No Jobs? Mike Rowe's Lament

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  • mrjarrell

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    Thousands of jobs are going begging right now, (with unemployment at over 7%, too. Go figure). A reader of Mike Rowe's (voice of Deadliest Catch, host of Dirty Jobs) wrote to him lambasting the rightish wing of the Boot On Your Neck Party for standing in the way of job creation and Mike had to point out some uncomfortable facts for her. Right now, in this country there are thousands of jobs going unfilled because Americans just won't do them. These aren't minimum wage jobs either. They're solid middle class, working jobs that pay extremely well. Employers can't fill them, for a few reasons. And this leads to a number of problems for the country and industry. *****ing about immigration? There really are thousands of good paying jobs that Americans won't do. And they have to be done, if we're to keep moving forward. Someone, from somewhere is going to have to fill that slot. Mike points out the facts but the solutions really are up to us. We need to do a number of things. One would be encouraging our local school systems to put vocational training back in the schools. That would help in the long run. But, lots of the folks who are currently unemployed need to be encouraged to look outside of their particular box, too. Changes need to be made, and politicians aren't really the solution here.

    Part 1: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?....151342491542569.29994.116999698310182&type=1


    Part 2: https://www.facebook.com/TheRealMikeRowe/posts/686714981338648
     

    ViperJock

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    Didn't read the links, but good points in your post. I had a die hard lib colleague telling me that people wanted to work but there were no jobs. I responded with the help wanted section of the paper and the Internet job sites. Typical left wing extremist that he was, he didn't allow facts to interfere with his ideas.
     

    Que

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    I certainly agree with vocational curriculum being placed back in the schools. Everybody doesn't want to be a white-collar worker, especially when you can make more money in the blue-collar sector. I've visited countries that used to be self sustaining and now have to recruit foreigners to build buildings, repair roads and make clothes.
     

    Leo

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    The internet job sites look pretty impressive, but they do not deliver. I tried that game. There are more sites acting like they offer jobs than there are jobs. By the time you get through the multiple layers you find out that the job has been filled for 6 months. There are some jobs that are always available. Cell phone salesmen, especially for lower tier companies. Part time commission appilance salesmen at dying sears stores in welfare neighborhoods. Part time oncall evenings ad weekends where they only guarantee 2 hours of pay when you get called in, even if you have to drive an hour to get there. Investment fraud salesmen, etc.

    Due to the uncertainties of obummer care, I have not found any companies willing to take a chance on anyone with health problems. If you cannot work 12-16 hour shifts, the interview is over.

    There are some jobs out there but you have to look pretty hard. There are far more jobs that are scams that actually take money out of the workers pocket. I am not talking about making less than unemployment, I am talking about true zero net scams.
     
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    actaeon277

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    The internet job sites look pretty impressive, but they do not deliver. I tried that game. There are more sites acting like they offer jobs than there are jobs. By the time you get through the multiple layers you find out that the job has been filled for 6 months. There are some jobs that are always available. Cell phone salesmen, especially for lower tier companies. Part time commission appilance salesmen at dying sears stores in welfare neighborhoods. Part time oncall evenings ad weekends where they only guarantee 2 hours of pay when you get called in, even if you have to drive an hour to get there. Investment fraud salesmen, etc.

    Due to the uncertainties of obummer care, I have not found any companies willing to take a chance on anyone with health problems. If you cannot work 12-16 hour shifts, the interview is over.

    There are some jobs out there but you have to look pretty hard. There are far more jobs that are scams that actually take money out of the workers pocket. I am not talking about making less than unemployment, I am talking about true zero net scams.

    I work in a steel mill. And there is always trouble trying to find maintenance workers. Too many parents didn't want their child to sling a wrench.
     

    mrjarrell

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    I work in a steel mill. And there is always trouble trying to find maintenance workers. Too many parents didn't want their child to sling a wrench.
    Precisely the problem we face and what Mike points out. There are literally thousands of jobs, (Mike cites a need for 600K) that need filling and no-one's qualified. The BAMA food corp recently had to go to Poland and open a plant because they couldn't find qualified people here in the US to work the plant floors. WTF? If we don't reverse the trend we are going to need all those immigrants just to keep barely functional as a country. Not everyone's cut out to take on 40K of debt to get a college degree that's barely needed anymore. We need more folks spending a lot less and getting equally good jobs in the blue collar fields, too.
    There are plenty of jobs out there for the willing.
     

    rhino

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    I've been vocal about this issue for a while. Not everyone is well served by attending college, and it's not always about academic ability. Many, many who are funneled into college because they don't think they have a better choice would do much better learning a trade like machinist, welder, electrician, etc.

    I'm glad someone like Mike Rowe has become a champion of the cause. I also like that when he was on Glenn Beck's show talking about it, Glenn whipped-out his checkbook and wrote a check for $20,000 to go to the vocational scholarship fund.

    I also like Mike Rowe's new catch phrase: Work smart and hard.
     

    mrjarrell

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    Work-Smart-And-Hard-Mike-Rowe-on-the-Skills-Gap.jpg
     

    Vamptepes

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    In my experience a lot of the better jobs around here expect you to have minimum 3years of college just to get a foot in the door for a job that used to require nothing. It's rather annoying when you apply for something and get denied for being underqualified when only a few years ago you would of been overqualified. I do know trucking companies are hiring a ton of people.
     

    hornadylnl

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    Out of the 50+ maintenance guys in my company, if I were to start my own business and recruit my coworkers, I don't think I'd choose 5 of them. The majority of them don't have the mind to troubleshoot and problem solve and of the few that do, most are too lazy to excel at it. They all want someone to spoon feed them the knowledge and have no desire to figure out anything on their own.

    Pride and desire to excel are not something you're going to learn in classroom. When I have an equipment problem at work that I can't solve, I don't give up on it until I figure it out. The other guys throw their hands in the air and call me.

    I figure about 10% of the population are thinkers and problem solvers and about 50% are just bodies filling a job position.
     

    the1kidd03

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    Precisely the problem we face and what Mike points out. There are literally thousands of jobs, (Mike cites a need for 600K) that need filling and no-one's qualified. The BAMA food corp recently had to go to Poland and open a plant because they couldn't find qualified people here in the US to work the plant floors. WTF? If we don't reverse the trend we are going to need all those immigrants just to keep barely functional as a country. Not everyone's cut out to take on 40K of debt to get a college degree that's barely needed anymore. We need more folks spending a lot less and getting equally good jobs in the blue collar fields, too.
    There are plenty of jobs out there for the willing.
    There is also more underlying reason than people tend to think of.

    For example, "finding qualified people" can also be indicative of a company structure which promotes separation of power, authoritarian hierarchy, and an otherwise divisive organizational culture. Most people in today's work force do not fit well with this sort of structure, nor do they want it. The idea being that the management of the company expects to hire someone who's fully capable of taking on the job role with little or no further education/grooming for it. This is commonly associated with older "leadership styles" of an authoritarian nature where the same types of people believe purely in the mantra of "I'm the boss, I pay you, you do what I say."

    This doesn't work in our changing culture in this day and age, especially for those who actually are qualified to take a job. They know their skills are sought after and they have as much choice in place to work as the employers do in who can fill the spot. Employers, especially older ones, tend to lose sight of this little factoid and in light of doing so fail to see the need to change their ways in business. This often results in high turnover rates, far less efficient performance from employees and in business all together, and a rather unsatisfied personnel pool. This then forces them to seek workers in alternative avenues, such as outsourcing...particularly to places where the culture of the common people is more in tune with the desire to be ruled (commonly, collectivist cultures.)

    They could address the issue arguably more effectively by changing their organizational structure and addressing their leadership/management style in the business, however most aren't real "leaders" and therefore refuse to accept that they are capable of mistakes. To such a personality, it's easier to seek out other workers than admit to their own faults/failed ideas of business practices. I know of companies who've hired management consultants who present such feedback from their research, and bring this sort of information to light only for said business "leaders" to blow it off and continue to run the company further in the ground only because they were unwilling to accept that their previously held ideals/theories were wrong or not working. They are simply incapable of seeing things from other's perspective. These personality traits are much more common in lower to middle management roles however.

    The simple fact is, that the majority of workers want to do good work for their company. They want more than just sufficient pay. They want more than just "easy work" or less work. They merely want to be happy in their work and environment (at least in our culture.) They want to be valued in their workplace. They want to "matter" to their business. This premise is often lost on a lot of business leaders (certainly not all) who are many times from older generations which due to the economy in their earlier years, were largely happy to just have a job at all. They then ascribe this same philosophy onto others and assume they feel the same way.

    Anyhow, I guess my point is that there is infinitely more to these matters than just what's available at face value. While there are a lot of jobs which need filled, that's not ONLY to say the society is at fault in terms of the workers themselves. Business leaders often have as much of if not more of a bigger hand in their downfall, then that of its employees. The largest, most successful companies have been paving the way in these ideas and this is ever increasingly so. At one time, companies had their pick of "qualified" persons and the prospective employee had to entice the employer. Now, it's up to the company to do the enticing if they wish to have pre-qualified workers. Unless they're willing to take on LESS qualified workers and dedicate to grooming them to be better and teach them, then they will be forced to fish in a different pool. This of course, will bring about entirely different cultural issues for the company, as places like Walmart found out the hard way. Regardless, either way will require a detailed look and restructuring of their organizational culture and business model.

    In short, it's not entirely the employee's "fault." Just because a business has a job to fill, doesn't mean they are going about business or fulfilling it in the appropriate fashion.
     

    Shadow8088

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    Precisely the problem we face and what Mike points out. There are literally thousands of jobs, (Mike cites a need for 600K) that need filling and no-one's qualified. The BAMA food corp recently had to go to Poland and open a plant because they couldn't find qualified people here in the US to work the plant floors. WTF? If we don't reverse the trend we are going to need all those immigrants just to keep barely functional as a country. Not everyone's cut out to take on 40K of debt to get a college degree that's barely needed anymore. We need more folks spending a lot less and getting equally good jobs in the blue collar fields, too.
    There are plenty of jobs out there for the willing.

    If only there were places where people could pay to be taught how to do these things, places of higher learning if you will, so that they could become qualified for all these job openings...
     

    hornadylnl

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    If only there were places where people could pay to be taught how to do these things, places of higher learning if you will, so that they could become qualified for all these job openings...

    If only these places focused on the skills the prospective students desired and not multiple courses totally unrelated to that skill set.
     

    the1kidd03

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    If only these places focused on the skills the prospective students desired and not multiple courses totally unrelated to that skill set.
    Agreed. My BS was probably 80% garbage that was either unrelated or that I already new which lead me to want to attend the school to learn more in the first place.

    A typical rule of thumb is that the years of school in a field (at least up to a Bachelor's) is the equivalent level of knowledge to someone who spent 4 years working in the same field. At least, that's how most hiring managers view it. Pay structures aren't typically setup to accommodate that equally, but hiring addresses it. Although, if you're motivated, a LOT more CAN be learned doing it in 4 years than studying it. That just depends on the person mostly though.

    The problem I have with it is for more advanced education, they "require" the previous level with few exceptions. There should be far more experience based exceptions for such programs than there are, IMO.
     

    hornadylnl

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    on this particular topic we are in COMPLETE agreement....

    While I was a production welder, I wanted to take some stick welding classes so I could try to get into maintenance welding. All Ivy Tech wanted to talk to me about was a degree program. Don't think there was any questions on Shakespeare or Picasso on the weld test at work.
     

    rhino

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    While I was a production welder, I wanted to take some stick welding classes so I could try to get into maintenance welding. All Ivy Tech wanted to talk to me about was a degree program. Don't think there was any questions on Shakespeare or Picasso on the weld test at work.

    Which campus? You should have been able to just register for the classes you wanted. They also have certificate programs that I don't think require the general education credits as the degree programs.
     

    KokomoDave

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    I went thru apprenticeship for millwright and have carried that title for 20+ years. It took approx. 8,000 hours plus willing to get an associate's degree in applied science. I know my son would darn near kill to get a job like that but he can't get a break into skilled trades. They are no jobs to fill locally so he commutes an hour away for a decent wage but no chance of advancing beyond his limited training by his current career.
     
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