Unemployment…what unemployment?
posted by Glen Stidolph in Blog |
Many thanks to Kevin Meyer of the Evolving Excellence Blog once again for highlighting what would seem to be an anomaly contrary to popular perceptions in the US.
Despite the increase in alarmist media and populist rhetoric from would-be presidential candidates, about the harm that Outsourcing is doing to blue collar America, with increasing millions of unemployed, the figures are actually near record lows.
Economists believe that the US is near the “full employment” level, where the 4.5% rate is reflective of normal ongoing churn, the perpetually unemployable, and those who simply don’t want to be employed.
An area supposedly hardest hit by the ongoing quantum shift in Manufacturing such as Wisconsin is no different; rates are still just a percent or so above the national average. This means there’s considerable competition for workers among the manufacturers that have figured out how to thrive in a supposedly adverse environment.
From the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel,
Lots of manufacturers around Milwaukee complain they have a hard time hiring. They tell pollsters this. They fret about it. They hold cookouts on the front lawn, as Milwaukee’s Tramont Corp. did, trying to attract applicants. They recruit in poor neighborhoods and run training programs with tech schools, snapping up the grads at $14 an hour. It’s not just skilled jobs, says Mike Klonsinski, who heads the Wisconsin Manufacturing Extension Partnership. There are a lot of jobs for people without specialized skills, he says, and they’re vacant, too.
Hmm….and I, (Along with CNN, Hilary Clinton et al) thought all the jobs were now in China, India and Malaysia creating mass unemployment.
People are baffled when they see neighborhoods with high unemployment while manufacturers, even those nearby, can’t find enough workers. Yet the mismatch is real, says Jim Paetsch, who tracks businesses’ needs for the non-profit Milwaukee Development Corp.
So what is actually going on in the US?
Rakow wonders whether many of those who remain unemployed are, largely, the unemployable. This seems improbable, given joblessness rates among the poor. “Part of it is even getting people to apply and getting people to show up and show up on time,” says Klonsinski. Forget about knowing how to weld. A lot of factories are having a hard time finding people who simply know they have to arrive before the start of every shift. Some observers say it is employers’ unwillingness to hire ex-cons that derails the poor, but, says Rakow, “I’ve hired plenty of people who have felony convictions.” He has to: Close to 40% of his applicants have a felony in their past.
But some companies are investing in training to tap into a previously “unemployable” segment.
Factories find it hard to get people with even the most basic of skills - simple math, the ability to communicate or to see how a task fits into a process. These are important as factories adopt methods, such as lean manufacturing, that put more responsibility in workers’ hands. Such techniques can keep a factory competitive. “None of this stuff is untrainable,” says Paetsch - if employees actually go to work. Yet even that more basic prerequisite of knowing what it means to have a job - “soft skills,” as they’re called - can’t be taken for granted.
Perhaps its just easier to blame outsourcing on what would seem to be a problem that is much closer to home.
