A FL Worker Applied to 60 Jobs to Show Employers Are Driving US “Labor Shortage”

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A social media post by a Florida worker has shone new light on the debate over the so-called labor shortage in the United States, revealing that employer behavior is largely the reason why businesses currently can’t seem to find enough workers.

Joey Holz, a former food service worker and charter boat crew member, was tired of hearing complaints about a labor shortage, both online and offline.

According to reporting from Business Insider, Holz first recalled hearing about the so-called shortage through a “rant” from an individual managing a plasma donation clinic in Fort Myers, Florida. That person expressed frustration to Holz, claiming that they couldn’t find help and that they couldn’t “keep anybody in [their] medical facility because they all quit over the stimulus checks.”

“I’m like, ‘Your medical professionals quit over $1,200 checks? That’s weird,” Holz said.

Holz then joined a Facebook group showcasing employers from across the country making similar complaints. Many of the comments blamed stimulus payments and extended unemployment benefits for the supposed worker shortage — even though 26 states ended extended unemployment benefits in June and July, and the benefits expired nationwide in September.

To discern if employers’ complaints were real or imagined, Holz decided to set up a social experiment: He spent the entire month of September sending out job applications.

In total, he sent around 60 applications to employers in his area, each in response to a posting seeking entry-level help for a job he was qualified to work for.

“I didn’t apply for anything that required a degree,” Holz explained. “I didn’t apply for anything that said ‘must have six months experience in this thing.'”

After applying to 58 places, Holz was invited to a single interview. The job involved cleaning construction sites and advertised a payment rate of $10 an hour for full-time work — but when Holz arrived at the interview, he found that though the job had the potential to reach that rate, it would only pay $8.65 an hour at its start. The employer would also only offer part-time work until he gained seniority on the construction crew.

“58 applications says y’all aren’t desperate for workers, you just miss your slaves,” Holz noted in a Facebook post sharing his findings.

Holz said that only 5 percent of his applications resulted in a phone call from employers. Another 20 percent of his applications resulted in an email response. But nearly three quarters of his applications were completely ignored.

Social media users responded to Holz’s experiment, agreeing that the labor shortage so many employers are lamenting is a result of how employees are being treated, rather than a lack of willingness to work.

“There’s no labor shortage; There’s a shortage of employers paying fair wages,” wrote one user on Twitter.

A local news reporter in Florida offered his own take on the story. “Alternative Headline: Florida Man Shows Hiring Shortages Aren’t Due To ‘Lazy’ People,” wrote Spectrum News affiliate reporter Greg Angel.

“Businesses, not workers, are the problem” when it comes to finding workers, opined writer Rich Campbell.

Labor leaders and politicians also weighed in on the issue.

“Is anyone seeing that labor shortage the GOP keeps wailing about? Because all I’m seeing is a wage shortage for workers and poor hiring practices,” wrote Scott Huffman, a candidate for Congress in North Carolina.

David Schapira, a union official in California, said that “long-standing worker oppression, poverty wages & poor working conditions” were the real reason behind labor shortages. “Employers have power to end this crisis!” he added.

Georgia state Rep. Renitta Shannon (D) also shared the article describing Holz’s research, noting that Gov. Brian Kemp (R) had pushed the false claims that federal assistance to workers had somehow contributed to worker shortages.

“No surprise here,” Shannon tweeted, adding that “anti worker policies = bad for businesses.”

On his own part, Holz also told Business Insider that he didn’t feel the need to leave his real job because he is treated well there by his boss.

“Nobody leaves those positions because he takes care of his people,” Holz noted.
https://truthout.org/articles/a-fl-work ... -shortage/

People will be happy to get jobs if you pay fair wages for the work they do for the employer.
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"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

Re: A FL Worker Applied to 60 Jobs to Show Employers Are Driving US “Labor Shortage”

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I suspect much of this is about the same as it was for myself and wife back in mid 60's. We both worked blue collar, had children, mortgage, childcare, food, transportation, etc. Finally, when we sat down and put a pencil to it, if not a push, we were clearing about $6-$12 at best per MONTH after expenses and taxes with wife working, which wasn't worth the effort. I presume it's the same today - just treading water for no real return.
"Being Republican is more than a difference of opinion - it's a character flaw." "COVID can fix STUPID!"
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Re: A FL Worker Applied to 60 Jobs to Show Employers Are Driving US “Labor Shortage”

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Many years ago (late 90’s)I drove tractor trailers for a living. As long haul the best I could make was about $20 an hour but was exhausted all the time and had no life. I switched to local but the best I could make there was $10.50 an hour. I would work 12-16 hours a day, no overtime because there a loop hole for truckers, to make ends meet but at least I got to sleep in the same be as my girlfriend. As soon as someone offered me a crack at a trade I dropped trucking like a hot rock. I still have my class A license and own my own fifth wheel so the skills are still there. They’re crying out for drivers right now but fuck them. The minimum I would accept today for local is 80k and you’d probably have to go north of 100K for me to even consider long haul. Fuck ‘em, they should have paid us fairly and more of us may have stuck around.
'Sorry stupid people but there are some definite disadvantages to being stupid."

-John Cleese

Re: A FL Worker Applied to 60 Jobs to Show Employers Are Driving US “Labor Shortage”

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Talking heads can spin this issue 12 ways till Sunday. Its not goin to change the fact that we have a situation that is a very fundamental axiom of economics; Market equilibrium.
The price for employment isn't reaching the level where members of the public are interested in doing the work. Until that equilibrium is met, the employment shortage will never abate.
The SBA and or other government programs need to step in to help with this situation, because the low wage employers (small and medium sized businesses) CAN'T raise their wages to meet that equilibrium; and I'm not sure Biden realizes that (because no one is talking about it).

These small and medium businesses (large business are without excuse) just endured a full year of little to no business, which is little to no income. Yet they still had to pay rent, and healthcare benefits, etc...they are all financially tapped out. The SBA and other government programs need to offer some financial assistance so they can get over the hump, adjust their prices, and business can return to normal.
“I think there’s a right-wing conspiracy to promote the idea of a left-wing conspiracy”

Re: A FL Worker Applied to 60 Jobs to Show Employers Are Driving US “Labor Shortage”

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The unwillingness of business owners and managers to pay the market rate for a necessary input to their production is not new. It is primary reason for slavery--unwilling to pay the market price. They may pay it for all their other inputs--gas, oil, plastics, wood, wool, electricity, etc, but they don't want to pay it for labor.
So they are squawking against unions, against relief checks, against raising the minimum wage, and doing what they've done for centuries:

Gas-lighting about what the problem is...and isn't.
"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."

Re: A FL Worker Applied to 60 Jobs to Show Employers Are Driving US “Labor Shortage”

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I'm not convinced that this guys experience can be generalized to the entire labor market, there are a lot of factors in motion. As an outsider I saw long haul trucking ads prior to the pandemic, seems companies wanted truckers to have his/her own tractor to get jobs and some required trailers and that's a huge expense. If they weren't working during the pandemic they couldn't make payments on their equipment. Online buying really expanded during the pandemic because of safety and convenience and people working under the table and at home wouldn't show in the government stats.

The holidays are around the corner and people now want consumer goods and the Asian manufacturing machines are producing them, but they clogged the LA-Long Beach ports complex along with the NY-NJ ports etc. Last article I saw stated there were 200,000 containers on ships off the LA-Long Beach ports waiting to get unloaded.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: A FL Worker Applied to 60 Jobs to Show Employers Are Driving US “Labor Shortage”

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Every truck driver I know gripes about how the companies are shafting drivers any way they can, which of course leads to a revolving door on the left side of the truck, which leads to companies like Swift having horrible reputations for driver quality.

While pay is certainly a big factor for a lot of drivers, even OTR folks want some home time (well, many of them would like more...I won't speak for all of them).

In the late 1970s, it seemed like it could be a good living, if a so-so or crappy life. As soon as Ronnie RayGunz pushed for deregulation of the ICC, it went from so-so to lousy, unless one got a plush job like pulling doubles for UPS (and the Teamsters have a lot to do with that being a fairly good gig, even though I cringe at the way I was treated by that union when I worked for UPS).
Eventually I'll figure out this signature thing and decide what I want to put here.

Re: A FL Worker Applied to 60 Jobs to Show Employers Are Driving US “Labor Shortage”

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Part of the problem here is the application process. Qualified people are being deliberately filtered out during the processing of applications. My wife has been looking for a retail job for about 3 months. Almost all retail stores (and other employers as well) use online applications. They ask a lot of questions, many of which are repetitive. And they get around certain legal restrictions by asking for info that can be used to determine what they are not supposed to ask. For instance, they can't ask your age. But they do ask when did you graduate from high school. It's not hard to figure out your age from that. All of these applications have filters running in the background that look for certain keywords. When you are describing your work experience if you don't use the right key words, you application goes to the waste basket. Also if you have large gaps in employment, that is almost automatic disqualification. My wife retired when I did in 2004 and hasn't had a job since. The few interviews she did get, The first question was "why haven't you had a job since 2004?". To top it all off, after you have spent two hours filling out an online application with all your work listed. all your education, training, skills etc, They make you attach a resume, and in some cases a cover letter, which has all the same info in it that you filled out. Out of all the applications she filled out she got maybe 5 or six replies, got four interviews (maybe 5) and only one job offer, which was unacceptable. She is being disqualified by most of these simply because of her age. She has more than ample experience, for that matter a couple of decades of experience.

There is no labor shortage. Qualified people are looking. Qualified people are being disqualified by the process. And as has been said before employers aren't offering what the applicants are looking for.
Peter D. EIkenberry
http://newboatbuilders.com
"Don't tell me that I can't, tell me how I can!"

Re: A FL Worker Applied to 60 Jobs to Show Employers Are Driving US “Labor Shortage”

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I feel for your wife, over 40 is a protected age category under federal law, but some employers get around it by finding other reasons not to hire a candidate. Retail seems to be big on Integrity Tests, they justify it by stats on employee pilferage and sometimes give multiple Integrity Tests. Reality in many small businesses is that the person doing the hiring is ignorant of HR laws so they ask about a persons marital status, if they have kids, if they ever applied for worker's comp or were a member of a union, or if they ever went bankrupt, about a persons race or ethnicity, all illegal questions.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

A FL Worker Applied to 60 Jobs to Show Employers Are Driving US “Labor Shortage”

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Such “shortages” have been going on for years in the skilled trades. In my late 20s, I went back to school to get an AAS degree in HVAC. After graduating with honors, I applied at 32 places, and I only got five interviews. The one job offer I got (and took) ended up paying me less than I was making as a public sector janitor. I ended up quitting that job after less than a year, as it was clear that they were simply using me to maximize their profitability (a promised raise was greatly delayed, and even though I started figuring out things more seasoned technicians couldn’t, no raises followed that).

A lot of skilled trades positions are paying around $15 to $20 per hour (HVAC, plumbing, automotive, carpentry, etc.). Meanwhile, around where I live warehouse workers and graveyard shift grocey store workers start at around $20.00 to $22.00+ per hour and are guaranteed 40 hours of work per week throughout the year if full-time. Many of those low paying trades positions also want an applicant to have years of experience.

I am convinced that trade schools and employers harped about a “shortage” with the aim of deliberately oversaturating the job market to drive down wages to rock bottom levels. The skills no longer pay the bills. The “shortage” is now being generalized across the board in all fields of work.


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