No workers anywhere. Hint, we are in the PRC (People's Republic of California)

[binki]

Just trying to get dinner on Monday night at a restuarant. Went into a nationwide chain that rhymes with Silly's and at 5 pm there was nobody seated in the dinning room. The bar, open seating was almost full. Wait time was 45 minutes for seating for an empty restuarant. I asked about why it was so long and was told there were no servers that showed up.

It took is 5 whacks to find a place that was actually seating or didn't have a wait over 20 minutes.

Aside from that we still see places with limited times because they can only staff 1 shift including table service/sit down restaurants at Disneyland.

This is the most phenominal thing I have ever seen which includes the oil crisis in the 70's (No gas for you!) and the outrageous inflation in the late 70's and early 80's (Home loans at 33% interest rates).

What else is going on out there?

 

[CanuckSigns]

Yup, it's the same up here, we are hiring for production, last time I hired someone 5 years ago, I put an ad on Craigslist and had over 100 resumes to comb through, this time, not a single one, so I paid for a sponsored ad on indeed with promises of getting me 10+ "qualified" applicants a day. I got 10 a day, but 6 of them either live in India or the Phillipines and want to be sponsored to immigrate, and the other 4 don't show up for interviews.

I dont know what's going on, every single business owner I speak to is saying it's impossible to find workers right now, but in my social circle I don't know of anyone who isn't working at the moment. I know certain industries such as hospitality were forced to let people go with covid, and a lot of those people chose not to return, but that doesn't explain the labour shortages across the board.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

I would say in part that the illusion of the stability of working for someone or that someone would have your back was severely destroyed (I know some places cut employees at a moment's notice (this also destroyed the willingness of employees to give 2 wks notice when they decide to look elsewhere) and afterwards were crying to get those same people back). Just didn't have the same employer/employee dynamic that existed in the 70s and 80s. Not to mention other things that were coming down the pipeline as well (some reversed, others went through). There are a lot of "shifts" going on, especially in the working sphere.

Not to mention, certain jobs are actually looked down upon in this day and age of social media (and not to mention in some spheres of education (I blame education or lack thereof, for a lot of these issues (among others) as well, I know there are some defenders of education no matter what and that's fine, my grandmother loved being a teacher, my wife not so much (each one dealt with radically different teaching environments as well)). Right or wrong, that certainly plays a part.

To be frank, I'm actually surprised that some people are surprised by this. The rumblings have been out in the open for a long time, just what went on the last 2 yrs hastened it and gave it a name.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

We closed the borders and gave out unemployment / free money stimulus out the wazoo now are upset that there are no workers to fill low skill jobs....

I haven't noticed any shortage of restaurant staff around here. There are "Now Hiring" signs everywhere, but so far I think people are keeping up.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

The people bitching the most are the ones that were the quickest to lay people off. It was a slap in the face to many otherwise good workers. I grabbed a couple from our customers when they got laid off during covid. They could have afforded to hold on to them but they didn't. Now theyre trying to get them back but they don't want to go back down a one way street.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

The people bitching the most are the ones that were the quickest to lay people off. It was a slap in the face to many otherwise good workers. I grabbed a couple from our customers when they got laid off during covid. They could have afforded to hold on to them but they didn't. Now theyre trying to get them back but they don't want to go back down a one way street.

Read up on what went on for nurses up in Wisconsin and that would add a little bit more to the employer/employee dynamic that surfaced during Covid. Bad times tend to bring things blatantly to the surface and that really shines a light on the situation that one is in. Again, this has been festering long before now, just that now really got the ball rolling.

 

[Desert Sands]

We closed the borders and gave out unemployment / free money stimulus out the wazoo now are upset that there are no workers to fill low skill jobs....

I haven't noticed any shortage of restaurant staff around here. There are "Now Hiring" signs everywhere, but so far I think people are keeping up.

I was gonna say something to this effect, America asked for this, they got it. And these "frontline" workers probably keep getting sick. Who wants to work now in a public setting with the Covid still going on. With an almost promised variant every 6 months now. Yup, the new new normal.

 

[MNT_Printhead]

Yup, it's the same up here, we are hiring for production, last time I hired someone 5 years ago, I put an ad on Craigslist and had over 100 resumes to comb through, this time, not a single one, so I paid for a sponsored ad on indeed with promises of getting me 10+ "qualified" applicants a day. I got 10 a day, but 6 of them either live in India or the Phillipines and want to be sponsored to immigrate, and the other 4 don't show up for interviews.

I dont know what's going on, every single business owner I speak to is saying it's impossible to find workers right now, but in my social circle I don't know of anyone who isn't working at the moment. I know certain industries such as hospitality were forced to let people go with covid, and a lot of those people chose not to return, but that doesn't explain the labour shortages across the board.

Are you including pay in your job listing, are you paying well? I am currently hiring and this was the first time we listed pay range; I have read well over 150 resumes and got 6 of people I really want to speak to, many others that would work but require more work from me.

 

[CanuckSigns]

Are you including pay in your job listing, are you paying well? I am currently hiring and this was the first time we listed pay range; I have read well over 150 resumes and got 6 of people I really want to speak to, many others that would work but require more work from me.

we did include a pay range, the pay is standard for the area and work.

 

[mim]

I finally left the restaurant industry and started making signs last year. I make less money but my quality of life is so much better, there's no going back. I've never worked in a restaurant with a healthy work environment, always critically bad. I'm glad workers are leaving and improving their lives, many of my friends started new careers over the pandemic.

 

[Asuma01]

There is no worker shortage issue. There is a wage stagnation issue.

To those who are blaming the stimulus money for people not wanting to work. Corporations got most of that money and still laid off thousands of workers. Who are the real leeches of society?
Any explanation of the issue that you hear on tv is a grift. You are being gaslit by the billionaires that own those media companies.

 

[binki]

I think another problem here in the PRC is the minimum wage going to $15/hr (and I think it is now going to go up annually based on COLA) and restaurants are cutting staff and having servers work more tables. When was the last time you saw a busboy? Servers have to clean their own tables at most places around here. I was just floored that a restaurant on a Sunday at 5pm was completely empty and had a 45 minute wait.

 

[Bobby H]

We closed the borders and gave out unemployment / free money stimulus out the wazoo now are upset that there are no workers to fill low skill jobs....

The situation is a lot more complicated than that.

One BIG factor in this shortfall of service industry workers: retirement. Lots of age 65 and older people have been working at Walmart, McDonalds, etc to supplement their income. Now many are saying it's not worth the trouble. And then there is the COVID-19 risk. Over 75% of COVID-19 deaths are among people age 65 and older.

Women with children are contributing to this worker shortage. More married mothers with kids are now choosing to stay home. Some have been forced to do so via all the school closures and virtual learning settings. Single mothers have been stuck in the same predicament. They need to work, but day care is very expensive and not all of these women have other family members who can watch their kids.

Here in Oklahoma it has been months since programs were ended to give people stimulus money to just stay home. Nevertheless we still have huge shortages of service industry workers (not to mention a critical shortfall in teachers and shortages in other higher skilled job categories).

One of the key problems is many of those service industry jobs do not pay a survivable wage in that location. Oklahoma's minimum wage is still $7.25 per hour. There are businesses here still trying to pay that yet bitching "lazy Americans don't want to work." Those guys can please kindly f*** off with that hypocrisy. All their punching down is now starting to punch them back in the face. With what rents are running in this town, no one is living on their own for freaking $7.25 an hour. Or even $10 an hour. And we're considered one of the lowest cost of living locations in the entire country.

Lawton has lost several thousand residents over the past few years. Higher income people have been buying bigger homes outside of the city limits and in nearby towns like Cache. Some of these people have been moving to get their kids into better funded (and whiter) school districts outside of LPS. Really, the only new homes being built around here are a big single family homes for people with big wallets. There isn't enough in the way of more modest, more affordable homes. Army personnel needing to report to Fort Sill are having trouble getting housing; there's not enough on post (and there is a scandal of how badly new housing on post was built). There are speculators from outside Lawton buying properties to hold as investment assets, letting them sit empty. This situation has led to around 3000 lower income people leaving the Lawton area completely.

There is a multitude of things that are structurally unsustainable in our economy. The pandemic has exposed some of that. Over the long term the problem could get worse. Parenthood is a gateway into poverty for many young adults. So it's no surprise our nation's birth rate is hitting new all time lows. Teens and young adults have become very good at avoiding pregnancy. Right now there is a lot of anti-immigrant sentiment in the US. If things keep trending in the current direction 20 years from now we'll be begging and pleading for any immigrants we can get to do all kinds of jobs, even staff our military. The nation could be such a broke s***-hole of a place by then that no one would want to come here.

I think another problem here in the PRC is the minimum wage going to $15/hr (and I think it is now going to go up annually based on COLA) and restaurants are cutting staff and having servers work more tables. When was the last time you saw a busboy? Servers have to clean their own tables at most places around here.

On this topic, the worst problem in the PRC is the soaring cost of living. A $15 per hour minimum wage might seem like some kind of extravagant giveaway, but it's not a livable wage in any of California's big metros. Not unless the worker is sharing an apartment with a few other people in the same boat.

 

[Scotchbrite]

Last time we hired was around the middle of last year (2021) and we got a bunch of resumes and scheduled probably a dozen interviews. Never had 1 person show up for an interview. We did finally hire someone but it was purely thru word of mouth.

The restaurant industry is a whole 'nother ball of wax. From what I've been told they play a lot of games with their employees. I think a lot of restaurants, especially chains, are going to have to reevaluate how they treat their people.

Our mail lady was talking about how the postal service is short staffed and can't get anyone to come work, at least here locally. I remember when I got out of the Navy, USPS jobs were highly coveted by former military because your time in service could be added to your USPS employment for retirement benefits.

 

[MNT_Printhead]

We have increased or starting pay rate from $20/hr to $26 on the low end. I honestly feel like we are overpaying when I look at the resumes I get and know I will have to do some teaching. I don't get angry seeing the increased pay, it just reminds me that I need at least a $10k raise.

 

[Bobby H]

We went for several months with one of our design/production jobs left open. A decent number of people applied, but they all kept washing out in various respects. It's kind of surprising just how bad computer literacy is these days even though most people are hauling around smart phones and using other digital devices. Too many just don't know how to do things like keep computer files organized. Aside from computers, it takes a certain aptitude to work with vinyl graphics or do other projects involving manual skills. We have a new guy who filled that position and so far he seems to be doing alright.

The restaurant industry is a whole 'nother ball of wax. From what I've been told they play a lot of games with their employees. I think a lot of restaurants, especially chains, are going to have to reevaluate how they treat their people.

One of my best friends is a GM at a local Tex-Mex restaurant. He has always had to deal with staffing issues. The situation has been a whole lot worse lately. In the past a typical problem would be a server not showing up for her shift. If he fired that person he could get another server pretty quickly. Now there is a pretty big chunk of people who have retired out of the workforce or been forced out by having to take care of kids. And then there is still that segment of workers present who are irresponsible, unreliable f***-ups that just ask to get fired at any moment.

The minimum wage for tipped employees in Oklahoma is just $2.13 per hour. That might not be a bad thing if a server is working at a restaurant in a good location where people tip appropriately or generously. The people in my town have a bad reputation for treating servers like S#!+. I have friends who've worked as servers and bartenders. And I hear plenty of stories from my friend, the restaurant GM. Servers here will experience busting their @$$ taking care of a big table full of people, get treated rudely and then get zilch for a tip. Many restaurants require servers to pool their tips and/or share some of their tip money with the kitchen help. At the end of a shift a server could end up with less than what the fry cook at McDonald's made that day. So it's no wonder why people are quitting those jobs in droves.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

We have increased or starting pay rate from $20/hr to $26 on the low end. I honestly feel like we are overpaying when I look at the resumes I get and know I will have to do some teaching. I don't get angry seeing the increased pay, it just reminds me that I need at least a $10k raise.

The sticky issue here, which was already mentioned, is what happens with when it slows down? It gets hard to justify and cover payroll that is that high. Sometimes I wonder if it is even worth taking on the additional work vs just doing what you can with what you got. I went with option 2 and it's less of a headache

 

[binki]

On this topic, the worst problem in the PRC is the soaring cost of living. A $15 per hour minimum wage might seem like some kind of extravagant giveaway, but it's not a livable wage in any of California's big metros. Not unless the worker is sharing an apartment with a few other people in the same boat.

Well, yes. Things are crazy here. The state forces each city to build more houses but at the same time creates requirements that raise the price of the house. Flushes 90% of the water in the ocean and cuts water supplies to cities. Deregulates electricity but then can't figure out why electric rates are as much as 500% higher here than elsewhere. Raises taxes on things like tires, fuel, vehicles and then blames the oil companies and grocery companies for price fixing. Shuts everything down for 18 months, gives out billions in unemmployment and now wants to raise the unemployment tax on business.

There is much more but basically over regulation, over taxation and just trying to take over the entire economic engine rather than let competition do its thing.

 

[MNT_Printhead]

The sticky issue here, which was already mentioned, is what happens with when it slows down? It gets hard to justify and cover payroll that is that high. Sometimes I wonder if it is even worth taking on the additional work vs just doing what you can with what you got. I went with option 2 and it's less of a headache

I run a shop for non-sign retail business that broke a Billion $ in sales last year. If I were running my own shop and business I would share the same sentiments you expressed. I prefer to do everything myself and not deal with mistakes others make, with the company's expansion plans growing I am told I have to have help now. Every time I have to replace an employee it seems to happen when I am in the middle of producing what is need for a new store and I wind up doing all of the work myself and don't have time to train.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

There is much more but basically over regulation, over taxation and just trying to take over the entire economic engine rather than let competition do its thing.

That concern was addressed at the end of your thread title (a lot of others could be addressed following the same path).



As to tech and how people that use mobile can be so backwards with tech. Actually the reason that they don't know basic computing is due to that very thing, mobile usage.

Think about how much that is abstracted away from the user, the file system (what passes for Windows Explorer, Files, Dolphin whatever one uses) isn't easily apparently to the user (why I like the PinePhone, it is). Saving, in this day and age of web based programs, auto save is all the rage (those that use Google apps on android (which is the de facto standard OS of mobile) are web apps, just using a webview to look like native). Locating files...global search, don't need to know where the file is actually located.

How many people on here don't touch CLI and yet for some computer operations that is still the most efficient way to communicate with a computer. In fact, if I were to suggest something like that, usually there is a pile on. People love their pointy clicky methods, regardless of efficiency. So this slippery slope was a long time coming in the works.

Everything has been progressively dumbed down with each iteration and what is going on behind the scenes isn't being taught (not just in this area of learning, but in other areas as well). The Verge (I still cringe thinking of that YouTube video and custom building PCs) had an article on that very thing where college students didn't know how to work with files and couldn't get their simulations to run at all ( engineering students I believe or at least the class was engineering, how is that for irony).


Working with ones hands and those types jobs, service industry jobs, have been looked down upon for 2 maybe 3 generations now. Even though they used to be able to provide for a family.

As to immigration, wide open borders, illegals being able to vote in local elections (New York I believe, at least that was up for a vote and expected to pass last that I read), D and F grades being removed from school grades in at least one Cali district. None of that, in my mind bodes well.



Drop in birth rates, tends to happen in more developed countries just naturally. But there are other areas that have impacted people's desire to have kids, some not wanting them period, some concerned about the impact of the extra environmental strain on having more people, some don't want to have kids because of how family law is setup (this is country specific). I would say the later is having more and more of an impact. The ultimate reason behind that last aforementioned impact is also the reason that I would suspect is the demographic shift of those attending college as well.