Great “Help Wanted” sign

You have companies like Honda, which at the Accord plant, has some company employees and temp employees. Use to be that you could be a really good temp that never missed a day or showed up late, and Honda would hire someone off the street at several more dollars an hour because they passed a math test which somehow makes you qualified to be a factory worker sight unseen. If a temp was lucky, they might let him/her take the math test after eons of working their and if they failed, tough luck Charlie, despite already proving yourself.
 
When I was a contractor, most of these were true of the workers, especially after pay day. Even if late sometimes I was happy if they just showed up in a reasonable amount of time. I would of course not pay then for the time they weren't there but that's not enough of an incentive
 
Mike Rowe is a genius. Not only are there skills mismatches because of colleges convincing people to spend $300k on a liberal arts degree, they’ve also cut out nearly all the trades & manual labor training prior to kids joining the workforce. On top of that, people are lazy and don’t want to learn new skills. That doesn’t mean an employer should be forced to overpay people who don’t want to be trained; the best way to get the job you want is to excel at the job you have while learning the skills required for the new one. It’s retarded to think that with all the technology today that you can hope to do a poor job at sweeping floors or not follow simple instructions and make more money than many industry engineers did 30 years ago.

 
Why can't they attract anyone better, though? :unsure:

The employer isn't worth a pinch of salt.
Probably because he didn't offer a personal secretary, a nice office at the end of the hall, a noon massage, part ownership and a company vehicle to all new hires. I forgot, free lunches.
 
I have said this before on this board. There aren't enough people of an age that will work for low pay. This is the demographic at the bottom of this chart. Note how much smaller it is than the boomers (circled top) and millennials (circled second from the top). There aren't enough kids under 25 around. Period. https://www.populationpyramid.net/united-states-of-america/2022/

So were 5-10% short, which is a lot and means that employers get to fight for that last 5-10%. The crappy employers loose, like they should. My kids have worked for some of these. They don't deserve to stay in business.

Mike Rowe is Shilling to you. He is telling you what you want to hear - that no one wants to work. That's not really true. How many people on this very board have complained about how much something costs to have done these days. The fact is, these people - unlike you did when young - have their choice of employ. And after watching companies treat their parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents like trash for the last 20 years, why on earth would they ever be loyal to a crappy employer.

As for automation - I have been helping automate factories for 3 decades. You can automate some things, but you pay up front, require a fairly technical staff to keep it maintained, and if your process changes you get to pay a lot of money to change it over. Only way automation happens is if a big company with deep pockets does it. Then they will take over an industry and raise prices. Oil filter industry consolidation is the perfect example of that - so be careful what you wish for.

Also FWIW - look at the chart at the bottom again. This will get worse, not better.

1673175817343.jpg
 
I have said this before on this board. There aren't enough people of an age that will work for low pay. This is the demographic at the bottom of this chart. Note how much smaller it is than the boomers (circled top) and millennials (circled second from the top). There aren't enough kids under 25 around. Period. https://www.populationpyramid.net/united-states-of-america/2022/

So were 5-10% short, which is a lot and means that employers get to fight for that last 5-10%. The crappy employers loose, like they should. My kids have worked for some of these. They don't deserve to stay in business.

Mike Rowe is Shilling to you. He is telling you what you want to hear - that no one wants to work. That's not really true. How many people on this very board have complained about how much something costs to have done these days. The fact is, these people - unlike you did when young - have their choice of employ. And after watching companies treat their parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents like trash for the last 20 years, why on earth would they ever be loyal to a crappy employer.

As for automation - I have been helping automate factories for 3 decades. You can automate some things, but you pay up front, require a fairly technical staff to keep it maintained, and if your process changes you get to pay a lot of money to change it over. Only way automation happens is if a big company with deep pockets does it. Then they will take over an industry and raise prices. Oil filter industry consolidation is the perfect example of that - so be careful what you wish for.

Also FWIW - look at the chart at the bottom again. This will get worse, not better.

View attachment 134531
You obviously haven’t ever watched Mike Rowe, or read about what he does. I’ll leave that part at that.

I heard a good gut-punch for all the kids and fresh college graduates who think they deserve more pay, more benefits, more everything….

“Grave digging is the only job where you start working at the top.”
 
You obviously haven’t ever watched Mike Rowe, or read about what he does. I’ll leave that part at that.

I heard a good gut-punch for all the kids and fresh college graduates who think they deserve more pay, more benefits, more everything….

“Grave digging is the only job where you start working at the top.”
Believe what you want, won't change the facts.

I like Mike Rowes shows - the dirty jobs are fun to watch - but his stick is too many kids in college. Do you know college enrollment is down 10% since 2010? Bet old shill mike didn't tell you that. Its not that there are less people enrolling in the trades or just taking dirty jobs. There are just less people. https://educationdata.org/college-enrollment-statistics

FWIW I have no horse in the race - just presenting data. I have done lots of dirty jobs when I was young. shop helper, oil field service helper, agriculture, construction. My kids have had some lousy jobs. Both girls, both taking Engineering, one graduating this year. No, they won't start at the top, but I am guessing they won't start at the bottom either, they are done with those jobs also. I prefer to do most jobs myself, so the fact that someone can't find help doesn't affect me all that much. Some day I will be too old to do it, so I guess then it might.

Just trying to share information, rather than listening to TV personalities that aren't dealing in facts. Complaining about it won't solve any problems.
 
I have been retired 4 years. The new guys starting in engineering made 65k starting with three weeks vacation and great medical and 6 percent matching 401 k. The guys we got were on their phones all day and had no interest in working or learning anything. The older guys showed up 5 min early and worked hard all day. I got the hardest jobs when I worked because the jobs were done right and on time.
 
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