CBS (I believe it was the morning show) did a report from an electronics house run by the daughter of a friend. (This shop was the only one I could find that made new stuff work the first time.) They have 30 employees.  About half are women.  She said they could hire another 15 immediately if they could find them.  That lack of employees is costing her $5 million in business.

The piece also notes a sharp increase in male adults who no longer work.  That was the point.  Why?  Speculation includes they do not have skills, only want jobs with instant gratification, fear getting dirty, etc.

One increasing problem are males routinely saying TL:DR.  Who play video games; don't learn that something must be done (and fail) nine times before success in the tenth attempt.  So many who do not even know how to use a hammer and screwdriver.

Most males no longer know how to change their motor oil.
 

Last edited by tw (2/16/2023 6:11 pm)

So they are not twenty somethings.

Do not know how much they pay.  But other shops could not assemble products that always worked the first time.

Even encountered electronic techs who had no idea how to debug simple digital logic.  Its not hard.  If the output is defective, then either one digital input is defective.  Or that digital IC is defective.  Amazing how many twenty year old electronic techs did not even understand that.

Same was seen in the welding industry.  They could not find qualified welders.  Of course not.  The industry was not teaching welders (upgrading their skills).  Because that welder would then deserve more money.  What business school graduates did not understand, a welder that costs more means higher profits.  Many companies have no training - to cut costs.  Therefore decrease profits.  Due to a serious shortage even of "on the job" training.

A responsible (growing) company trains / retrains employees for two weeks every year.
 

Happy Monkey wrote:

Offering $12/hour, and expect them to already be fully trained up.

Anyone who cannot use a hammer and screw driver is not even worth $12/hour.  And then she said they don't need any training.  Electrosoft will train them.

Same with the alarm system company.  He could not keep employees.   They did not even know how to drill holes or run ethernet wires.

Not much training is necessary to teach someone to only drill holes in the center of a joist (never near top or bottom).  And still many workers don't get it.  For a variety of reasons.

In one diner, they cannot find cooks.  Why?  Manager told me, they cannot find anyone who will follow rules necessary for human health. Video games also do not teach that.

Numerous reasons for so many unfilled jobs.  And many who cannot get obtain / keep one.

Scary are so many twenty year olds who say TL;DR.  Because it is more than two paragraphs.
 

Last edited by tw (2/20/2023 10:36 am)

Clodfobble wrote:

Believe whatever you want, man. The business I help run pays above market rate for what we are, and we have more qualified applicants than we can hire. The ones we do hire are not only great at their jobs, they're happy to do us favors like take a shift at the last second.

By paying workers above market rate, then a company is more profitable.  That explains why Electrosoft constantly got our business.

You have assumed they cannot hire people due to low salaries.  Their quality workmanship indicates above market rates.  But they still cannot find enough workers.  They are even willing to train them.  And still have a worker problem.

For the same reason a diner's manager could not find cooks even when offering more money.  They could not find cooks who would follow the rules. Even when taught.

I was amazed how many so called computer experts do not even know basic internal computer functions.  Or even what a transistor is.  OK.  Maybe they can be trained.  But when I try to explain this stuff, they don't want to know.  Only want to be provided a solution.  Do not want to know how to create that solution.

This is a sharp change from so many previous generations.  TL;DR (a short attention span) has seriously increased. Maybe video games?  Maybe helicopter parents?  All that is only speculation.  But I have seen a trend; what Electrosoft and CBS News indicated.

If in Austin, then you are also in an area where this trend will be less apparent for much longer.  I believe the average # of people with master's degrees in that region is maybe as high as 20%.  Where such numbers, in venues where this trend would be apparent first, would be somewhere below 10%.  Similar disparity would appear at all education levels.

Trend would be more apparent in venues where education levels are also lower.

Another trend.  Women are now significant more educated than men. Notice in that Electrosoft piece, find more women than men willing to work.

If someone only has a 30 second attention span, then how will he be trained?  But what I observe most are the many who do not want to learn. Only want to be given a solution.  Do not want to learn how to solve such problems.

 

Clodfobble wrote:

Where are the numbers, my friend? Ask your Electrosoft lady, and the alarm system guy, and the diner manager exactly what salaries they are offering. Post it here.

The alarm guy's business was not doing well.  He did not hang onto employees very long.   I believe money was a problem.  But the immediate response he got from most interviewed kids; they did not want a dirty job.  He discovered many did not know how to use a screw driver and hammer.  So that eventually became part of the interview test.100% were expected to know that.

Many different wages are in an electronics assembly house.  When I was working with them, the founders were paying above minimum wage just for untrained techs.  That was long before public opinion demanded companies pay above minimum wage (even before the Cellar was on the internet).  I can only assume his daughter (who now runs it) is doing same.  And yet same problems.  Many guys do not want to work that job.  Noteable are the number of immigrant who did.  And kept their job because they could do good work.  Clearly had a necessary attitude to work.

As noted earlier, when I walked in, the first thing I saw.  This place knows how to make things work right.

Maybe the problem is America that no longer wants the people who most make America great - immigrants (legal or illegal).  Again, speculation based only on constant observations.  Maybe the can no longer find enough immigrants?

Even back then, their manager that finally held that job (because she was good) was a older women with a good attitude..

Money may be a factor.  I have seen five decades of twenty year olds.  It is extremely depressing to see how many currently do not know how things work.  (ie do not even know how a computer works or know what a transistor is).  And do not want to know why.  TL;DR is an attitude most common in this latest breed of twenty year old men.  I never saw that previously.  I now see it frequently.

Too often, I get questions that are answered by simply pinting to a paragraph they were suppose to read.  Also shocking is how many no longer have the necessary attention span.  Then ask questions that are answered by simply pointing to the relevant paragraph.  Also a recent trend.

Another trend.  I am surprised how many twenty somethings are not manipulated by the "Buy American lie".  However ask then why and many still do not know.  Patriots believe in the free market.  Ignorant people hate the free market; buy American.  Ok. Maybe that is asking too much of a twenty year old.  But the fact that well over 50% now know foreign cars are superior is a significant change.  Why?  Again, I can only speculate why.  But the trend is significant (ie tens of percents different).