Colorado: What Its Like in Places Where Unemployment Is Too Low

[mahatmakanejeeves]

His truckers are ages 75& 82. "That’s what we’re down to," Colorado biz on woes of 1.3% unemployment. https://www.wsj.com/articles/in-areas-with-low-unemployment-employees-are-hard-to-keep-1496433791 … #JobsReport

Link to tweet

What It’s Like in Places Where Unemployment Is Too Low
For three Colorado counties, having the lowest jobless rate in the country has a downside

By Jennifer Levitz

http://twitter.com/jenniferlevitz
[e-mail]

June 2, 2017 4:03 p.m. ET

Three counties in Colorado—Baca, Summit and Yuma—have the lowest unemployment in the country, which is making things tricky for area employers and residents.

Gary Hoffner, a manager for an agricultural products company in Yuma County, where the non-seasonally adjusted jobless rate was 1.3% in April, said he went out and bought two trucks with automatic transmissions so his senior drivers don’t have to shift gears. ... “Two of my truck drivers right now, one of them is 75 and another is 82,” said Mr. Hoffner, location manager for Agrium Inc.’s Crop Production Services. “I mean, that’s what we’re down to.” ... In Baca County, plumbers, electricians and other contractors are in such short supply that homeowners might have to wait a year or more for someone to come out, said County Commissioner Peter Dawson. Workers have the upper hand. “It’s easy enough to quit one job and go to work within a couple of days with somebody else,” Mr. Dawson said.

The labor market is getting tighter as the U.S. jobless rate fell to 4.3% in May, the lowest level in 16 years. Colorado had the lowest unemployment rate of all states at 2.3% in April, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, followed by Hawaii, North Dakota and New Hampshire.

“It’s a good problem to have on some level, but it is a business concern because in order to have economic growth, you need to have an available supply of labor,” said Mark Melnik, the director of economic and public policy research at UMass Donahue Institute in Massachusetts.
....

Write to Jennifer Levitz at [e-mail]

Appeared in the June 3, 2017, print edition as 'What It’s Like in Areas With Lowest Unemployment.'

[klook]

1. "That's what we're down to."

I look forward to a day when older workers are valued, not regarded as what you get when you scrape the bottom of the barrel.

[rock]

2. I'm sure if you doubled the salaries

... do I really have to complete the thought?

[Girard442]

3. Simple Rule of Thumb: Every Story About Labor Shortages is a Lie.

If Gary Hoffner would double the money he pays truck drivers, he'd be swamped with job applications.

Homeowners wait a year or more for a plumber or electrician? Really? If some super-rich dude's plumbing gets clogged, he's going to wade around in poop for a whole year? You really believe that?

On edit: Rock beat me by 60 seconds. LOL

[Yonnie3]

4. I'm unable to view the article

so I may be not be fully informed.

I suspect that the article doesn't mention wages. If there is a labor shortage, having to pay higher wages is what the business owner would complain about, not about accommodating older employees. Having trucks with automatic transmissions increases the available pool of potential drivers.

[Girard442]

5. Only drove trucks on a farm and that was years ago, but...

...I'd image auto trannies would pay for themselves pretty quickly. No more "grind me a pound!"

[A HERETIC I AM]

6. These days they're becoming more and more prevalent....

because the software has caught up with the hardware.

Automatic transmissions in heavy trucks have been available for decades, but the biggest issue as to their widespread use has to do with software - the electronic controls on the engines had not properly matched the trannys. That is no longer the case. I work for a firm that has numerous auto transmissions and the road trucks (those on coast to coast trips) are averaging 9 + MPG. That was unheard of a mere ten years ago.