Lester Holt and the employment problems

[gfretwell]

Lester Holt did a story tonight that centered on why it is so hard to hire employees. One of the big problems is people are holding out for a job they can do from home. I agree that is great work if you can get it but the fact is, the jobs we need filled are ones where you have to show up. The other thing these people need to understand is if a job can be done remotely, they will ship it offshore. You only have to look at IBM. IBM started pushing remote work in the mid 90s. A lot of people thought it was great until they were told they weren't needed anymore. Now the majority of IBM employees are working remotely from India.

"At least 70% of IBM employees are based outside the United States, and the country with the largest number of IBM employees is India."

Now that is spreading. Covid was a godsend for the bean counters. They actually were driven to see what work could be done from home. I know most companies like the idea of getting rid of office space any way they could as a cost saving thing and they got a good taste of it. Next will be reducing payroll. Sanjay will do your tech/IT job in Mumbai for 385,000 rupees a year. That is less than $100 a week. Those people are going to have to resign themselves to putting their clothes on and going in to work while there is still work for them to do.

[trader_4]

I saw that too. Which is why if the remaining 80 mil would get vaccinated we could be in a better situation and closer to getting conditions back to normal.

I used to like Holt, but my opinion is steadily declining. A few days ago they ran a story on the "two sides" to the debate over passing the $3.5T "infrastructure" spending. Ninety five percent of the time was on the lib side, showing one story after another, how much a mom with three kids loves the free child care, how great it is, etc. The 5% on the other side was showing old turtle head Mitch saying it's wasteful and reckless for ten seconds. That's a perfect example of how most of the mainstream media is biased. It's not fake, but it is biased.

[Ralph Mowery]

Just before the covid hit my son was trying to get a job with Microsoft. He had to freelance for a while,the virus hit, then he was hired over the computer/telephone. Has not been to the Microsoft building sense before he was hired. Talked to him a few days ago and last word from MS was they would let the people know if they were ever needed back at the ofice. He handles computer problems for the west coast from about noon to 9 pm our time here in North Carolina. He works those hours by choice. So his job could be done anywhere in the world there is intenet.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Great if you can but the majority of jobs are still in a workplace together. Unless they start sending car arts home for assembly you have to show up. When I was working I could do 20% of my work from home but had to be there for most of it. Seems some are now spoiled and don't want what is readily available.

[gfretwell]

Things will get closer to normal when the media starts calling this endemic and not pandemic. If you think the shot works, you shouldn't be scared of Covid. I'm not.

Comcast still signs his paycheck and writes his script. They are unabashedly in bed with the DNC. David Cohen just moved from executive VP to senior advisor to the CEO at Comcast and he is traditionally the largest DNC "bundler". There is no question which way they lean.

[invalid unparseable]

Same with our eldest son who is a data base manager. He said he could live anywhere.

With our younger lawyer sons, one has been working out of the house and the other out of the office. The bulk of their work is on line or telephone.

[Ralph Mowery]

Many jobs that seem hard to fill now are the ones you actually have to show up for work. The food service and factroies around the town I live in have signs out wanting people . There is no excuse for able body people not working. I worked several years in the past at a job I almost hated . The work was not bad, the company good to work for, and the pay was good, it was just a boring manual labor job. Not even that fast or hard work. Had to do it before I could find a better job that paid more as I did not want to take a job that required the skills I had that paid less. I had offers of jobs that required the skills I had but they did not want to pay much.

Sort of like someone mentioned that at one time the nurses left to be bartenders . Bartending not that bad of a job, does not require many years of education, not much responsibilities and if the pay is better, why not work for the better pay.

In a way it is about time the labor market came back to the workers. Before around 1975 to 1985 one could leave one job and get hired somewhere else for about the same money. Then it got to the point many jobs went over seas and good jobs were hard to find and the companies could treat the workers most any way as they were afraid that if they quit they could not find another job.

[invalid unparseable]

Not a single one of the orange man haters will admit their mistake. Question is, will they do it again? They will say they will but will be lying.

[rbowman]

This week was the first time back in the office for most of our people. It's damn noisy with all those people wandering around and chattering. For a year and a half it was generally 4 people socially distanced at 50 feet or so. I could make a pot of coffee and have it all to myself.

[rbowman]

Even China Freight has a sign out on the sidewalk offering $15 an hour to start. The Democrats were screaming for a $15 minimum wage. Now that that's the de facto minimum people still don't want to work.

A local lib likes to say 700,000 people died which is why there aren't any workers. Even stipulating that number, at least 40% were nursing home residents and not part of the labor force.

My mother was a private nurse at one point. She left for an office job in a shirt factory. The pay was better and you didn't have some not-quite-dead patient trying to grab your ass.

[Ralph Mowery]

Maybe half of them would be in the working force.

There still seems to be around 300,000 filing for unemployment from what I see. That looks like a lot of potential workers to me. So why are they not employed ? Making too much money not working ? There may not be the kinds of jobs they want,but as I mentioned I worked a job I did not want for a few years before I could find a job I like that paid better.

[rbowman]

I only ever collected unemployment for a couple of months. Then I came home and found a note tacked to the door from my former boss. A company that I'd done some design work for in my old job wanted to hire me.

No rest for the weary. It was summer and I still had some weeks of unemployment left but it was back to the grindstone.

[Jim Joyce]

When you start off with a couple of things that are clearly and demonstrably false, it kind of throws shade on the rest of what you're saying.

NBC employees don't work for Comcast, (please don't make me explain such a simple and obvious thing), nor does Comcast have input to his so-called script.

Even if the rest of what you wrote is technically true, and I don't care if it is or not, starting off with total BS is just shooting yourself in the foot.

[Jim Joyce]

<snip>

Actually, there are lots of reasons why someone who seems able-bodied to you might not be working. What is able-bodied, anyway? Do people with physical disabilities get a free pass? Can you see everyone's complete life story just by looking at them?

So I agree, no excuses, but plenty of possible reasons.

[C]

They don't make car parts here anymore, that solved part of that problem.

When I was working I could do 20% of my work from home but

[Jim Joyce]

Backpedaling and baseless conjecture noted. Thank you.

Wilderness diversion attempt noted. No one said anything about left or right leaning. I was simply pointing out that NBC employees don't work for Comcast, which is something so basic that it shouldn't need to be explained.

Troll much?

[gfretwell]

You really think the company that owns a company, doesn't influence what they do. I guess you have too far from the private sector to understand.

[Dean Hoffman]

A record number quit in August. 4.3 million people or 2.9%.

I didn't see anything about the age of the workers. Maybe some are close enough to retirement age to call it good.

[Ralph Mowery]

Are they counting on actual job loss of the ones quiting ,or is it that many of them are leaving one job to go to another ?

Around the town I live in many places have help wanted signs outside and some are even posting the strting pay. Some companies like the warehouses have developed the idea over the year that they hire people , work the crap out of them and before they are there long enough for many benefits the people leave and mor eare waiting in line. Sooner or later and it may be now they will have ran through all the people in the town that want to work there and no one wants to work there.

For example say McDonalds was paying $ 12 an hout and another fast food place put out a sign that says $ 13 an hour the people will leave one and go to the other.

[gfretwell]

They do seem to be people just quitting and assuming they can force employers to pay more. In the short therm it might work but companies are in the business of balancing labor costs to what customers are willing to pay for the product so a lot of these jobs may just go south or overseas. I bet we are going to see a lot of "Juan" Deere tractors soon.