Impending Labor Shortage

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chris1971

Senior Member
Location
Usa
We are having a hard time finding qualified candidates to fill several skilled positions for journeyman electricians. I feel our country is on the verge of a skilled labor shortage. I think the recession and other factors drove away some potential job applicants. With this in mind, where are you finding and recruiting qualified candidates for your company?
 

chris1971

Senior Member
Location
Usa
There is no such thing as a labor shortage. If you pay a good wage with good bennies you can find good help.

I disagree with your first comment. We are experiencing a labor shortage in my area. Yes, good wages and good bennies do help attract potential job candidates. It however doesn't guarantee the help will be any good.
 

iwire

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Massachusetts
I disagree with your first comment. We are experiencing a labor shortage in my area. Yes, good wages and good bennies do help attract potential job candidates. It however doesn't guarantee the help will be any good.

And I disagree, if you offer more money you can get the good help.

The good help is working and not going to change jobs to work for you without the motivation of bettering their situation.
 

cadpoint

Senior Member
Location
Durham, NC
Last work related interview I went on they wanted to give me three dollors less,
90 days probation and couldn't get a promised wage increase after probation. The company
said that they were taking a 3K gamble on any potential employee that they hired, and
most times it was a lose for them. The Company was hiring through a placement service that was owned by a former employee of a large local EC corp that is still helping keep wages down.

I couldn't even get a Dollor more than the offered limit where offering no beni's...

In the region; Two large EC corp's were caught years ago and people went to jail over price fixing, and wage capping, it's still going on today. It's real around here!
 

iceworm

Curmudgeon still using printed IEEE Color Books
Location
North of the 65 parallel
Occupation
EE (Field - as little design as possible)
We are experiencing a labor shortage in my area. Yes, good wages and good bennies do help attract potential job candidates. It however doesn't guarantee the help will be any good.

A better interviewing technique and better background investigation will improve that percentage.

ice
 

petersonra

Senior Member
Location
Northern illinois
Occupation
engineer
We have had a very hard time getting engineers. most of the ones in the area are employed and happy where they are, so we have to import them.

That is expensive and trying to convince someone to move to an economically depressed area is hard.
 

iceworm

Curmudgeon still using printed IEEE Color Books
Location
North of the 65 parallel
Occupation
EE (Field - as little design as possible)
We have had a very hard time getting engineers. .
Yes, I saw on an engineering forum there is a preceived shortage of STEM workers. I'm not so sure that's true. I've seen some big outfits that think they can head to the hardware store and order up an engineer like any other comodity. They do little to train up/educate and they don't pay up the good ones that don't want management jobs They seem to have a hard time getting and keeping good people. The suprising part to me is that they are surprised by this.

Q's:
Does your company look like long term employment? Or, is the work cyclic?
Does the company have a history of teaching/educating, then promoting up/paying up the young engineers? Or, are you looking for peons that can be turned loose at the end of the job?

If you look short term, does the company offer high pay to an older, more experienced work force, that may be interested in shorter term jobs?

I'm not knocking your company. Good people are always hard to find. Still, you could get lucky and import one that is technically competent and has no life. Hang on to them.

ice
 

renosteinke

Senior Member
Location
NE Arkansas
I have often heard employers say "It's so hard to find competent help." I ask, in return: What are you doing to train tomorrows' workers?

All too often, I have them reply "Oh, NO! I am not about to train someone, just so they can go work somewhere else!" Yet, these same folks are all too ready to hire someone trained by another.

I've seen companies go to absurd lengths to prevent employees from using what they learn to further their own careers. For example, the employer will provide the required OSHA 10-hr. training, but will see that no credential is ever received by the employee.

Indeed, lest I speak the unspeakable ... one of the "advantages" employers see in hiring illegals is that Mexican immigrants differ from every other immigrant group in one major way: they do not seek upward mobility, being content to linger in their entry-level positions for a lifetime. Don't take my word for it: James Michener documented this decades ago when he was writing his novel "Centennial."

Since I entered the workforce (in the early 70's), I have seen the steady closing of opportunities for advancement. "Back then," several of my supervisors had moved up - often to senior positions - thought they had not gone to college. Ironically, they often found themselves implementing policies that closed the doors to future ambitions souls.

The electrical trade used to be a great launching point into other areas. Not any more; "journeyman" is as far as you're going. Good luck moving out of physically demanding construction work as you age. No degree, no future. Who, I ask, would want to enter such a field?

Meanwhile, our schools teach from the 1st grade that "the trades" are for the losers, misfits, and others "not good enough" to go to college. By the time these kids graduate, they firmly believe that skilled tradesmen are little more than slightly retarded chimpanzees with tool belts.

Small wonder it's "so hard to find good help."
 

cowboyjwc

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Simi Valley, CA
"Meanwhile, our schools teach from the 1st grade that "the trades" are for the losers, misfits, and others "not good enough" to go to college. By the time these kids graduate, they firmly believe that skilled tradesmen are little more than slightly retarded chimpanzees with tool belts.

Small wonder it's "so hard to find good help."

That's pretty much what I was going to say. No one wants to get their hands dirty anymore.
 

growler

Senior Member
Location
Atlanta,GA
And I disagree, if you offer more money you can get the good help.

The good help is working and not going to change jobs to work for you without the motivation of bettering their situation.

I agree with Bob.

There may be a shortage of good help in one area but there are normally good workers to be had if good jobs exist.
 

growler

Senior Member
Location
Atlanta,GA
We are having a hard time finding qualified candidates to fill several skilled positions for journeyman electricians.


What exactly are you looking for and what are you offering?

There could be hundreds of highy qualified people reading this post that would be willing to move to your area for the right offer.
 

captainwireman

Senior Member
Location
USA, mostly.
There are really no two ways about it. All my jobs are contract. I would say two thirds of the offers I get are just a joke. If you want talent, either you are going to pay or not get this talent. How these businesses structure their scale and benefits is a mystery to me. I see adds for licensed electricians @ 15-20 dollars an hour! Skilled industrial electricians willing to live in a man-camp and work the big overtime in a remote area in North Dakota will easily clear six figures. Add to this someone who invested in education and/or is a crackerjack or has specialty skills. This is what you are up against. How much is your company willing to offer?
 
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petersonra

Senior Member
Location
Northern illinois
Occupation
engineer
... skilled tradesmen are little more than slightly retarded chimpanzees with tool belts.

I think that is a bit of an overstatement.

There is certainly a push to send kids off to college but that has as much to do with the surplus of potential workers versus the number of actual jobs available as much as anything.

It's the same reason as we started mandatory schooling of children. It got them out of the labor market. Same reason for the 40 hour work week.

Just too many people and not enough jobs.

And that situation is not getting better. If you look at the number of people actually employed it is going down while the unemployment rate is also going down. Lots of statistical tricks being employed.
 

growler

Senior Member
Location
Atlanta,GA
There is certainly a push to send kids off to college but that has as much to do with the surplus of potential workers versus the number of actual jobs available as much as anything.

It's the same reason as we started mandatory schooling of children. It got them out of the labor market. Same reason for the 40 hour work week.

Just too many people and not enough jobs.


Got to do something with those young people, college, military, prison and yet we need to import lots of cheap goods and labor.

Makes you wonder just how long a system like this can last.
 
Location
NE (9.06 miles @5.9 Degrees from Winged Horses)
Occupation
EC - retired
FWIW, I talked to guy making the rounds actively trying to recruit electricians. He works for one of the larger ECs in this area that also has shops in the Eastern part of the State. He said they also have four other headhunters looking. Not much luck by the sounds of it. He declined to answer "how much you paying?"so I can offer more.
 

Fulthrotl

~Autocorrect is My Worst Enema.~
Last work related interview I went on they wanted to give me three dollors less,
90 days probation and couldn't get a promised wage increase after probation. The company
said that they were taking a 3K gamble on any potential employee that they hired, and
most times it was a lose for them. The Company was hiring through a placement service that was owned by a former employee of a large local EC corp that is still helping keep wages down.

I couldn't even get a Dollar more than the offered limit where offering no beni's...

In the region; Two large EC corp's were caught years ago and people went to jail over price fixing, and wage capping, it's still going on today. It's real around here!

phoenix in the late 1990's was like that.

ec's would not pay above a set amount. there was a shortfall of sparkies.
they needed about 800-1,000 more in metro phoenix than they had, and
buildings just sat partially done waiting for the electrician or someone like
him.

$15 an hour was it.

there may be a shortage of skilled labor, but not a shortage of labor.

i had to tell a customer i couldn't meet his schedule, and was trying yesterday
to help him find someone who had people available.

this guy has in the range of $100k~$200k of work in the next year, and he's
fifth on my list of customers. there are four that take precedence over him
as far as i'm concerned.

i'm working 6~7 days a week, and have been for a while now.

if nobody want's to train electricians, or organize them in a manner that
works in a viable economic model, then i'll just go on getting up in the morning,
and going to work.

i'm booked for the rest of the year.

i'm really excited. i'm taking off three days for this holiday weekend. i haven't
had three days off except when i was too sick to get out of bed, in two years.

and there's a chance my new motorcycle will be ready by friday.... :happyyes:

wheeeeee...... i need a break!
 

fmtjfw

Senior Member
I think that is a bit of an overstatement.

There is certainly a push to send kids off to college but that has as much to do with the surplus of potential workers versus the number of actual jobs available as much as anything.

It's the same reason as we started mandatory schooling of children. It got them out of the labor market. Same reason for the 40 hour work week.

Just too many people and not enough jobs.

And that situation is not getting better. If you look at the number of people actually employed it is going down while the unemployment rate is also going down. Lots of statistical tricks being employed.

The original reasons for mandatory public schools are twofold:

1) For protestants, everyone needed to be able to read the Bible.

2) For the factory owner to get future workers (from agricultural backgrounds) to get used to a regimented system complete with starting and ending bells, sirens, ...
 

PetrosA

Senior Member
...The electrical trade used to be a great launching point into other areas. Not any more; "journeyman" is as far as you're going. Good luck moving out of physically demanding construction work as you age. No degree, no future. Who, I ask, would want to enter such a field?

Meanwhile, our schools teach from the 1st grade that "the trades" are for the losers, misfits, and others "not good enough" to go to college. By the time these kids graduate, they firmly believe that skilled tradesmen are little more than slightly retarded chimpanzees with tool belts.

Small wonder it's "so hard to find good help."

I think you're right. I could rant on this topic, but I'll control myself ;)
 
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