9 in 10 small business owners say there's a lack of qualified job applicants in

One should assume it will only get worse w/ the government takeover of the economy where you can sit on your ass at home or take an easy-job and the gov will give you the rest of the $$$ you need - tax the rich; tax the successful; give the $$$ to those that aren't as hard-working or talented - why bust your ass then?

The top of the US educational system is the envy of the world. Fortunately, like W.E.B. DuBois said, it's the "talented tenth" that matter most.

But at the base, we've got a legion of social media-addicted, ADHD kids who are learning gender confusion while Chinese and Indian kids learn STEM. How are they going to compete in an interconnected world?

We're living Brave New World. We've anesthetized the masses with easy sex (I know we're hypocrites here), porn, football (the modern gladiator games), legal marijuana, social media, and video games.

We're creating a generation of young-people whose only talents are entitlement and victimhood

The thing about saying the US is behind other countries is that the US still leads the world in per capita GDP, except for countries that are tax havens or have lots of valuable minerals relative to their population.

Few things are certain in life, but one thing we can be certain of is that businesses will never say "no, please, we don't need more qualified applicants, then employees couldn't complain about work conditions without fear of being replaced".

That said, no harm in trying to do better. I think we've been assuming more is better. The education bureaucracies encourages this, since the longer they have their mitts on the students, the more bloated they can become. I suspect most kids could learn basic reading, math, science, and civics in K through 10 rather than K through 12. University education was originally designed for people who were going to inherit enough wealth that they'd never need to work for anyone else. I work in IT, and went to a public university. At most a third of my classwork was relevant to my job, probably more like a quarter. I'm not saying the other stuff was useless, but it, along with the relevant stuff, was mostly paid for out of public tax money, which is wrong. Tax money should be spent on more crucial things, or else taxes should be lowered. Once kids learn the basics, taxes should only pay to teach them work-relevant skills for a particular trade. Any other education should be a private not a public expense.

“I am opposing a social order in which it is possible for one man who does absolutely nothing that is useful to amass a fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars, while millions of men and women who work all the days of their lives secure barely enough for a wretched existence.”

~ Eugene Victor Debs
~ Born November 5, 1855 Terre Haute, Indiana, U.S.
~ Died October 20, 1926 (aged 70) Elmhurst, Illinois, U.S.

THey talked about this yesterday in the NewsHour. And the signs are in windows everywhere. A lot of people just don't want to be in the labor market at least right now. For one thing, the jobs being offered often do not pay enough to live on, to stay housed on. And then they are usually lead no where type jobs.

Any time there is a real career being offered, like Firefighters, there are a thousand applicants for each available position. What Color is Your Parachute 2020 talks about both of these issues.

And things like UBI, welfare, food stamps, or other public assistance programs make the rich richer, the money gets siphoned upwards. You only need to raise high income taxes in order to get this back.

SJG

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It seems everyone seems to think that the people that go to college and actually learn something and become corporate executives and other jobs that can amass a sizeable paycheck is comparable to those who go through high school and junior college and don't actually learn anything. All the talk seems to be about getting help in no mind jobs where they want $15/hr. and they can't count to two orders of fries.
I went through a 5 year apprenticeship and became a tradesman. I watched my money, paid my bills, and saved for retirement.
I live comfortably now, but the government seems to want to take my money and give it to the lazy lumps that can't get a job that pays a good wage.

^^^^ I agree that college can educate you, but that is about it. And if you want more you need to educate yourself. And none of this necessarily opens any doors for you.

But government taxation and spending is what keeps our economy going. If you have wage or business income, you should be thankful for that taxation and spending.

Otherwise we become no different from a third world country, a few very rich, and the rest very poor.

SJG

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^ I did similar went through an, apprenticeship, became a skilled journeyman in my trade then started a business first in NYC and sold it at the age of 34, moved to Florida, got bored and started doing small side jobs for cash and to keep occupied, and it became a business at one point I had over 50 employees, last year I sold my business and retired, money has never been a problem in my life, as I always had work that paid me a good income, so my motivation was never purely money.
I have posted many times about good paying jobs in the construction industry going begging for people to do this labor, it pays north of $30 per hour with full benefits, overtime regularly available, paid vacations and offers anyone willing to do the work diligently a good life and the ability to have a family, a nice home, and a secure retirement.

^^^^ nice

SJG

^ BTW there are many corporate executives living in my neighborhood along with doctors and lawyers some are retired some are still working, and I believe judging by my lifestyle and possessions I have done as well or better than many and some have done better than me, but no one living here is missing anything that they need, and very little of what they want.

^^^^^ again, nice!

SJG

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One of my ATFs got trained as an auto mechanic, but couldn't work in that field because of the sexual harassment, so she ended up dancing. She fixed all the other dancers cars, so sounded like she seriously knew her stuff. I think that may be a big issue that blocks young women from the option of learning a better-paying trade.

Raising the minimum ways to $15 is not supposed to make a McDonald's cashier catch up to the wage of a plumber or similar skilled worker. The plumber's wage is supposed to go up too. I think the idea is that we depend on credit to generate a lot of consumer demand currently. So wages can go up for low and middle income people without inflation. They'll just borrow less, and also have money to save for a house down payment or retirement. But nobody really know, they need to raise the minimum wage small steps at a time, and back off if inflation starts spiking.

It's very dangerous to buy into simplistic outrage about wealth inequality. If everyone's ATF has all her teeth, but yours is missing one, that doesn't mean you'd be happier if your ATF and everyone else's had no teeth. Better to just figure out how to get your ATF to the dentist.

"The US ranks 36th in math. (2018 rankings)"
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We're a country of extreme wealth inequality and that translates to the classroom. I guarantee that the wealthy kids in Palo Alto or Los Altos, taking a max load of AP courses and getting private tutors, don't lag anyone in the world. Mix in the kids from cities like Compton or Hawthone and you get a low ranking overall.

Ahem to that. We need a minimum budget per student for the whole country.

One part of the labor shortage is a large number of two income families that have chosen to have one spouse remain at home, post CoVid. When you consider taxes, commuting cost, and daycare expenses, a lot of families have realized a second income doesn’t contribute as much financially as they thought. The lock downs opened people’s eyes to this.

Amen not Ahem

“It is not great wealth in a few individuals that proves a country is prosperous, but great general wealth evenly distributed among the people . . . It is the struggling masses who are the foundation of this country; and if the foundation be rotten or insecure, the rest of the structure must eventually crumble.”

~ Victoria California Claflin aka Victoria Woodhull
~ American leader of the women's suffrage movement
~ Victoria Woodhull ran for President of the United States and Frederick Douglass for Vice President of the United States in the 1872 presidential election for the Equal Rights Party.

~ Born September 23, 1838 Homer, Ohio, US
~ Died June 9, 1927 Bredon, Worcestershire, UK

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The really lazy ones are lobbying the government to support their no-work life style - and shameful pandering politicians are feeding it - promising free “universal basic” monthly income, forgiveness of student loans, free housing, healthcare and everything else an able bodied person should pay for themselves.

The “rich” and corporations will pay for it with higher taxes, but as the “rich” and corporations move offshore taking their jobs with them and there’s just not enough money, every hard working person making money and paying taxes will be their new “rich” who will be required to pay more.

RandomMember
Totally agree 100% with what you said. There’s always going to be a small set of students at every high school that can compete with the best in the world but it seems those numbers are shrinking.

I look back at my old high school. The town I grew up always had lots of low skilled manufacturing jobs available. In the 70’s there was a flood of families that moved in from Tennessee and ex coal miners from West Virginia. There is a small liberal arts college in town and the top students year after year were kids of college professors. Even with the new arrivals - many of whose parents never finished high school - the school consistently ranked in the top 30% in the state.

But not any longer. The high achievers are still there. But the school is the bottom 5% in the state rankings based upon test scores. Something changed in 40 years

^ The education system may very well suck, but I don't think that's the reason small businesses are having such trouble filling jobs, My thought is the collective attitudes Americans have developed towards work and the types of jobs needing workers, that's not to say education is not important, but we really need to rethink the attitudes we bring our children up with, we've taught them that a job that requires hands on work or tools that aren't computerized are low skilled and attached a derogatory label on them, but the future will belong to those that monetize the skills that are becoming rarer every day. Many of our young people can't handle simple requirements like being at work on time, and following instructions. We really need to emphasize some other training to make our youth employable, we can teach math all day long but if that person can't get themselves to work on time it really won't make a difference or help our competiveness as a nation

Agree - the commitment of parents (preferably mom and dad - not just momma or granny) to their child’s education is far more important than school or teachers (which do have an important role). Parents who don’t believe in school and education are going to pass that on to their kids.

Genetics plays a part too. Low IQ parents are not going to magically produce high IQ kids. Sorry. Unfortunately we’re not all created equal.

Gee importing poor, illiterate people doesn't help the work force? End public welfare and the fuckers will work.

Ski bum - I agree generally, but the way immigrant Mexicans have thrived in the manual jobs and trades is an economic phenomenon. They have virtually taken over the mostly non-union home construction jobs through sheer hard work and surprising skill. Many have talent without formal training.

^^ "End public welfare and the fuckers will work."
Maybe, but who will hire them if they don't have the basic skills necessary to figure out how to get to a job on time, and ready to work ?
I give those Hispanic immigrants credit, they have an instilled work ethic that is sadly lacking in many native born youths.

In the 1800s, it was very normal for people to work 70+ hours. I wouldn't blame them for calling me lazy, but I wouldn't feel guilty either. In the next decades, if it doesn't turn into Mad Max land, there will be many people who can't or won't do any labor with economic value. If you gas them like Hitler, the gubment has to do that, so they will inevitable gas the wrong people, and then we'll be in Mad Max land. So we'll need a basic income system eventually.

The Mexicans who bust ass come from small towns. 70 - 100 years ago, when Black people came out of small towns in the South, they busted ass in the same way, did all the same stuff, made a plate or found a spot to sleep for the new people who had just arrived. Now a lot of Black and Latino people in big cities can't go five block from their place without getting shot, never mind move across the country to earn more money. There is something about being poor in the city (rather than in the country) that seems to make people go to shit.

9 in 10 small business owners need to give prospective employees some real incentives

We import illiterate losers and wonder why we fail lol.

The best you can do, when faced with a shortage of qualified workers, is to hire for character and train for skill. That's what I've been doing, and it is hard work during the training period. However, it does build trustworthy, loyal employees with strong work ethics. On the flip side, it is much harder to find jobseekers of good character than you would think. There are a lot of imposters, socialists, and general fucking idiots out there applying to everything.

“The best you can do, when faced with a shortage of qualified workers, is to hire for character and train for skill.”

That’s a great idea. That’s basically what I did with my last hire. We have a mechanical aptitude test for applicants. The desired score is 67% or higher. Not really a high bar. Very few are applying so I took a chance on this kid. He scored about 59% on the test - not terrible but wouldn’t have been considered 2-3 years ago. Great kid. High character. But can’t even use a screw driver or turn a wrench. But he’s willing to learn. That’s all we can hope for.

Some people (Icee) say companies need to pay more. This kid, with zero skills, is making $25.50 per hour, company paid vision and dental and low cost medical ($30 per week) from day one with $500 contribution to an HSA. 401k match. Tell me that’s not fair for an unskilled worker.

The TJ Mongers better hope motorhead doesn't start a Mexican subsidiary. All the HK club girls will make more working for him.

We are absolutely trouncing our local competitors right now. They can't keep guys because they don't pay shit. It's affecting their customers and we are getting their business hand over fist. All because I pay my guys $2/hr more lol. Such a small additional amount on my P&L I have no idea why so many companies are dying on that hill.

It's been a while but I remember a chart from school. If an item is in demand, the people that demand that item can do something to ensure their demands are fulfilled. I just can;t for the life of me remember what it is...what was that y-axis labeled dang it oh well we've tried everything nothing works.

What Color Is Your Parchute, 2020, by Richard Nelson Bolles, says that there are 150 to 250 resumes sent in for any opening. Now by this they don't mean junk jobs, they mean livable wages, something someone can build a carrier on, a path upwards.

And these folks who can't fill their openings? Well if they are so good, what happened to their previous crew?

SJG

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