The US Lacks Skilled Labor

[SEC=UGA]

CBS) Job openings at businesses fell to 2.54 million in June from 2.6 million in May, meaning there is now five unemployed workers on average for every job opening.

 

There's a brighter spot in manufacturing, where some companies are looking for workers, CBS News Correspondent Cynthia Bowers reports.

 

On a quick tour of her family's factory, Linda Fillingham proudly shows off employees making the metal parts that go into some of America's biggest machines.

 

What's holding her machine shop back isn't a shortage of work. Instead, it's a shortage of workers, whom she's willing to pay $13 to $18 an hour.

 

"Thirty to 40 we could use right now," Fillingham said.

 

And she's not alone. The government says there are 227,000 open manufacturing jobs, more than double the number a year ago. One hundred eighty-three thousand have been created since December, the strongest seven-month streak in a decade.

 

Fillingham said it's hard to fill these jobs because they require people who are good at math, good with their hands and willing to work on a factory floor.

 

She's had to resort to paying people to learn on the job, like 25-year-old Matthew McDannel. The average manufacturing worker is more than twice his age.

 

"Maybe the work's too hard," said McDannel. "Maybe it's too hot. Maybe people just think about it and they're just, like, 'Oh, I don't want to do that.'"

 

By the year 2012 it's estimated this country will be three million skilled workers short, and it's not just in manufacturing sector. A recent survey found 22 percent of American businesses say they are ready to hire if they can find the right people.

 

"They're dipping their toes in the water, seeing if it's the right time to hire, but you also have potential employees doing the same thing and testing that employer to see if it's the right place for them," careerbuilder.com's Jason Ferrara said.

 

Fillingham hopes to convince a new generation that manufacturing jobs aren't a part of the past but instead the foundation of the future.

 

"You need to come up to bat and play the game if you want to be in it," said Fillingham. "It's there if you want to do it."

 

I guess my other question is, Have Americans become too lazy to do manual labor/factory labor any more?

[dmarc117]

I guess my other question is, Have Americans become too lazy to do manual labor/factory labor any more?

 

 

does a bear sh1t in da woods?

 

the good life is over people!!! get back to work, for less. its reality!!!

[Yukon Cornelius]

I guess my other question is, Have Americans become too lazy to do manual labor/factory labor any more?

Yah they all want to be day traders and steal money from old people.

[WaterMan]

I posted something alot like this last week and it was gunned fast.

 

I guess my other question is, Have Americans become too lazy to do manual labor/factory labor any more?

 

Where are these jobs? Not in my state.

[SeductiveNun]

I guess my other question is, Have Americans become too lazy to do manual labor/factory labor any more?

Could be. I know that if I were to lose my job though I would always have the fall back of a labor position somewhere. I started out as a laborer on a lot of projects, and while it isn't glamorous work, it's still work. I'm not that old, but it seems to me like a lot of younger folk tend to think that labor is beneath them. While I certainly don't miss it, I darn sure wouldn't avoid it if that's where the work was.

 

After working where I have for over 12 years, it would be a bitter pill to swallow to fall back to a labor position at a fraction of what I make. However pride won't keep my family in our home or keep the groceries coming in. And I damn well know I would feel even worse collecting welfare/unemployment than if I was working at a job where I for all intents and purposes was back on the bottom rung.

[SEC=UGA]

I posted something alot like this last week and it was gunned fast.

 

 

 

Where are these jobs? Not in my state.

 

Soooo... If jobs aren't in your state you're gonna just sit there and starve until there are jobs in your state?

[dmarc117]

I posted something alot like this last week and it was gunned fast.

 

 

 

Where are these jobs? Not in my state.

 

 

the jobs left over time because unions wanted more for less work. well, there are people out there willing to do alot for not much. get used to it. if the unskilled want their jobs back here, they will have to work for less. its very simple.

[dmarc117]

Soooo... If jobs aren't in your state you're gonna just sit there and starve until there are jobs in your state?

 

 

no sh1t......its this thinking that killed the usa. this pos govt just kept giving handouts. propping up a feeble work force.

[SEC=UGA]

Could be. I know that if I were to lose my job though I would always have the fall back of a labor position somewhere. I started out as a laborer on a lot of projects, and while it isn't glamorous work, it's still work. I'm not that old, but it seems to me like a lot of younger folk tend to think that labor is beneath them. While I certainly don't miss it, I darn sure wouldn't avoid it if that's where the work was.

 

After working where I have for over 12 years, it would be a bitter pill to swallow to fall back to a labor position at a fraction of what I make. However pride won't keep my family in our home or keep the groceries coming in. And I damn well know I would feel even worse collecting welfare/unemployment than if I was working at a job where I for all intents and purposes was back on the bottom rung.

 

Thank god, the work ethic hasn't completely died. and +1

[Chief Dick]

After working where I have for over 12 years, it would be a bitter pill to swallow to fall back to a labor position at a fraction of what I make. However pride won't keep my family in our home or keep the groceries coming in. And I damn well know I would feel even worse collecting welfare/unemployment than if I was working at a job where I for all intents and purposes was back on the bottom rung.

 

Agree with this 100%.

 

I'd shovel dog sh.it for $5.00 an hour to keep food in my babies' mouths.

[millerx]

I posted something alot like this last week and it was gunned fast.

 

 

 

Where are these jobs? Not in my state.

That's because a "state" of socialism isn't an actual state.

[WaterMan]

GINGRICH: Do you want to create jobs as rapidly as China? The Chinese pay zero capital gains tax. If we had zero capital gains tax in the United States, we'd be building factories, founding companies, creating jobs. We'd be dramatically better off.

 

Stewart: So that's the Republican plan. To fight socialism, we must become communists.