What I’ve been saying about the Labor Shortage all along

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

Its bad aint it. When I took the ASVAB I smashed it and I am a dummy. Most of it is failed drug tests and being fat.

It is honestly a kinda scary stat and that is just pushing over into the rest of society.

Oh, join the forces???? what a silly, silly answer.
Join the forces:- Do you get paid? Yes.
What do you produce? Wweell eerr, nothing.
But your employed. Well why not pay me to stay ay home. But the forces, we have to keep the numbers up.
Let me see:- Produce nothing and overall the cost per person is vastly higher (than paying someone to stay at home) as they have to have a uniform, weapons, accommodation, Oh and don't forget the over the top cost of transport if they have to move.
But, but the forces. It gives them something to do and they can also die for their country therefore we no longer have to pay them.

a reply to: crayzeed


Most of those forces you speak of have more integrity in one ass cheek than you do in your whole existence.


Its a massive STEM school that many big companies are happy to poach from. I forgive you for your ignorance of what is involved in being successful in "the forces".


And what would you prefer? Peeps in prison? There are 2.12 million in US prisons...doing what exactly? As compared to 1.4 million active duty brothers and sisters.

originally posted by: lakenheath24
Its bad aint it. When I took the ASVAB I smashed it and I am a dummy. Most of it is failed drug tests and being fat.

It is honestly a kinda scary stat and that is just pushing over into the rest of society.

Kind of sad when you think about it.

a reply to: lakenheath24
You're being silly bordering on stupidity. The forces produce nothing, they use. Last year in the US they used over 700 billion. But use your analogy. Unemployed? Get em in the forces give em something to do instead of sitting around. Now what happens when the forces get that big that the workers (that's the people that pay taxes) can't pay enough taxes to pay the forces.
This short term "solution" that you propose has been tried and is being tried now in countries and it always ends up with the reasoning by the politicians "we have very low unemployment, see how we look after the country". Russia in the 1920s, Germany in the 1930s, China in the 1950s need I go on?
The did it with conscription, you want to do it voluntarily. It don't work.
As for going to prison, the UK used that exact same excuse, and it is an excuse, a lot of youth going "off the track", "lets bring in conscription, get em in the army, give them discipline" and so the BS goes on.

a reply to: crayzeedin the dark.

Ironically, the military developed the internet with which you can spew your nonsense as well as GPS so that you can find your buttocks in the dark....although the latter is yet to be proven.

Yeah, they also dropped 2 atomic bombs, sprayed Agent Orange, deployed mustard gas, napalm, even used Black servicemen as guinea pigs, injected servicemen in Desert storm with god knows what. etc. etc. etc.etc. Oh and veterans are having to fight for help.

The labor shortages have many different fascists; thats why its difficult to point to one group of people and blame them.

The Covid-19 showed many young families they don't need two or three incomes to get by.

The stimulus checks do/did cause people to stay away from working for too long. And just because many areas stopped the stimulus doesn't mean the backlog of work also evaporated. So yes those that collected stimulus maybe back to work; they still have a year and a half of work to catch up on before they even start new work. So bigger business are hiring like crazy to fill the back log and that ripples all the way down to restaurants.

There is a growing number of younger people who are dropping out of the traditional labor market because buying power has dropped significantly. Why work hard to just shrimp by?

Working from home is not the panacea everyone thinks it is. In my personal experience those working from home have a much smaller productivity than when they worked in the office. When a peace of equipment goes down I now need two people to fix it; the more experienced person working from home telling the new hire what to do. And its not just physical activities; its taken my company 8 months to put a project plan together because the project planner is working from home and can engage with all the departments the way he use too. The project is going to be over before the plan is done at the rate we are going. And the virtual meetings after meetings after meetings. My calendar is double booked everyday with these meetings. Working from home is causing productivity problems; yet no one is willing to admit it.

And than you have the retirees; the grey tsunami is upon us. And what is worse is that companies are doing what they can to accelerate it. Dumping more and more work on these people because productivity is down and back orders are up to the point that they are questioning why they didn't retire sooner.

This all is so true! I'm a boomer, retired for good in 2019. I got tired of being treated like crap where I worked so I retired. Many boomers are just tired of the jungle the workplace has become. Many work places have toxic clueless management, and that takes a horrible toll on mental health. I'm too old for that crap. Many of the younger generations don't feel they have to put up with that, and they shouldn't have to. Yeah, the labor shortage is definitely being felt where I live. I figure if my house needs anything, I will be watching YouTube and figuring how to do it myself. Many restaurants and stores around here have closed for good, as they cannot find anyone to work. Millenials and Gen Z are way more picky regarding what they will put up with in the workplace. Places will have to change how they do business to attract and keep workers. This is a wakeup call for workplaces to do better than they are now.

a reply to: crayzeed

Again, ironically, Congress controls the budget, and the President gives the orders for the military. Say, you aint one of those no-participants mentioned in the OP are ye?

I find it peculiar that there is a labor shortage, and employers say no one is applyi g to their jobs yet damn near all the people I know personally, including myself, who have been applying to jobs and submitting resumes have barely received any dates for interviews.

I've been calling the facilities I applied to trying to get a hold of HR, and I've only been successful in talking to one actual person who then gave me a number for another HR person to call which started the whole thing over.

It just seems odd that places are saying they can't find people who want to work, but it seems they just aren't actively taking applicants.

I've got some acquaintances in other states who are part of the hiring team and they lost a good chunk of their employees after firing them for not being vaccinated, and now they can't find anyone who is vaccinated who want to apply. Guess they'll have to change their vaccination requirement or shut down.

Another thing I've noticed is that many of the signs in posted on business premises state that they are paying hjgher wages than they actually are. Sometimes there's only a dollar difference, but I've seen more often where they'll say they're hiring up to $28-$30 an hour, and then when I go to apply online and submit my resume it will say that the pay is $20-$23 an hour.

Working in a production facility maintenance and engineering roles usually tend to pay a good bit more than BS production roles. Yet I've been seeing employers trying to pay their technicians only a dollar or so an hour more than the person just standing there all day. It's not an appealing circumstance.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Ive been called names for suggesting all the immigration in the US is in purpose to offset plunging birth rates and aging population.

Good to see the obvious recognized.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus
a reply to: lakenheath24

That citation certainly adds credence to the comment I heard that there are more jobs available than people but there are talent mismatches.

When McDonald’s starts paying better wages then I make as a welder/machinist I’ll go there to earn more and leave a skilled job vacant because well money.

a reply to: Brotherman

That's about how I feel at this point. In my area there are entry level, minimal skill type jobs paying just as much if not more than what employers are asking for more technical roles.

Target was hiring starting at $15 an hour for pushing carts. Gas station attendents are being payed $20 an hour.

The only reason why I haven't taken one of those jobs is because I don't want to be surrounded by teenagers and don't want to be stuck in a dead end job.

Another thing that is ridiculous is that my current employer is offering a sign on bonus for new hires. I was talking to some of my buddies about it and I was kind of frustrated to learn that their employers are giving new hires sign-on bonuses and also paying them more than what my buddies are making.

It just further solidifies my opinion that employers and HR personnel really don't think about what they are doing. Because those buddies of mine are now actively looking for another job that pays more.

Employers would rather treat their current employees like dirt, refuse to give a yearly raise, and then hire new people who don't know what they're doing at a higher rate.

All the more reason why I'm aiming to own my own business as soon as possible.

a reply to: lakenheath24

Is it conceivable that all the people that are lacking in the labour force, are actually sick with "Long Covid" If the death rate from the vaccine is a hundred times what has been reported to Vears. Then the figure of the disabled must be far greater.It is inconceivable that a good well paying job couldn't be filled when the real unemployment rate was around twenty percent before this all started.
The CDC gets their death rate differently from the way Medicare calculates the death rate from the jab. Here is an alledged leak from medicare that just gives the number of deaths fourteen days after the jab.It reads a lot different from the official figures.If true it also means the nuber of disabled is a lot higher as well but enough to affect the workforce? www.bitchute.com...

a reply to: AutomateThis1v2

Way I see it is simple, I know they can’t find skilled reliable people for what they are offering, I leave for a better paying no skills necessarily job perhaps they will match that pay or better to keep me around. Gas station attendants near me are starting at $1.50 less then I make with annual pay raises and bonuses based on work performance. I know my cost of living isn’t getting cheaper hell home n car insurance went up $400 n never had an accident or really ever needed to utilize insurance, let’s not talk about taxes and price of food n clothing either. Lol a 12 pack of beer is cheaper then a gallon of milk and a dozen eggs, the world is telling me something

a reply to: AutomateThis1v2


There could be a reasonable explanation why skilled jobs are paying less than unskilled jobs in some areas. Companies that use a lot of unskilled labor, gas stations Walmart, make their revenue at the point of sale. So they can be more agile in response to the market, pay more charge more. Companies who use more skilled labor do so based on past sales; sell a fleet of boats in 2020 build them in 2021. The contract is for a set fee, the company may not be able to afford to pay the skilled labor more right away.

There’s nothing new about paying new hires more or sign on bonus. I’m sure it’s been exasperated by the current market but it’s been happening for ages. The practice is used to keep labor costs down … if I a company has an employee who doesn’t complain about his pay why pay him more? It’s the reason people look around for new jobs every 5 years or so. It’s rarer than one might think to see a resume where the person has been at the same company for 10, 15, 20 years. Especially the younger the person is.

I personally make it a point to advocate for a decent raise every five or so years. I have on several occasions found new employment only to use it as a bargaining chip at the negotiation. Been with my company for 25 years and have gotten the raises I’ve wanted. If you don’t ask, and don’t make the case why they should give it to you then they won’t. Not because they are bastards (even though often times they are) but because it’s just business. One’s labor is a product just like anything else, one needs to sell it.

a reply to: JAGStorm

The company I work for now is struggling to get jobs done because we need more people. Every contractor we see is in the same position. These guys are willing to pay good wages, pay for training, teach any willing person an entire trade, but nobody wants to work. This trend's been going on for a while, over the 5 years prior at my last job I watched a bunch of guys come in for a week or two, maybe a month, then they'd quit because working was too hard or in one guy's case, i still remember this #, because 'he'd rather be at home smoking weed with his girlfriend.'

The lack of people willing to work and learn has been going on for a bit now, the last two years has just amplified it.

originally posted by: Brotherman

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus
a reply to: lakenheath24

That citation certainly adds credence to the comment I heard that there are more jobs available than people but there are talent mismatches.

When McDonald’s starts paying better wages then I make as a welder/machinist I’ll go there to earn more and leave a skilled job vacant because well money.

No joke house cleaners are making $50 an hour now.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Nice maybe I should do that for awhile until a shop is desperate for a machinist/welder. Apparently my skill isn’t in enough demand these days.