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Staffing Shortages

FallsChurchTiger

FallsChurchTiger

Lake Baikal
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Dec 20, 2001
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Northern Virginia, Washington DC and Parts Unknown
Everywhere you turn - health care, hotel restaurant and tourism, retail, manufacturing, its seems that industries are facing horrible staffing shortages.

I have a simple question - where did all the people go?

All of the sales clerks, nurses, carpenters, painters, waiters, etc, can't all be sitting around spending COVID money. Its been too long.

What gives?
 
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rodneyp4 said:
People realized during the pandemic they are worth more than 7.25 an hour. Businesses that pay well are not having staffing shortages.

Just look at Chic-Fil-A as a prime example.
Click to expand...
With all due respect, you could not be more wrong. I run a commercial HVAC business. I am paying a premium wage with benefits and cannot even get someone to apply for open jobs. Basically, I am paying people 30% over the market average. Every business I know is in the same boat.
 
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rodneyp4 said:
People realized during the pandemic they are worth more than 7.25 an hour. Businesses that pay well are not having staffing shortages.

Just look at Chic-Fil-A as a prime example.
Click to expand...

As a business owner and having lots of friends that own businesses, this is not the case at all. In general, folks aren't wanting to work, regardless of the $$$.
 
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rodneyp4 said:
People realized during the pandemic they are worth more than 7.25 an hour. Businesses that pay well are not having staffing shortages.

Just look at Chic-Fil-A as a prime example.
Click to expand...
I disagree. Chick-fil-A is a complete outlier. Good for them, but not a good example for overcoming staffing shortage as a whole. There are a lot of things that have come up since COVID began…. Stimulus checks, child tax credit, work from home, uber, doordash, Amazon jobs in general, etc. The “gig economy” allows for people to work some of these hourly jobs, but they only want to work 20 hours or so. If they aren’t thrilled with what they are doing, they quit. So many people on unemployment that the government doesn’t even have time to process them all.

Sure, pay has some to do with it, but it’s not even close to the biggest factor on why there is a staffing shortage. If restaurants could get people and pay them more they would.
 
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FallsChurchTiger said:
Everywhere you turn - health care, hotel restaurant and tourism, retail, manufacturing, its seems that industries are facing horrible staffing shortages.

I have a simple question - where did all the people go?

All of the sales clerks, nurses, carpenters, painters, waiters, etc, can't all be sitting around spending COVID money. Its been too long.

What gives?
Click to expand...
I wondered that as well, did a lot of people get Covid related disability, or did we just have that many people who were working that could have retired if they chose to? It's really crazy that the whole country is desperately searching for more workers and can't find them. Maybe it's that people who once had two jobs now can afford to only work one because they are making so much money at this point.
 
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rodneyp4 said:
People realized during the pandemic they are worth more than 7.25 an hour. Businesses that pay well are not having staffing shortages.

Just look at Chic-Fil-A as a prime example.
Click to expand...

Not totally true. My company and others in Western NC have increased hire in wages for unskilled EE’s to over $20/hr and hiring is still a challenge. The ones that want to work just chase a buck from business to business. A lot of folks simply changed their life style during Covid and found out it doesn’t take a lot of $$ if u sit at home and watch TV all day.
 
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rodneyp4 said:
People realized during the pandemic they are worth more than 7.25 an hour. Businesses that pay well are not having staffing shortages.

Just look at Chic-Fil-A as a prime example.
Click to expand...
I'm in commercial insurance and work with a good bit of smedium-sized businesses and this just isn't true. A lot of the folks I talk to have increased their hourly rate dramatically, upped their benefit programs, etc and still can't find people. One of my clients even started a "perfect attendance" bonus program just to reward his employees for showing up on top of raises and that didn't work either.
 
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rodneyp4 said:
People realized during the pandemic they are worth more than 7.25 an hour. Businesses that pay well are not having staffing shortages.

Just look at Chic-Fil-A as a prime example.
Click to expand...

What color is the sky in the world you live in? I'd recommend you get out more and talk to people. I'll also recommend you get to know the economy quite a bit better.
 
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tigerwoodnc said:
Not totally true. My company and others in Western NC have increased hire in wages for unskilled EE’s to over $20/hr and hiring is still a challenge. The ones that want to work just chase a buck from business to business. A lot of folks simply changed their life style during Covid and found out it doesn’t take a lot of $$ if u sit at home and watch TV all day.
Click to expand...

Hence the amazing mental health of our society. It's unbelievable how things have crumbled so quickly. It's going to be so difficult to find a way to put it all back together.
 
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Willence said:
What color is the sky in the world you live in? I'd recommend you get out more and talk to people. I'll also recommend you get to know the economy quite a bit better.
Click to expand...
The staffing shortage in the salary vs hourly field is my key point here. Professional fields are having extremely high turnover instead of shortages
 
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Example. After 12 years and numerous multi day power outages, finally broke down and bought a home generator In August. .

At the sale in August was told “Well Mr FCT I will let you put this deposit down and your generator is sitting on a pallet about 45 minutes from here but I want to be very up front - we cannot install it until APRIL due to a lack of available certified and trained electricians to do the install. We have been trying to hire and train for 18 months and get people.“

Friend tells tale of how long the Buc-ee’s outside Florence took to open because no cashiers to work $18-22 an hour jobs.

Three restaurants and a supermarket near me want to pause the buildouts for fear they can’t hire.

Its crazy.

Where did the people go? UFOs? Bermuda Triangle? Secret Mars Colony ?
 
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toogoodootgr said:
With all due respect, you could not be more wrong. I run a commercial HVAC business. I am paying a premium wage with benefits and cannot even get someone to apply for open jobs. Basically, I am paying people 30% over the market average. Every business I know is in the same boat.
Click to expand...

SCSportsman said:
As a business owner and having lots of friends that own businesses, this is not the case at all. In general, folks aren't wanting to work, regardless of the $$$.
Click to expand...

tigerwoodnc said:
Not totally true. My company and others in Western NC have increased hire in wages for unskilled EE’s to over $20/hr and hiring is still a challenge. The ones that want to work just chase a buck from business to business. A lot of folks simply changed their life style during Covid and found out it doesn’t take a lot of $$ if u sit at home and watch TV all day.
Click to expand...
I run a Manufacturing Company that's been in business for 116 years. We have (90) employees and have (6) employees currently with over forty years and (21) with over twenty-five years. So I think it's safe to say a decent place to work. To find skilled labor we've had to raise our rates, which were already well above the Mecklenburg county average for similar jobs, significantly to find people. I've had 4-5 people that would schedule an interview with me not even bother to show up. It turned into a full-time job trying to find good employees. We're booked into the 2nd quarter of next year with new machine orders and have just now been able to land (3) new employees. I just hope they all show up for their 1st day.
 
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toogoodootgr said:
With all due respect, you could not be more wrong. I run a commercial HVAC business. I am paying a premium wage with benefits and cannot even get someone to apply for open jobs. Basically, I am paying people 30% over the market average. Every business I know is in the same boat.
Click to expand...
The skills gap has been widening for quite a while now. I also tend to think our immigration policy has had something to do with it. We also have a ton of boomer's retiring and leaving the workforce, and that only accelerated during covid. Add to that our economy has been running and growing hot for quite a while now....eventually we were simply going to run out of bodies.

I'm not sure what it's like where you are, but there is industrial development going on everywhere along 85 and in the upstate of SC. That's a lot of new high paying blue collar jobs injected into a not so populated area.

There are currently two open jobs for every unemployed person in this country right now. Feeling more and more like a recession is coming (or already here). Unemployment reverting back to the mean will help right this part of the ship. But that will be temporary if we don't adjust our policies.
 
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KtCarney14 said:
Seen what diesel is doing? Between that and CDL shortages, supply chain issues just getting started.
Click to expand...

absolutely and the talk is about baby formula shortage but there is a shortage of nutrition across the board with the elderly and sick as well. Wound care…damn near everything

It is an absolute freaking mess and isn’t getting better anytime soon. People thought the PPE hysteria was bad…just hold my beer
 
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johnhugh said:
People don’t want to work & 1 million people died in US from COVID. Combination of the two.
Click to expand...
I hate to do this, but I mostly agree with this, lol. People don't want to work. I don't think covid deaths had quit as much impact since a lot of them were likely not in the workforce due to age and comorbidities in addition to it simply being such a small percentage of people.
The labor participation rate, which is a much better indication of employment, is still significantly lower than it was pre pandemic. It had moved up about .5 percent under Trump and was still increasing until the pandemic, which had not happened in 20+ years. The labor force is roughly half the population, so a 1% loss from where we were pre pandemic is more substantial.
 
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Just had a plumbing contractor, here in Charlotte, send a letter on 3 jobs they were slated to start for us, in the next 30 days, saying they were walking away from the jobs because they cant get labor. So now we have to spend money to go to the next guy. That along with material escalations, since the bid date, makes for a crappy job.
 
I'm in the staffing business and from my point of view it appears people got lazy and just don't want to go back to work. They've figured out that they can deliver some food and sell some weed and get by and they're good with it. I work on one specific account for a manufacturing company with sites in 15 different states hiring unskilled labor starting at $15 to $23 per hour and we can't give jobs away. People are applying left and right but when it comes to following through with the hiring process it's laughable. I assume there are also a lot of states right now still handing out unemployment without much oversight so you add that to their weed money and they figure it just isn't worth their time. I don't understand it because being gainfully employed has always provided important stability for me but a lot of the country just doesn't see it that way anymore I guess.
 
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toogoodootgr said:
With all due respect, you could not be more wrong. I run a commercial HVAC business. I am paying a premium wage with benefits and cannot even get someone to apply for open jobs. Basically, I am paying people 30% over the market average. Every business I know is in the same boat.
Click to expand...
I don’t disagree with your overall premise, but if everyone is paying 30% over market average, then you are just paying the average. The market average has gone up 30%.
 
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nmerritt11 said:
The supply chain issue and worker shortage is scary
Click to expand...
Half the time you can't buy it.

If you can buy it, half the time you cannot get someone to install it.

Opposite of my generator issue, I ordered 4 of the Reserve 2 wide traditional windows from Pella to finish the replacement of windows in the house (we replace as we paint). Ordered in early January. They are scheduled to arrive first of August and be installed mid August.

Now this is not a foreign manufacturing supply chain issue - all Pella windows are made in the USA. Maybe the wood sourcing, I don't know. But more than likely its either demand (housing is hot) or its staffing in manufacturing.

Nuts.
 
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CoffeeIsForClosers said:
The skills gap has been widening for quite a while now. I also tend to think our immigration policy has had something to do with it. We also have a ton of boomer's retiring and leaving the workforce, and that only accelerated during covid. Add to that our economy has been running and growing hot for quite a while now....eventually we were simply going to run out of bodies.

I'm not sure what it's like where you are, but there is industrial development going on everywhere along 85 and in the upstate of SC. That's a lot of new high paying blue collar jobs injected into a not so populated area.

There are currently two open jobs for every unemployed person in this country right now. Feeling more and more like a recession is coming (or already here). Unemployment reverting back to the mean will help right this part of the ship. But that will be temporary if we don't adjust our policies.
Click to expand...
Yep. Unemployment rate, total employment, and those on employment insurance are at or near pre-Covid levels.

Just not enough bodies. Need to loosen immigration policies (short term relief) and start having more babies (long term).
 
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toogoodootgr said:
With all due respect, you could not be more wrong. I run a commercial HVAC business. I am paying a premium wage with benefits and cannot even get someone to apply for open jobs. Basically, I am paying people 30% over the market average. Every business I know is in the same boat.
Click to expand...
I’m in the HVAC business as well and we are having the same issues
 
Interesting stories in this thread. I know teachers are quitting in droves here in SC. Most are sick of dealing with kids who have discipline nightmares in school.

Sounds like there are plenty of opportunities out there for kids with $100k in college loans to work them off.
 
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darylcu said:
I'm in the staffing business and from my point of view it appears people got lazy and just don't want to go back to work. They've figured out that they can deliver some food and sell some weed and get by and they're good with it. I work on one specific account for a manufacturing company with sites in 15 different states hiring unskilled labor starting at $15 to $23 per hour and we can't give jobs away. People are applying left and right but when it comes to following through with the hiring process it's laughable. I assume there are also a lot of states right now still handing out unemployment without much oversight so you add that to their weed money and they figure it just isn't worth their time. I don't understand it because being gainfully employed has always provided important stability for me but a lot of the country just doesn't see it that way anymore I guess.
Click to expand...
The Democratic Party's 50 + year old plan is paying off.
1. Cannot get enough voters from middle America so
2. Pander to every one % there is" LGBT, ethnic minority, transgenders, students with debt, illegal aliens, etc. etc. to create a "majority" .
3. Give # 2 above something free to buy votes and keep them on the government teat, keep stoking the fire with propaganda aimed at dividing the country.
4. Control the media. Heck, create a "Ministry of Truth" to control thought and opinion. Cancel all who express different ideas to theirs.
5. Open the borders. Let illegals in. Give them health care at the expense of citizens. Let them vote.

Hell of a plan isn't it? And it's working.
 
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