scandinavia for example are (were) glad to come to northern Minnesota for a modestly-paying job in a pleasant and familiar environment. When immigration controls were tightened, many employers found such applicants less available.
The Wisconsin State Journal is now running a feature series entitled Workers Wanted: Wisconsin's Looming Crisis. Herewith some excerpts...
Employers from a broad range of industries are reporting difficulty finding workers — and not only for skilled professionals such as nurses, welders and computer programmers, who require a strong education and training system, but also for workers with a high school diploma and some additional training at restaurants, farms, construction sites, factories, senior care facilities, retailers and other businesses...Much more at the links.
There are already many state and regional efforts afoot to address the problem, though much of the focus has been on a "skills gap" — the shortage of workers for the advanced-skill jobs of the future that often require years of technical training — even as employers and economic development officials grapple with a much broader people shortage...
Wisconsin's 3.2 percent unemployment rate in July is near a record low and down from a peak of 9.2 percent in January 2010. That's well below what economists consider to be "full employment" — the level at which everyone who is willing and able to work is employed, or about 4 or 5 percent...
Wisconsin also has an aging workforce. Between 2010 and 2025, the 65-and-older population is expected to have increased by two-thirds, while the working-age population is expected to remain flat... The baby boomer retirement has been on the horizon for more than a decade, but the recession delayed some of its impact as older workers stayed in the workforce...
When employers say they can't find workers, what they often mean is they can't find workers willing to work at the wages and benefits offered... More than half (51 percent) of the jobs that listed a low-end wage listed hourly pay levels below the United Way's survival wage for a single person. Even among the jobs that listed a top pay range, 16 percent were below the survival wage...
Many employers around the state express frustration about the quality of the available workforce. They complain about new hires lacking minimal "employability" traits such as showing up for work on time, dressing appropriately and basic communication. Some describe applicants who won't return phone calls yet continue to apply for jobs elsewhere, possibly to fulfill the state's new requirements for receiving unemployment benefits...
Other factors contributing to the worker shortage in Wisconsin may include national immigration policy — though the national immigrant workforce has continued to grow steadily — rising incarceration rates, the growing opiate drug epidemic and a geographic mismatch in where workers and jobs are located, particularly between Milwaukee and its suburbs.
Low-income workers might lack access to transportation and child care, making it harder to work or receive training. In some cases the potential loss of public benefits or garnished child support payments make working for $10 to $12 an hour less appealing...
To milk his 70 cows he’s employed a few part- and full-time workers over the years. But hiring has become more challenging — there has been some decline in available immigrant labor and young workers too often spend time fixated on their phones, De Buhr said... In the past few years he raised hourly wages from $8 to $10 an hour, but workers are asking for as much as $14 an hour now, a sign of the tight labor market and the economic reality of how difficult it is to live on less... So in April, De Buhr cut out the need for two workers entirely by paying $200,000 for a robotic milker.. “It’s milking 24/7 and I don’t have to worry about somebody not showing up,” De Buhr said. “You can mess a herd of cows up in a big hurry if they’re not milked in a timely manner.”..
He worries if nursing homes can’t find quality workers “more and more seniors are going to be turned away from assisted living.” “I hate to say it, but you’re hiring the best of the worst,” Ammons said. “The cream of the crop are genuinely taken. No matter who walks through your door there’s one eye open about: ‘Why are you not working?’”
Related: "An Ohio factory owner said Saturday that though she has blue-collar jobs available at her company, she struggles to fill positions because so many candidates fail drug tests.
Regina Mitchell, a co-owner of Warren Fabricating & Machining in Hubbard, Ohio, told The New York Times this
week that four out of 10 applicants otherwise qualified to be welders, machinists and crane operators will fail a routine drug test... "We have a 150-ton crane in our machine shop. And we're moving 300,000
pounds of steel around in that building on a regular basis. So I cannot
take the chance to have anyone impaired running that crane, or working
40 feet in the air." [according to the NYT, she solved the problem by taking unqualified people and training them]
Photo credit: John Hart, State Journal.
"When employers say they can't find workers, what they often mean is they can't find workers willing to work at the wages and benefits offered... More than half (51 percent) of the jobs that listed a low-end wage listed hourly pay levels below the United Way's survival wage for a single person. Even among the jobs that listed a top pay range, 16 percent were below the survival wage...
ReplyDeleteMany employers around the state express frustration about the quality of the available workforce. They complain about new hires lacking minimal "employability" traits such as showing up for work on time, dressing appropriately and basic communication. Some describe applicants who won't return phone calls yet continue to apply for jobs elsewhere, possibly to fulfill the state's new requirements for receiving unemployment benefits..."
A couple thoughts here:
1. How would a business know that people are continuing to apply to other jobs to game unemployment? This seems apocryphal in the vein of "welfare queens".
2. The combination of "this job doesn't pay a living wage" and "why can't I find someone who dresses professionally and acts professionally" are almost certainly combined. It's hilarious to expect cut rate seasonal employees to be cream of the crop. The people who are professional and in demand aren't going to work cleaning a dock for half a year.
Ugh, the attitude of 'people should be grateful to me for giving them a job' coming from these employers stinks. They need to try it the other way around - try asking what they need to do to create a working environment that will attract quality employees. They probably need to start with the realization that the minimum wage isn't a living wage any more.
ReplyDeletehahaha imagine how many people they'd have left if they tested for alcohol instead of "drugs"? if they started allowing people who tested positive for THC they might have a better chance. just because you smoke doesn't mean you come to work high, but drunk? come on! it's wisconsin, of course they're drunk.
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing wrong in bringing in more legal immigrants (ie seasonal work permits). The whole debate is about documenting who is in our country. Once they are documented and allowed to work here send the documented migrant workers to states that have an unemployment rate of 3.9% or lower. That's 25 states. Anything 4.0% or higher, you can let Americans compete for those jobs. And if people think people are gaming the system for unemployment benefits, then states should cut off unemployment benefits who have an unemployment rate of 3.8% or lower. Because people not on drugs can obviously find jobs in those states.
ReplyDeleteCommon thread on the machining world: places that are hiring say they can't get experienced applicants. I know a dozen machinists that had no trouble getting well paid jobs...in other fields. Quoting one of them: "I can't justify applying for a job that wants 10-15 years experience but pays a poverty wage."
ReplyDeleteI can't blame either side, exactly. The shops can pay to get parts from overseas, pay for automation, or pay a skilled worker. They know their risk is higher with the two former approaches but it's hard for them to justify paying double or triple for the latter. The machinists? They're smart folks that need to make a living and can work in other fields.
Off course, this was entirely predictable. And America just voted to make it worse.
ReplyDeleteAmerica voted to make immigration harder, leading to a smaller applicant pool.
America voted to strip worker rights, lowering wages.
America voted to keep the minimum wage low, keeping low-paid work below poverty level.
America voted to take away health care from people, increasing the drug epidemic.
America voted to destroy public education, keeping low-skilled workers low-skilled.
Well done America!
Many seasonal jobs used to be filled by high-school kids working full-time in the summer and part-time on weekends throughout the school year. In this way young people learned "employability" as well as how to wait on people and how to use a cash register, etc. But the wages for these jobs are so low that kids aren't encouraged to take those jobs anymore, partly because employers began hiring illegal immigrants (grown people) to do those jobs for many reasons. A) they'll work all the hours you want and will not complain about the work environment, B) they will not try to join or form a labor union, C) they won't ask for a raise, D) if the employer pays them in cash, there is no paperwork to send to the government, E) the employer doesn't have to match the Social Security payments and thus saves even more money. These people have done it to themselves.
ReplyDeleteRemember, if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys!
[according to the NYT, she solved the problem by taking unqualified people and training them]
ReplyDeleteThat was once the way most jobs worked.