There are 7 million unemployed and 6.2 million job openings

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

WASHINGTON — The U.S. has a record 6.2 million job openings. It’s the highest number since the Labor Department began tracking job postings in 2000.

At the same time, there are 7 million unemployed Americans. That’s almost one job for every person searching for a role. This should be a no-brainer, right? Get the jobless onto the doorsteps of these employers.

Sadly, it’s not that easy. There are two fundamental problems with the job market today: Businesses complain they can’t find qualified workers to fill the jobs, and workers complain they aren’t getting paid enough.

The view from a lot of CEOs is that there aren’t any good workers left. Over half of small business owners in America say there are “few or no qualified applicants” for the jobs they have open right now, according to the latest NFIB Small Business Survey released hours before the Labor Department said there was a record number of job openings. We have heard for years that there aren’t enough computer programmers, but the grumbling goes deeper than that.

-snip-

“The demand for qualified warm bodies remains healthy but the supply of them remains stunted,” says Peter Boockvar, chief market analyst at The Lindsey Group in Virginia. He points out that over 18 percent of Americans between the ages of 25 and 54 aren’t working. That’s almost one in five people in that “prime age” category. It wasn’t like that in the boom times of the 1990s and early 2000s. There would be about 2.5 million more prime age workers employed today if the same percentage of Americans were working now as in the 1990s.

But workers also have a message for CEOs: Pay us more. Wages are barely growing. Companies have to pay up if they want better talent. During the Great Recession, there were almost 7 unemployed people for every job opening. Businesses could afford to be choosy — and offer low salaries. Today, the situation is dramatically different. There’s only 1 job seeker for every opening. Experts keep forecasting that wages will rise. This kind of “tight labor market” should trigger fatter paychecks for workers, but so far, that isn’t happening.

“When businesses give this anecdotal evidence that they can’t find the workers they want, the first thing I would ask them is: Have you increased your pay?” says economist Elise Gould of the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank.

http://www.heraldnet.com/business/there-are-7-million-unemployed-and-6-2-million-job-openings/

[HughBeaumont]

1. There are several degreed individuals on my FB feed alone looking for work.

In CIS. In Law. In STEM fields. Looking in major/mid markets.

BUPKIS.

What's the problem, execs? Pissed that you can't find PhD-holding polyglots with 20 years experience, know 9 syntaxes fluently, 35 years of age or younger and will work for 40K a year?

[Adrahil]

2. Are they willing to move?

My company is looking for engineers, including software engineers.

[exboyfil]

5. I think that is one issue

Without some assurance of stability many will not move.

My SIL wants a permanent mechanical engineering position (2016 grad). My daughter has one. He is on contract. They won't move until both are lined up with permanent positions.

[Adrahil]

8. Well, we do permanent hires....

We're not hiring ME's atm, but we sometimes do (I'm an ME myself). Lots of other open positions. Anyway, here's the opening page for anyone interested.

http://www.goctsi.com/careers/

[exboyfil]

4. The GOP will answer

it is those sweet welfare benefits that is keeping folks on the sidelines. You know the five dollars a day for food.

[GoCubsGo]

3. And, yet they refuse to hire those of us over "prime age."

I'm 56. I have been trying for years. I have applied for hundreds of jobs, many of which I was more than qualified to do. If I even got a response, it was inevitably, "You are not what we are looking for." Even though I did that same goddamn job for 20 fucking years. And, I was willing to take the 40% pay cut, as I wouldn't have applied for the damn job if I wasn't. Such bullshit.

[Cicada]

12. I used to hire people and older workers are the best

Older workers are more reliable, try harder, don't goof off. My experience hiring people was limited to one small company for just two years but I have never understood bias against older workers. I really think the bias should run the other way.

Maybe you should test this idea - say in your application that many seem reluctant to hire older workers but that in your opinion that is foolish because older workers are more reliable and work harder, that you are completely reliable and work hard and well.

Say it and some will believe it.

[Mariana]

16. Of course older workers are more reliable, try harder, etc.

They know perfectly well if their employer decides to get rid of people, they'll be first, unless they are much better than everyone else. They also know if they do get kicked out of the job they have, they may never get another one.

[Doreen]

6. Can't tell in my county that those jobs are available.

The only reason jobs are opening up right now is because kids are going to be going back to school and summer jobs are coming to an end. By the time school starts there will be no more jobs because they will have been filled. Most of the jobs are fast food, retail, farming ( which ends anyway ), yard work, and other odd jobs that are also not filled for the rest of the year. These are low paying Jobs and most of the people who take them are those who are barely making it working 2 jobs. It is almost like taking a job makes no difference in your financial circumstances because that extra money goes to getting to work and other things work related. Well that is my county. Maybe it is better in other places.

[Stargazer99]

7. how about training? if private industry refuses to do it -tax them let the government train

[lame54]

9. When i was looking years ago...

I had to go to 3 interviews for the $8 an hour job I did not get

And I'm a solid dependable employee

[leftstreet]

10. Are those full-time jobs?

[Amishman]

11. Where are the people? Where are the jobs?

There is a ton of geographic variance in the economy and job market.

The country would benefit if more was done to address this.

[gratuitous]

13. 7 million and three out of work

What are Sean Spicer, Reince Priebus, and Anthony Scaramucci doing these days to make ends meet? I hear there are farm harvesting jobs in California going begging, so much that farmers are having to let their crop rot in the fields.

[Calculating]

14. Seems like many employers have too high of expectations

The following were the listed requirements for a gardening supervisor job at the city park with a starting pay of $15 per hour:
-Bachelors degree in some botanical or horticultural field.
-4-5 years of experience in the field with references.
-Pesticide application license.
-Multi-lingual preferred (probably to communicate with the lower level hispanic gardeners.)
-Must pass drug and background tests.

All of that, for a glorified gardening job paying $15 per hour?

It seems like everything has a ridiculous list of requirements unless you're aiming for a sub $10 per hour crap job.

[Willie Pep]

19. Yeah that is crazy.

What ever happened to hiring people and letting them learn on the job, especially for non-technical jobs that don't require a ton of specific skills?

I don't know what to blame for this. Is it the emphasis on electronic, Internet-based hiring instead of face-to-face hiring? Is it revulsion at the idea of training people? I get the sense that companies used to be more willing to hire people and let them learn on the job, that was how you used to get people with few formal credentials sometimes climbing the ladder.

[Mariana]

20. Gardening supervisor.

I bet they have at least one person already on the gardening staff who could do the job just fine, but has no degree or supervisory experience so they aren't eligible for the promotion.

Companies don't want to spend dollar one training anyone, it seems. The part time job I have now does not require much in the way of skills, but there is some stuff to learn that is specific to that place. I've worked there since April. The people I work with are bright and hard working. My coworkers and I do our jobs reasonably well but we'd do it a whole lot better (and faster) if we had a dozen or so HOURS of training. They won't do it. They won't "waste" the money to schedule any of us for the extra time it would take, even though it would make us much more productive and they'd come out ahead pretty quickly.

[Willie Pep]

22. That is unfortunate.

I once had a job where my boss seemed to resent having to train me at all even though he had plenty of down time where he could have showed me some things. He would get mad when I would ask him questions. He spent about half of the day playing solitaire on his computer. I eventually left that place but I hear similar stories from other people too.

[SCantiGOP]

15. For mid and lower wage jobs

The problem is passing a drug test. That's why people for security jobs and truck drivers are in short supply.

[Calculating]

17. Something really needs to be changed with regard to cannabis and drug testing

The test is simply flawed and cannot determine if someone last used 3 weeks ago, or earlier that day. As more states legalize, and as usage rates go up, this problem will prevent more and more people from obtaining jobs which drug test. I'm convinced that they either need to stop testing for cannabis(They usually don't test for alcohol or nicotine) or they need to come up with a better test. I mean I wouldn't want to hire someone either if they started off the day smoking a bowl before coming in for the interview, but auto disqualifying a large number of applicants because they smoke on their own time doesn't seem ideal either.

[SCantiGOP]

18. Totally agree

A lot of jobs now exempt a positive for cannabis but many, like truck drivers and any job overseen by the DOT, can't do that.

[Arazi]

21. Wanted: Masters degree, 5+ years experience. Pay: $10.75/hr, no benefits

And don't even bnother applying if you're over 50