Employers not hiring the unemployed!

Another day, another excuse for not hiring. We can't find qualified people, we don't know what our tax rate will be, we don't want people that have been out of work too long...it's all bullshit. They ain't hiring because there isn't any reason to hire. There's no demand and they're getting by just fine with what they have. The cold hard truth is that the jobs are gone and they're gone forever. That's why neither party is really addressing the jobs issue. They don't have a solution at all. Nothing is in the works!! Get used to 8-9% unemployment as the new standard for good times. It only get's worse from here.
 
Quote from failed_trad3r:

It is not easy to get more than 2 signatures an hour, no matter how hard you try. I have experience with these kind of menial wage jobs.




I just ran into another guy today trying to get signatures for the same thing. He was only asking for signatures for two different things though. I asked how much he makes and he says for about 7 or 8 hours he pulls in about $250 per day. (which I suppose is about 8 signatures per hour or so.)

The guy was sitting in a beach chair a good 20 feet or so from the entrance of the store which I think he should've been alot closer to the doors if he wanted more signatures. But nevertheless...$250 bucks per day is pretty good for someone where it require no exp, no drug test, no skill whatsoever except being able to ask people to sign their names. If it was me, I'm sure I could make double what he did as I wouldnt be sitting down waiting for them to come to me. I would go to them.
 
Quote from LeeD:
My guess is they are talking of:
1) Qualifications required to perform particular jobs. It's bizzare but to write a High Frequency Trading platform with Direct Market Access you don't need any specific qualifications but to paint someone's house you need to be certified. So do you if you want to do babysitting more than a few hours per week.
2) What needs to be done in order to hire an employee. With a contractor you just need a contract and you pay what's in the contract. With an employee you may need to check their right to work in the country, get their social security number, issue payslips, pay employer's social security withholding tax (which is payed on top of gross salary/wage), deduct employee's personal income tax etc...
You don't want your painter to be certified? I don't think it's unreasonable to ask that agents be licensed, teachers be qualified and businesses to follow general regulation. The HFT is trading his own money (or his managed money). If he loses it, it doesn't affect anybody but himself. You have the right to ruin your own life, you do not have the right to ruin other people's life's.

I understand that a contractor is probably easier, but I think in the long run that can only lead to problems and abuse of the system. How can anybody complain about illegal immigrants working here and then complain about the regulation requiring employers to verify an employee's legal status? I don't know off of the top of my head, but I would guess that maybe 250 people work at my company. I think there is one person that does the whole payroll. I'm sure it is not too complicated when using a simple payroll company. You punch the info in and it tells you exactly how much to allocate where. I'm sure all of the transactions are done automatically and electronically.
 
Quote from CaptainObvious:
Another day, another excuse for not hiring. We can't find qualified people, we don't know what our tax rate will be, we don't want people that have been out of work too long...it's all bullshit. They ain't hiring because there isn't any reason to hire. There's no demand and they're getting by just fine with what they have. The cold hard truth is that the jobs are gone and they're gone forever. That's why neither party is really addressing the jobs issue. They don't have a solution at all. Nothing is in the works!! Get used to 8-9% unemployment as the new standard for good times. It only get's worse from here.
Exactly! Employers hire out of a demand for their product. Where does the idea come from the if you give Joe Business Owner a tax cut, he's going to go hire a bunch of people? He's not. He is going to hire more people when his business demands it. Supply side economics is a fairy tale.
 
Quote from Sandybestdog:

Exactly! Employers hire out of a demand for their product. Where does the idea come from the if you give Joe Business Owner a tax cut, he's going to go hire a bunch of people? He's not. He is going to hire more people when his business demands it. Supply side economics is a fairy tale.


Everything has effects. When the taxes are cut, business owners will have more cash. He might not hire any new employee or use it to invest in his businesses. Certainly, he would not let the cash be idle sitting by. He might withdraw it to pay himself a nice bonus. What will you do when you have a nice bonus? Most people will spend it. Some
spend on vacation. Some buy more houses, boats or luxurious items. Others invest in bonds, collectible items and stocks. The net effect is very position for job growth and the economy as a whole.
 
I always believed in a saying "If you cannot find employers then hire yourself". This makes a difference, 6 years ago I was struggling with jobs, finding ways to impress them and yet could not still find one.

Until I started some small business on my own worked 15 hours a day just to paid the bills. Now I even earned 3 times than my previous colleagues. I have complete control of my time, etc.

I tell you that it is not easy and not for everyone but I feel hopeless six years ago and I feel out of luck of finding a suitable employer until I decided to hire myself. And that makes the difference.
 
Quote from S2007S:

Would disagree with that, I see people in the workforce today still anticipating their pay raises as if they are of value to the company that can go out and probably hire someone for 1/2 the damn wages. This country needs a wake up call, anyone can be replaced at anytime whether its a guy who has been out of work for 18 months or a college graduate just entering the workforce!
I think here you are missing the effect of the inflation. Without a salary rise for 10 years, the buying power of the take-home pay would have decreased more than twice.

So, it is not unreasonable that people look at salary increases braodly in line with inflation as an entitlement. Such increases simply mean emplyee's value to the company remains the same.

Quote from S2007S:

Here is an example, I know someone who is working PR for a pharmaceutical company, well every year they give her a salary increase, I believe this is her 4th or 5th year there and every year she gets a $10,000 increase in wages, I said to her you are extremely lucky to see those type of wage increases in today's economy, I believe now she is making around 65-70k a year, I told her they could probably hire someone just as good as you for $20-$30k cheaper, fresh out of college. She also believes the $10,000 wage increase every year is going to stick, I said I don't think it will, you will either be let go by then and replaced or they will give the normal 2-3% increase in wage to match inflation!
This was some steep increase.

However, in most cases a person fresh out of colledge is not an adequate replacement for someone with a few years of experience in this specific job. In the first few months a fresh graduate usually requires lots of supervision. Once basic learning is finished, they still need time (often a few years) to start feeling fully confident about what they are doing so that they can cope with more complex difficulties without external help.

It's a atually a common practice that a person with 2-3 years of posgraduate experience earns 50%-100% more than a fresh graduate.

Where you are right is that after the initial 2, 3 or 4 years in the job an employee can usually do the job on his or her own and quite fluently. At this point it's easy to become a complacent happy camper and one needs to go beyond call of duty to keep aquiring new skills or qualifications that would keep increasing their value to the company.
 
Quote from Sandybestdog:

You don't want your painter to be certified? I don't think it's unreasonable to ask that agents be licensed, teachers be qualified and businesses to follow general regulation.
I don't care if a painter is certified. I just want the job to be properly done. Simple painting is time-consuming and menial but is pretty straightforward. Flattenning a curved wall cirface requires higher degree of knowledge and skill but not everyone needs such more complex tasks done.

People pain their own houses all the time and it works out fine. Now if they want to ask a friend or relative for help, it suddenly breaks the rules.

Same as with babysitting. People can babysit their own children and children of close relatives. However, as as soon as an unrelated person is hired as a part-time nanny (anhd works more than a few hours per year), the baby's family is suddenly treated like a busines. So, they need to get the nanny vetted by the authorities, produce wage slips, deduct taxes at source etc

For comparison, I do wont the person who repairs my bolier to be certified... because there is a lot that can go wrong with grave consequences such as a gas leak.

Teachers are a special category. As a lobby group they promote regulation that requires that anyone who teaches children is qualified in somethign called pedagogy. As a result there are plenty of teachers who teach the subject they know nothing about... but because they are trained in pedagogy, it's considered OK.

Quote from Sandybestdog:

The HFT is trading his own money (or his managed money). If he loses it, it doesn't affect anybody but himself. You have the right to ruin your own life, you do not have the right to ruin other people's life's.
In practice algo mistakes affect a lot of unrelated people. There are strict rules about maintaining solvency of financial companies. People who look after finances require qualifications and registration. However, an algorithm mistake has a potential to render the company insolvent in seconds... and people who write algorithms aren't force to have any special qualification, nor peopel who are in charge of switching algorithms on/off and otherwise looking after them have to know anything about algorithms or technology.

Further, a mistke in an algorithm can lead to sending a large number of orders which overloads the exchange order matching system and leads trading to a standstill. This affects a lot of people.

Both of the above have happened.

In comparison, a painter doing a lowsy job only affects people who live/work in the building and possibly a contractor who sub-contracted the painter.

Further, a contructor probably interviews the painter and gets a good idea of whether the painter is qualified. It's only the original customer who knows nothing about painting who is a genuine victim.

Quote from Sandybestdog:

I understand that a contractor is probably easier, but I think in the long run that can only lead to problems and abuse of the system.
Hiring a contractor for a job that in it's nature lasts indefinitely is probably a wrong move. However, for jobs that are genuinely temporary or on ad-hoc basis, it is valid alternative to a temporary employee.
Quote from Sandybestdog:

How can anybody complain about illegal immigrants working here and then complain about the regulation requiring employers to verify an employee's legal status?
Quote from Sandybestdog:In the case of the US compliance requirements is just shifting responsibility. There are millions of illegal immigrants (mostly from Mexico) in the country and neither Bush nor Obama administration want to do anything about it. (Probably offer some way to legalise based on their long stay, perhaps, in exchange for applying for such legalisation from outside the US and securing a job offer... and speed up deportation for those who prefer to stay illegal.)

I don't know off of the top of my head, but I would guess that maybe 250 people work at my company. I think there is one person that does the whole payroll. I'm sure it is not too complicated when using a simple payroll company. You punch the info in and it tells you exactly how much to allocate where. I'm sure all of the transactions are done automatically and electronically.
Like with many things payroll is something that requires an effort to learn to do properly (especially without a mentor as it would be with most business start ups or families who want to hire a babysitter/cleaner) and after it's on a certain scale incremental cost gets small.

This is exactly what I am saying. For a 1-person business and especially for a family (as they will be hit with an additional record-holding requirement) hiring an employee is substantial increase in paperwork. For a large business, it's marginal.
 
Quote from zdreg:

that is correct. you are shifting the burden on to the contractor ie temp agency. there will be an expense for shifting.it may or may not be worth the extra expense.
With a contractor the buisiness doesn't pay when a contractor is on holiday, sick or on maternity leave. Also it's easier to terminate contract than employment... and a contractor would have far fewer legal rights to contest such termination. So, it also reduces risks, which can be considered a benefit. I appreciate agencies may charge what seems like an arm and a leg for a small piece of menial paperwork.

Quote from zdreg:

if u do it with an individual who does not pay his taxes the government will reclassify him as your employee. the government in america would like to classify everybody in america as an employee not as an independent contractor to make it easier to collect taxes.
Isn't this what the agency is for? So, that the contractor is an amployee... of the agency? And it's the agency that is at risk whne the contractor didn't pay taxes.
Quote from zdreg:

not as easy as u make it sound
I'm sure it isn't. However, my basic argument stands. Small businesses have tons of disincentives to hire employees (as opposed to contractors or even illegal immigrants) and the amount of paperwork doens't help to shift decision towards employee route.

Quote from zdreg:

as to pt. 1 above it is not bizarre at all. professional painters have been around for a long time and look to restrict the entry of new painters. they contribute to friendly legislators who claim to protect the public against unscrupulous painters by creating requirements and licensing.
It's even worse with teachers. See my reply to Sandybestdog in a post above.

I appreciate it's a logical consequence of the way Americal political system works. However, the bizzare part is it seems the only properly unskilled jobs left that don't require sinking a few thousand dollars into some course and then making it to a limited number of trainee/apprentice positions for required work experience are shop assistant and waiter.
 
Back
Top