Where are the workers?

[TPOKE]

http://www.nysun.com/national/where-are-the-workers-government-id-destroying/89209/

Party politics aside, I have to agree with this. People just don't want to work anymore, especially if it's hard work. Being in the construction industry, finding people who want to earn $14/hr, starting, with incentives (profit sharing, bonuses and bad weather pay) is tough. $35K out of high school isn't a bad gig, but, it's hard work.

 

[07pilt]

http://www.nysun.com/national/where-are-the-workers-government-id-destroying/89209/

Party politics aside, I have to agree with this. People just don't want to work anymore, especially if it's hard work. Being in the construction industry, finding people who want to earn $14/hr, starting, with incentives (profit sharing, bonuses and bad weather pay) is tough. $35K out of high school isn't a bad gig, but, it's hard work.

Intellectually dishonest article completely neglects the fact that people are aging out of the workforce, and also fails to mention that the reason many that are 16+ aren't in the workforce is because they are pursuing education.

 

[squeak]

Being in the construction industry, finding people who want to earn $14/hr, starting, with incentives (profit sharing, bonuses and bad weather pay) is tough.

Maybe if the market wasn't flooded with illegals the gong rate would be $20/hour?

 

[windriverrange]

Just read an AP article review by a lady at Breitbart, that said there were 93+ million American's have quit looking for work, in an economy, that managed to create one job for every two immigrants the government has let in from 2000 - 2014. All the US job growth goes to foreigners at the expense of Americans and many see their wages suppressed year after year, it makes sense that many would quit looking. Others would take less than ideal jobs to make ends meet.
Few examples;
Southern California Edison saved $16 million annually by using Indian workers at ~$40,000 less than 400 American workers employed.
Obysmalcare also has hurt in that it created numerous part-time jobs with the proscription that anyone over 30 hours per-week must be fully covered. So guess what, you get fewer full time workers and full-time slots (the article said it forced at least 3.3 million Americans to work less than 30 hours per week).

Love the quote in the article Katie McHugh wrote "You must remember that if low wages, long hours of employment and unbearable working conditions are signs of prosperity China and India would be the greatest commercial and industrial countries in the world."

TPOKE, I agree there are some people who don't want to work hard though..have done so many different jobs in my life not sure could remember all of them, but the two I most disliked was roofing and bricklayers helper. Dam hard work and pay not so great, but the reality is that I would do what needs to be done to NOT accept money from the dam government to support myself, wife and dogs. I think its a totally different world now and being taught "work ethics" and "self-sufficiency" are not high on the list anymore for a lot of people. Who knows maybe that has something to do with family breakdowns. To this day I remember my dad saying "never get your ass fired from a job," if you don't like what you do find something else, because it will be obvious to those around you that you don't like your job and you will eventually get fired or conveniently laid off.

 

[07pilt]

Just read an AP article review by a lady at Breitbart, that said there were 93+ million American's have quit looking for work.

Why do you keep reading people who have so little regard for your intelligence that they don't even bother telling plausible lies?

 

[MegaPoke]

Why do you keep reading people who have so little regard for your intelligence that they don't even bother telling plausible lies?

 

[TPOKE]

Intellectually dishonest article completely neglects the fact that people are aging out of the workforce, and also fails to mention that the reason many that are 16+ aren't in the workforce is because they are pursuing education.

Actually, college enrollment has declined the last 2 years.

 

[07pilt]

Actually, college enrollment has declined the last 2 years.

by a whopping 2.3 percent over 2 years. A trend that is once again explained by demographics:http://statchatva.org/2014/10/02/the-demographics-of-declining-college-enrollment/

 

[HighStickHarry]

I have worked in both a corporate office and in the blue collar field in the past five years. No one wants to work regardless of the field.

There is no drive to impress the boss and get ahead. Without direct supervision there is a mentality to see how much one can get away with.

 

[davidallen]

I'm confused... you want the government to constrain the supply side of the labor market to push up wages for people who can't be bothered to get out and hussle to prove themselves worthy? Which board am I on again? Is my 26 year old behind Windys keyboard?

Talk about socialism - lets work real hard to manipulate the supply side of the labor market and in the process deny the US the advantage that comes from welcoming the best and the brightest in the world to bring their innovations to our economy.

 

[windriverrange]

Yes by all means lets exploit foreign workers at wages way way way below what their American counterparts were previously paid and get rid of American workers (notice this will never happen to the government union slugs though)....and for that I can get a geometry teacher who barely can be understood, or possibly someday even a doctor who went to med school online in Grenada.
Your back to blowhard status DA. What an absurd statement to say that this phenomenon is based on American workers not getting out and hustling "to prove themselves worthy," this is based on exploiting cheaper labor, period. To hell with Americans, after all they were just born here or legally immigrated and need to be replaced as they don't hustle, care or prove themselves worthy.....
He'll let's just disband the US and let all the brightest come in and innovate.....

 

[davidallen]

Which labor is that you perceive as cheaper? You got any evidence to back that up? I'll take an anecdote if that is all you have. Do you hire tech workers? MDs? Just curious how broad a brush you are painting with.

Is this the wage deflation you are alluding to?

First hand I can attest to the educational capabilities and work ethic of foreign nationals here on a H1B being on par if not superior to our native born American hires. I can also attest to wage parity between what we pay either - in fact the market to repatriate the really good foreign born engineers is so high that we have had to move above market to keep good talent.

I work with a professional services company trying to make a go with US only outsourcing - their issue is not cost rate on US hires - it is depth and breadth of talent. We compete with companies that hire students to an 18 month educational program that builds upon the degrees they received in university - US companies can't or won't invest in that kind of extended training program.

My quote about not hustling was more poking at the basic premise of the thread. I don't actually find that to be the case in the area I work - I will say though that too many American educated engineers are one to two years behind some of the foreign competition walking in the door, not for lack of desire but for lack of focus early on in their educational careers...

 

[davidallen]

Southern California Edison saved $16 million annually by using Indian workers at ~$40,000 less than 400 American workers employed.

When you have 3000 IT workers who can be replaced with half that number - 60% of which will be sitting in Bangalore - then yeah you can achieve $40k per year savings on labor costs. Welcome to the global economy. I am quite willing to bet that SCE will deliver as many if not more projects to the business in the new model as they did in the old model - again with half the the head count.

For those displaced at SCE - I truly feel the pain, but you were part of one of the most inefficient IT operations in the utility industry. Not your fault? Probably true, but should rate payers and shareholders shoulder the blame for that inefficiency? Tata is hiring US resources daily, join them. InfoSys has 1000 US based openings posted on their website - go apply. Don't want to travel? Don't have the current skills to land one of those jobs? Reconsider if this is the industry you should be in, get trained.

No one promised anyone a job for life. If you don't keep your skills current, if you aren't as flexible or productive as the next guy then you are at risk. A fact of life...

Enough rant, but damn this poor pitiful victim of outsourcing thing gets my blood boiling.

 

[NeekReevers]

I'm just always amazed that people seem to think that outsourcing of jobs isn't a big deal and we'll just magically replace them with higher paying jobs. That's great in the classroom but doesn't really hold water in rural Oklahoma. Tax code isn't the only reason for the decline of the middle class. The simple truth is you used to be able to work a trade or skilled labor and earn enough to keep your family in the middle class, not true anymore. Our country is and will continue to for the foreseeable future pay the price for allowing SE Asia to operate under a different set of rules than the rest of the world. Unfortunately the lions share of this burden will be shouldered, as usual, by the American working class.

 

[windriverrange]

Neek and notice, unlike others, that these Americans aren't being replaced by equally qualified and skilled western Europeans at the same wage (which shows the whole notion this is about innovation etc is BS) but they are being replaced by SE Asians at cut-rate bargain basement wages. Its about exploitation and profit pure and simple, in return some family back in BFE gets remittance money that is not spent in the US like it would be by an American worker. Double loss in my opinion.

 

[davidallen]

Windy, you have no idea where the work is delivered from at SCE. A portion is delivered by white guys born in the US, some from a Canadian center, a very small sliver from Mexico, the bulk from India, and finally some ops support from Europe. You have this conception of what outsourcing means/is - it is much more than cheap labor. It is streamlined processes, economies of scale, aggressive education/training, and the like.

If a business can deliver the same work using a mix of resources from India, Ukraine, and say China at half the price with the vendor taking risk for quality and schedule are you suggesting that they shouldn't so you can keep your fantasy of what it means to be a middle class information worker in the US? There is no magic to replacing jobs lost when this occurs, it takes education, focused economic development, and hard work by the displaced AND the society they live in. The pressure to keep the work force well trained and competitive on a global scale is good in the meta sense, but only if you have the where with all to make the investments. Louisiana does. Oklahoma does not. Washington state does. Oregon not so much.