How tough can it be to pour concrete?
Ok, now that I’ve taken care of something trivial it’s time to move onto things that matter…
I was looking in on some of the other blogs when I found an item over at Pink Slips are the New Black that caught my eye. Apparently there is a new article over at Business Week that is getting some attention which focuses on why there are 3 million jobs that are available right now, but that employers are having difficulty filling them.
Ordinarily you would be thinking that anyone would jump at the chance to apply for, interview for and perform a job – any job given the state of the economy right now. Well actually, they are. The problem lies not with the job seekers in most cases, the problem lies with the jobs themselves and the people who are trying to fill them.
The article opens up with “Surprising statistic: In the midst of the worst recession in a generation or more, with 13 million people unemployed, there are approximately 3 million jobs that employers are actively recruiting for but so far have been unable to fill. That’s more job openings than the entire population of Mississippi.
Sound like good news? It’s not. Instead, it’s evidence of an emerging structural shift in the U.S. economy that has created serious mismatches between workers and employers. People thrown out of shrinking sectors such as construction, finance, and retail lack the skills and training for openings in growing fields including education, accounting, health care, and government. At the same time, the worst housing bust in decades has left the unemployed frozen in place. They can’t move to get work because they can’t sell their homes.”
This is the problem that many of us in the job market have been experiencing for a while now. It has been very frustrating for us to have gone out there into the job market to be given different reasons why we were not going to get the job – if any reasons were given at all. Plus looking in the local fishwrap every morning and seeing the same jobs advertised day after day that we know we don’t have the training for is disheartening to say the least. I see it in The Idaho Statesman everyday: the same jobs for Health Care, Sales, Transportation are there every day. These are jobs that in some cases require either years of experience or intensive training, and if you are coming from a Construction, Finance or Retail background you are unlikely to have either.
The article then goes into the harsh realities of this new dynamic where employers are going to have to accept the fact that they may have to hire someone who is not a “perfect fit” for the job and that some on-the-job-training is going to be required. They happen to be right, some standards are going to have to be loosened on the part of employers if they really want to fill vacancies. Hell, I would accept a job filling potholes for the Dept. of Transportation if they were 1) willing to re-train me, and 2) were actually hiring.
The article also goes into the fact that even though some people may be qualified for some of these jobs, they don’t want to have to move to another part of the country in order to take a job. Well the “white-collar” crowd might be able to be that choosy, but don’t lump the “blue-collar” workers in there with them! There are lots of people in this country who would be willing to pick up and move to a new city if it meant there would be a job waiting for them when they get there. There are some of us who have done that – packed up and moved to a new city – in the hope of finding a new job. For some of us it has worked out, for others (like me) not so much.
Then you have a labor rep in the article saying that it’s the fault of employers for not offering a high enough salary to their prospects. Sorry, but I think that’s a load of crap. I don’t think that a rep from the AFL-CIO can seriously expect anyone to buy that argument in this economy when companies are gong under and businesses are going broke. But sometimes higher pay is not the solution, sometimes the solution lies in having these workers re-trained.
That’s where part of the stimulus package comes in as $3.5 billion has been set aside for training as well as support for community colleges. That’s all well and good, but some of us out here don’t have the time it would take to go through classes, nor do we have the money to spend on registration fees and are looking for a solution (aka, a job) right now. Trust me if I had the time, the money and a local community college in the area I would look into re-training myself for one of the growing fields. But since I have none of those things I have to put together a killer cover letter, send it along with my resume into DirecTV and hope they think I would make a good fit for the local call center.
Now I don’t mind going down a few rungs on the career ladder and bringing my pay along with it like an economist says in the article. In my last “real job” I made $25k a year, and in retail the most I ever made was $16k, so if I could make something in that range then I don’t mind, it’s a paycheck after all. At this point I would be willing to take something around the $8k range which is what I was making at my first job – back when the minimum wage was $4.25. However I would have to do some fast talking to wifey to convince her that I should take the job and we might have to declare bankruptcy soon afterward buy hey, a job is a job so being underemployed might be better than being underutilized, right?
What we really need is for employers out there to be more flexible in their hiring practices and for them to not be so choosy about who they bring in to interview much less who they hire. The ‘perfect fit” for the job might not be out there, it might not even exist. If you are an employer and you are reading this, maybe the best you can hope for is a 42-year-old, long-haired, nearsighted blogger who has Retail and Office experience to offer someone who would be willing to look past his Theatre degree and take a chance on hiring him so he and his wife can stay in their home and he can pay for the medicine his wife needs to shrink her Pituitary Tumor.
Bottom line: employers need to be willing to take a chance on someone like you and me in order to help get this economy going again. They shouldn’t be put off by our resumes and just assume that we are “overqualified” for a particular job. They shouldn’t be afraid to take a chance and hire someone who is willing to learn on the job. I’ve heard it so many times: “If it were me, I’d take a job shovelling shit and not complain. I would be grateful for the job!” It’s not the shovelling shit part that we’re complaining about, it’s not being given the opportunity to prove that we can do it that bothers us.
And that is the thing that has to change, for all of our sakes!
It gets depressing looking at the same ads, both in newspapers and on line. Most employers who say they are hiring, aren’t, but are “trying to show the home office they are taking applications” anyway. I have heard many excuses, and then I have heard I would be called back and then they don’t. The same job I applied for, my son got. Not envious, just wondered why…
How sad it is that most people don’t see beyond the resume paper. In interviews, most interviewers look at you like you have a problem if they don’t like the reason you give as to why you have been out of work for awhile. If they could just look at the potential, look at the person before them, and are willing to take the chance on that person, this economy just might pick up some. Hard to do when no one is willing to train or willing to listen.Most people I know who are unemployed just want to make a living to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table. most are fast learners, some specialize in certain fields, and most are willing to try anything. If a person has potential, they should at least be given the opportunity to prove themselves. I remember my husband telling his former boss that he had never installed guttering before but he was willing to try. He would even work for him for two days free if he would give him the chance. Guess what? He was hired on and worked for this man for a few years before the economy slowed down and work, too. The man moved my husband into a forman job within a month. He saw my husband’s potential. And my husband proved his worth by doing exactly what he was taught and what skills the military gave him. Not many bosses do that. It hasn’t been like that in many years. Now adays, it is you know the job or you don’t, and if you don’t, we won’t waste our time and money on you kind of thing. How sad that many are out of work because of additudes like that but the truth is, it happens. People need to work but many are being over looked because we are over-qualified, unskilled, untrained, out of work too long, and potential employers see us as lazy and unlikely candidates for their company. Unfortunately, it doesn’t pay the bills we have or the groceries. Society, companies need to stop steretyping the unemployed and look beyond the black and write paper and start taking a chance on people. They might be surprised how dedicated and asset one can become if they do.
The people who are in charge of hiring need to realize that if this economy is going to get moving again then some of them are going to have to take chances. Take a chance on someone who might not be “perfect” for the job. Take a chance on someone who looks “good enough” for the post – they might surprise you.
Doesn’t matter what a person looks like, as long as he has the integrity to do the job. They won’t know unless they are willing to take the leap of faith and try someone new and could very well, be pleasantly surprised. Sometimes I wonder why so many companies don’t want to take that risk. What is it they are afraid of? That the person they hire could be smarter, better or more intellegent for the job than the person who actually does the hiring, firing, interview?! Stereotyping hurts. Sometimes it is prejudices. sometimes it is them wanting to boost their power. All we ask for is a job that we can do, will try to do and could probably do … IF given the chance, and someone believing in us for our effort.
I think what some of them are afraid of is looking bad in the eyes of their own boss if the person they hire turns out to be a flake, or worse. I think that they would rather make the safe choice that they know should work out – at least on paper.
I know in my case there was one relative who kept telling me that the reason that I hadn’t gotten a job yet was because I have long hair (shoulder length). The problem with that is that I live in an area where long hair on men is not uncommon. I’ve seen more than a few guys on the job around town who have their hair tied back and nobody says ‘boo’ about it.
But mostly I think it’s because I have been out of an office environment for too long for some of them. The last office job I had was 6 1/2 years ago, and between then and now I tried outside sales to no avail. If they took a chance on me they would be pleasantly surprised at how well I would work out. I know how to work a computer, I have various job experiences that would translate well to most anything.
I don’t know, maybe I’m a kind of modern-day Rennisance Man – Jack of all trades and a master of none.
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