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The Daily Signal
Why Are So Many
Employers Unable to Fill Jobs?
Stephen Moore
April 06, 2015
The great conundrum of the U.S. economy today is that we have record
numbers of working age people out of the labor force at the same time
we have businesses desperately trying to find workers.
As an example, the American Transportation Research Institute estimates
there are 30,000-35,000 trucker jobs that could be filled tomorrow if
workers would take these jobs- a shortage that could rise to 240,000 by
2022.
While the jobs market overall remains weak, demand is high in certain
sectors.
For skilled and reliable mechanics, welders, engineers, electricians,
plumbers, computer technicians, and nurses, jobs are plentiful; one can
often find a job in 48 hours.
As Bob Funk, the president of Express Services, which matches almost
half a million temporary workers with employers each year, said, “If
you have a useful skill, we can find you a job. But too many are
graduating from high school and college without any skills at all.”
The lesson, to play off of the famous Waylon Jennings song: Momma don’t
let your babies grow up to be philosophy majors.
Three years ago the chronic disease of the economy was a shortage of
jobs. This shortage persists in many sectors. But two other shortages
are now being felt—the shortage of trained employees and of low-skilled
employees willing to work.
Patrick Doyle, the president of Domino’s Pizza, says that the
franchises around the country are having a hard time filling delivery
and clerical positions. “It’s a very tight labor market out there now.”
This shortage has an upside for workers because it allows them to bid
up wages. When Wal-Mart announced last month that wages for many
starter workers would rise to $9 an hour, well above the federal legal
minimum, they weren’t being humanitarians. They were responding to a
tightening labor market.
The idea that blue-collar jobs aren’t a pathway to the middle class and
higher is antiquated and wrong. Factory work today is often highly
sophisticated and knowledge-based with workers using intricate
scientific equipment.
After several years honing their skills, welders, mechanics,
carpenters, and technicians can, earn upwards of $50,000 a year—which
in most years still places a household with two such income earners in
the top 25 percent for income. It’s true these aren’t glitzy or cushy
jobs, but they do pay a good salary.
So why aren’t workers filling these available jobs—or getting the
skills necessary to fill them. I would posit these impediments to
putting more Americans back to work:
1) Government discourages work.
Welfare consists of dozens of different and overlapping federal and
state income support programs. A recent Census Bureau study found more
than 100 million Americans collecting a government check or benefit
each month.
The spike in families on food stamps, SSI, disability, public housing,
and early Social Security remains very high even five years into this
recovery. This should come as no surprise given the vast majority of
the federal government’s roughly 80 means-tested welfare programs don’t
include any type of work requirement.
Economist Peter Ferrara argues in his new book, “Power to the People,”
that if “we simply required work for all able-bodied welfare
recipients, the number on public assistance would fall dramatically.
This is what happened after the work for welfare requirements in 1996.”
2) Our public school systems often fail to teach kids basic skills.
Whatever happened to shop classes? We have schools that now concentrate
more on ethnic studies and tolerance training than teaching kids how to
use a lathe or a graphic design tool.
Charter schools can help remedy this. Universities are even more
negligent. Kids graduate from four-year colleges with little vocation
training and with debt averaging more than $25,000—although this number
now commonly exceeds $100,000 at some universities.
A liberal arts education is valuable, but it should come paired with
some practical skills.
3) Negative attitudes toward blue-collar work.
I’ve talked to parents who say they are disappointed if their kids want
to become a craftsman—instead of going to college. This attitude
discourages kids from learning how to make things, which contributes to
sector-specific worker shortages. Meanwhile, too many people who want
to go into the talking professions: lawyers, media, clergy, professors,
and so on.
4) A cultural bias against young adults working.
The labor force participation rate is falling fastest among workers
under 30.
Any time a state tries to change laws to make it easier for teenagers
to earn money, the left throws a tantrum about repealing child labor
laws. The move to raise minimum wages in states and at the federal
level could hardly be more destructive to young people.
My own research finds that the higher the minimum wage in a state, the
lower the labor force participation rate among teenagers.
Anecdotally, I’ve always been struck by how many successful people I
have met who grew up on farms and started working—milking cows,
building fences, cleaning out the barn—at the age of 10 or 11. They
learn a work ethic at a young age and this pays big dividends in the
future. Many studies document this to be true.
5) Higher education has become an excuse to delay entry into the
workforce.
I always cringe when I talk to 22-year-olds who will graduate from
college and who tell me their next step is to go to graduate school.
Maybe by the time they are 26 or 27 they will start working. Here’s an
idea: colleges could encourage kids to have one or two years of work
experience before they enroll.
Here’s an even better idea: abolish federal student loans and replace
the free government dollars with privately sponsored college work
programs.
For instance, schools like College of the Ozarks require kids to work
15 hours a week to pay their tuition. It’s hardly a violation of human
rights if a 21-year-old works to fund for their own education—and they
will probably get more out of their classes if they do work.
Anything easily attained is lightly valued. This would drive down
tuition costs too, because students would start demanding more
financial accountability and less waste. After all, federal subsidies
have increased college costs.
These may seem like old-fashioned and even outmoded ideas. But the
decline in work among the young bodes ill for the future. Many European
nations have removed the young from the workforce and the repercussion
appears to be lower lifetime earnings.
A renewed focus on working would also help erode the entitlement
mentality ingrained in so many millennials. Instead of more benefits
and handouts, this generation needs to get a job.
A version of this was originally published in Forbes.
Read this and other articles at The Daily Signal
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