"We have a labor shortage! We can't find people to hire!" Um...no you don't....

I love hearing companies complain that they can't find people to hire.

I am looking at job descriptions that have salaries that are less than HALF of what those jobs paid a few years ago. And there are about a zillian requirements and different skills wanted that would be very unlikely to exist in one person. Ever.

 

The hospital I work at has a nursing/CNA shortage right now. Yet it is incredibly difficult to get your foot in the door past H.R. Many qualified applicants are turned away before they even get an interview... and the rest of us suffer for it because there isn't enough staff for the amount of patients. Crazy.

 

And yet in my trade, we have a shortage of workers because people are too lazy to put the amount of effort and dedication in for a great career.

 

How about entry level jobs looking for 2-4 years exp? Or 5 years experience with tech that has only been in production for 3?

 

In high school, I couldn't get a summer or weekend job because every place I looked at (grocery stores, bussing tables in restaurants, basic stuff) wanted experience. If I applied anyway, I wouldn't get a call back. Most of my friends worked in delis and stuff like that, but they were never hiring when i applied. I ended up getting a job with my dad's friend, a real estate agent, I was similar to an office/personal assistant and helped him handle and organize his paper work (real estate has A LOT of paperwork involved lol).

Fast forward a few years, im a college student, so when I look for jobs I'm looking for a part-time job to save some money, not a career. And even then, everyone wants experience. Entry level retail and restaurant positions must have at least 2 years experience. I somehow managed to get a retail position and I've been at that job for 1.5 yrs, but I've been wanting to get a waitressing job soon to make more money. And every single job advertisement for waitressing I see, must have prior experience. How the frick did waiters even get their jobs in the first place? Geez.

I've been looking for internships for my major to get experience. Because that's how soon-to-be college graduates and recently graduated students get experience before they can get into a "real" job, which requires experience. Guess what the internships want?








Experience.

 

Companies want to run short-handed; it saves them money

 

Doesn't help in a hospital. Our unit is over budget constantly because of us taking so many overtime days to help each other out.

 

In some cases, the 'impossible job description', or turning down every applicant, or advertising an 80k a year job for 35k, then allows the company to ship someone over here from India or China and pay them a much lower salary.

In many cases the company would put these people up in a hotel and even pay for them to take a cab to work each day. They didn't mind a bit as they were paying them so much less.

Many companies want to run 'short handed' but not all of them, and not for all job positions.

For example, when one company reorganized, I was told that I would now get a couple hour's notice from time to time, of being sent to some remote place(in the US or other places), to work in an 'air lock' facility.

What that meant was that there was a 'sensitive' position that always had to be filled - staffed 24/7. So if they fired someone or someone was out sick, I'd be flown out there and stay in a hotel.

And what was I supposed to do?

Fill a chair. Stare at a blank screen. In other words, I was to sit there and do absolutely nothing. Then the requirement to always have that job staffed at all times, will have been fulfilled.

 

Can you be specific about a particular position? Half of a salary from a few years ago for if it is the exact same job is a huge cut.

 

They were highly technical computer jobs. And I was quoting the low side of the salary range.

Many of these had a huge salary range posted, which I thought was incredible as well. For example, $36,000 to $75,000, a range of almost $40,000 For a job that a few years ago, as near as I could guess, would have had a salary range posted of $75,000-$92,000.

I discussed it with a couple people who work in such jobs and they were also saying both the salary range and the low end of the range were really disturbing. They both went online and looked and found a similar trend in many jobs for different areas of the country.

A couple possibilities were suggested - one that the company would hire a college grad with no experience and pay them the bottom of the range. But given the requirements (so many years of work experience) that didn't make sense.

Or that they were small companies and can't afford to pay much.

Or that the bottom of the range was for foreign workers.

But all in all, they were not happy that a half dozen jobs right in their area were listed with a bottom range so low, or with such a huge salary range.