On the question of jobs from the perspective of a lack of qualified labor...

[Moonbeam]

We know that management is struggling with the problem of finding qualified labor, particularly now that we are beginning to see a market recovery. This link goes into an interesting aspect of that:

http://www.news-sap.com/workforce-2...n&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=newscenter_lift

Here is a taste from that link:

"Nearly 53 percent of executives responded that workforce issues drive strategy at the board level, and still 25 percent, indicated workforce issues are often an afterthought in business planning. Our research suggests that an alarming number of companies don’t have the structure, strategy, culture, and resources needed to manage a diverse, contingent, and multigenerational workforce."

In my first thread on the problems of unemployment I suggested the problem we will have with robot, a subset, I think, of the problem of accelerating technological progress beginning to exceed societies capacity to adapt. I think this is more evidence of this.

I suggest that one of the factors that is driving the lack of qualified labor, suggested in the link, is that people are losing faith that work is a viable answer to what ails them, they are losing hope both that work can be satisfying or even meet their basic economic needs. The generalized lack of concern for the emotional well-being of people by business leaders, the successful sharks that swim our waters and devour the weak, is causing the extinction of their food source. When you see the other as prey, you become prey to your own success at feeding.

It has been discovered by researchers studying monkeys that even that far down in the evolutionary ladder, and at that low level of intelligence, monkeys can distinguish between a game that is being played fairly and one that isn't, and that they refuse to play if they are being cheated. People, owing to greater intelligence, can even extend that and seek revenge.

I'll say it again. The sword of God is the empty bellies of the poor. Once a society unravels it's much harder to rebuild.

In China, as we see, the state tries to keep very tight control. When a state is threatened, the enemy are the people. You could even be on the wrong end of that deal.

 

[maluckey]

So..you're saying we need more unskilled, undereducated workers into the workforce? Sounds like Obama has that angle covered!!!! Hooray for common sense

 

[ivwshane]

Sounds like it's time to start paying higher wages to attract better employees. So when are these CEO's going to start raising pay? Or does high pay only attract good CEO's?

 

[1prophet]

lack of qualified labor = Corporate America code name for we don't want to pay

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCbFEgFajGU

"Nearly 53 percent of executives responded that workforce issues drive strategy at the board level, and still 25 percent, indicated workforce issues are often an afterthought in business planning. Our research suggests that an alarming number of companies don’t have the structure, strategy, culture, and resources needed to manage a diverse, contingent, and multigenerational workforce."

so why bother fixing the above

 

[maluckey]

If the labor force skill levels were comparable with the pay, minimum wages would be lower, not higher.

What we need is to not be failing our kids by churning out high-school and college graduates that know nothing, and have no skills.

The United States was once first or second in the world in education ....now the United States is not in the top ten in some areas.

Now, if we could get the govt out of telling me what I want to pay for a loaf of bread, gas, or skilled labor...the costs would eventually find an equilibrium, along with all the associated costs of living.

 

[ivwshane]

If the labor force skill levels were comparable with the pay, minimum wages would be lower, not higher.

What we need is to not be failing our kids by churning out high-school and college graduates that know nothing, and have no skills.

The United States was once first or second in the world in education ....now the United States is not in the top ten in some areas.

Now, if we could get the govt out of telling me what I want to pay for a loaf of bread, gas, or skilled labor...the costs would eventually find an equilibrium, along with all the associated costs of living.

Speaking of uneducated know nothings...

 

[Moonbeam]

If the labor force skill levels were comparable with the pay, minimum wages would be lower, not higher.

What we need is to not be failing our kids by churning out high-school and college graduates that know nothing, and have no skills.

The United States was once first or second in the world in education ....now the United States is not in the top ten in some areas.

Now, if we could get the govt out of telling me what I want to pay for a loaf of bread, gas, or skilled labor...the costs would eventually find an equilibrium, along with all the associated costs of living.

Why would I want to go 200 thousand in debt so I can be some asshole's slave? My Mom's basement looks like a luxury hotel by comparison. Why would parents what to prepare their kids to be cannon fodder?

I seen all the old folk who worked faithfully for years and years someplace and then got stabbed in the brain. You must be dumber than even a monkey.

 

[Victorian Gray]

nm

 

[chucky2]

I'd really like to know what these 53% meant by "workforce issues". For example, deciding to go forward with a project that by the system they have put in place with the already existing loads on the workers isn't doable in the unrealistic timeframe they want it done by isn't a "workforce issue". That's a management issue. But I literally have been on senior VP calls where they express doubt 'their people can get it done in time' when they themselves are the reason their people cannot get it done in time.

What did they think was going to happen when they bought hook line and sinker the sales pitch from CyberObjects, Amdocs, etc. and the star seller coders weren't the folks who ended up working on the projects but rather cannon fodder? Did they think the processes they put in place so they could metric the shit out of things so they could presume to have a clue what was actually happening would benefit the worker bees? How about the architecture/technology/hardware decisions they made (or, didn't make) that is effectively sabotaging progress, yet, will never get reported to them as such because none of their direct reports want to risk going to them with that crucial little bit of info?

The devil is in the details...

 

[Moonbeam]

Sounds like it's time to start paying higher wages to attract better employees. So when are these CEO's going to start raising pay? Or does high pay only attract good CEO's?

I see the employment numbers show a slight gain in wages. It made me wonder if the focus on wage stagnation is beginning to penetrate corporate America, if people aren't as a result of, well liberal ranting, beginning to notice that fewer and fewer people can afford their products and some are waking up. I was thinking about all the folk marching around protesting rum amok policing, and the fact that attention is beginning to focus on and question where we have been going. The state, it seems to me, should want to find a better way to deal with the unemployable than putting them in prison.

 

[maluckey]

Why would I want to go 200 thousand in debt so I can be some asshole's slave? My Mom's basement looks like a luxury hotel by comparison. Why would parents what to prepare their kids to be cannon fodder?

I seen all the old folk who worked faithfully for years and years someplace and then got stabbed in the brain. You must be dumber than even a monkey.

200 thousand? Going to med. school I guess? Where there is a will there is a way to go school for waaaay less than that. Regardless, it's a lot of work for minimum gains.

We have become a society of entitled whiners. Nobody has guaranteed you a job after you turn old enough to work. The govt is the only entity that says it will pay you to do nothing. The government is also the only entity that will pay you to be ignorant.

It's a vicious cyle and an expensive bill of goods that previous generations have sold to us, that a college degree is the be-all end-all to getting a job. While it may be a good indicator of your potential to manage and lead (someday at least). It doesn't teach you how to actually perform the manual labor to do anything useful. That's where I feel we've lost our way. What ever happened to pushing trade-schools and technical schools as an honest alternative to universities?

Not enough money flowing in to make people rich enough to care, is my guess?

 

[WhipperSnapper]

These claims are normally propaganda from businesses that want to increase the number of foreign work visas rather than pay Americans American market rates.

 

[Zaap]

These claims are normally propaganda from businesses that want to increase the number of foreign work visas rather than pay Americans American market rates.

This.

 

[MongGrel]

So..you're saying we need more unskilled, undereducated workers into the workforce? Sounds like Obama has that angle covered!!!! Hooray for common sense

If the labor force skill levels were comparable with the pay, minimum wages would be lower, not higher.

What we need is to not be failing our kids by churning out high-school and college graduates that know nothing, and have no skills.

The United States was once first or second in the world in education ....now the United States is not in the top ten in some areas.

Now, if we could get the govt out of telling me what I want to pay for a loaf of bread, gas, or skilled labor...the costs would eventually find an equilibrium, along with all the associated costs of living.

You have this somewhat very wrong on a few levels, and right on a couple, but that is just an opinion I guess.

It's not an Obama thing, why does that always just get spewed out by some.

Short on time at the moment, might come back to this one later.

 

[Moonbeam]

These claims are normally propaganda from businesses that want to increase the number of foreign work visas rather than pay Americans American market rates.

What? That's not how markets work Markets level to perfection, like God. You Sir, are a sinner spouting union-like nonsense propaganda. You are trying to destroy American based business by preventing true market rates in America from happening. Why do you think everybody went to China when we can let China come here. What kind of brain dead fucker is not afraid of a robot that doesn't even need a hand full of rice to run on a day, and is terrified of competing with the Chinese or Indians etc. You guys are protectionist pathetics and missing a few marbles along the way too.

 

[Moonbeam]

200 thousand? Going to med. school I guess? Where there is a will there is a way to go school for waaaay less than that. Regardless, it's a lot of work for minimum gains.

We have become a society of entitled whiners. Nobody has guaranteed you a job after you turn old enough to work. The govt is the only entity that says it will pay you to do nothing. The government is also the only entity that will pay you to be ignorant.

It's a vicious cyle and an expensive bill of goods that previous generations have sold to us, that a college degree is the be-all end-all to getting a job. While it may be a good indicator of your potential to manage and lead (someday at least). It doesn't teach you how to actually perform the manual labor to do anything useful. That's where I feel we've lost our way. What ever happened to pushing trade-schools and technical schools as an honest alternative to universities?

Not enough money flowing in to make people rich enough to care, is my guess?

I have no problem with folk finding a way to adapt to a bad situation or working to find ways to deal with it as is, so long as, in the process. But what has happened is that a greater and greater level of competitiveness has made people tough, calloused and mean to the point of egotistical excess. What kind of a world have we created when the people who 'make it' are so emotionally damaged by their efforts at success they look back and see, not people struggling just like they did, to succeed, but a bunch of worthless takers and incompetents. The normal attitude of winners is thankfulness and magnanimity. The more difficult life becomes for the average person when competition is the only way out, the deeper the fear of failure and with that comes the calling of names, 'you failure' and the subsequent contempt for those who fail.

These things are so obvious in people, but because they are also disgusting, we don't want to see them, some of us, that is.

 

[maluckey]

I have no problem with folk finding a way to adapt to a bad situation or working to find ways to deal with it as is, so long as, in the process. But what has happened is that a greater and greater level of competitiveness has made people tough, calloused and mean to the point of egotistical excess. What kind of a world have we created when the people who 'make it' are so emotionally damaged by their efforts at success they look back and see, not people struggling just like they did, to succeed, but a bunch of worthless takers and incompetents. The normal attitude of winners is thankfulness and magnanimity. The more difficult life becomes for the average person when competition is the only way out, the deeper the fear of failure and with that comes the calling of names, 'you failure' and the subsequent contempt for those who fail.

These things are so obvious in people, but because they are also disgusting, we don't want to see them, some of us, that is.

Agreed, and then some. To share...I had a difficult time getting started in my my career without a degree.

Sure, I eventually toed the line and remedied that, but only because I hit a ceiling of sorts and to go further required me to be one of the boys, and have that piece of sheepskin. Not sure whay is made any difference after I'd been working in a senior position for 8 years, but it did. I guess they felt that I was one of THEM now.

My college investment didn't teach me anything except that people are snobs fo rthe most part, and THAT fact, cost me a lot of cash to learn. I earned back my money after the next promotion, but I'm still bitter that I had to do it in the first place

 

[Bitek]

Agreed, and then some. To share...I had a difficult time getting started in my my career without a degree.

Sure, I eventually toed the line and remedied that, but only because I hit a ceiling of sorts and to go further required me to be one of the boys, and have that piece of sheepskin. Not sure whay is made any difference after I'd been working in a senior position for 8 years, but it did. I guess they felt that I was one of THEM now.

My college investment didn't teach me anything except that people are snobs fo rthe most part, and THAT fact, cost me a lot of cash to learn. I earned back my money after the next promotion, but I'm still bitter that I had to do it in the first place

Your degree just gets a foot in the door. It's up to the individual what to do with it once you get inside. While some companies may be degree and title driven, i guarantee it's difficult to know what person went where and how much they spent on their Ed just by the body of their work.

I see way too many people trying to chase the next promotion by piling on fairly useless degrees, meanwhile wondering why the hustler with the ba had flown past them. It's pretty easy to figure out who's got it and who doesn't.