At the end of January, there were 11.263 million open positions per the latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, up from 10.295 million in December, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Hires hit 6.5 million, while separations were 6.1 million. The pace of quitting declined by 2.8%.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/job-openings-jolts-hiring

I have a second cousin who was indoctrinated with far left ideals in college. She is about 30, and has never had a real job because of "migraines." She and her cats have shared an apartment for several years with no job, while she of course lashes out on social media against people who pay for her not to work.

Now that all the covid money has run out, she is moving back in with mommy and daddy. I guess work is still of the table. We have failed our youth.

Aside from those with truly credible reasons....If I'm employed, there is no excuse for any functional human being in the Country to be unemployed.

Graduated from college, and don't like your paycheck? Learn to be a plumber, an electrician, AV technician, welder/fitter, commercial or residential appraiser, etc. Etc. (Don't become a realtor, they get CRUSHED in a bad market)

After about 10k work hours you should have general mastery of the subject you chose, which is ~ 5-6 years at 2080hrs/yr. You should now file under your own LLC, or respective designation. In a halfway decent economy you will make more than many doctors, lawyers, loan officers etc. This isn't a joke.

Health insurance, E&O insurance, licensing renewals, quarterly taxes, angry clients etc. are headaches that come with the territory, but they're worth it!

**** you if you're unemployed for no good reason.

We have hurt ourselves when we look the other way and elect people who just spend our money and most of them are within a 50 mile radius of DC.

Why would I work if I can sit on my ass and collect checks from the gubment??

I just hired a fat girl for $18 an hour. Pay should be $12

Incredibly frustrating. I desperately need people and can't find anyone to hire. I'm hardly even interviewing. If you come in, you're hired.

Year of the Germaphobe said:

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Aside from those with truly credible reasons....If I'm employed, there is no excuse for any functional human being in the Country to be unemployed.

Graduated from college, and don't like your paycheck? Learn to be a plumber, an electrician, AV technician, welder/fitter, commercial or residential appraiser, etc. Etc. (Don't become a realtor, they get CRUSHED in a bad market)

After about 10k work hours you should have general mastery of the subject you chose, which is ~ 5-6 years at 2080hrs/yr. You should now file under your own LLC, or respective designation. In a halfway decent economy you will make more than many doctors, lawyers, loan officers etc. This isn't a joke.

Health insurance, E&O insurance, licensing renewals, quarterly taxes, angry clients etc. are headaches that come with the territory, but they're worth it!

**** you if you're unemployed for no good reason.

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This.

I worked in a lower income area school. I taught math so no one liked my class. However, we did have a very robust auto mechanics class, usually for Sophomores and up. The second I found out one of my Algebra 1 kids were thinking about doing that, I made sure that they knew they were making one of the best decisions for their livelihood after school (entering a trade).

Our school system is failing kids because it is being preached that they have to go to a 4 year school. I am sorry but a junior still trying to pass algebra 1 is not going to a 4 year school. There needs to be a renewed focus on the trade skills in our schools whether that is plumbing, carpentry, auto mechanics, welding, health and beauty (cutting/dying hair) and the like. These people are making a killing doing jobs that those students of Gender Studies think are too good to do.

One has a job making good money while the other is paying off loans while working at Starbucks.

The Great Reset.

Ellis Wyatt said:

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I have a second cousin who was indoctrinated with far left ideals in college. She is about 30, and has never had a real job because of "migraines." She and her cats have shared an apartment for several years with no job, while she of course lashes out on social media against people who pay for her not to work.

Now that all the covid money has run out, she is moving back in with mommy and daddy. I guess work is still of the table. We have failed our youth.

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You are right that we have failed our youth. I blame the parents. No one else. Many of today's parents are wimps and afraid of their children. They crave to be "cool parents" and "friends" with their kids. They fail to see that the kids don't want their parents as friends, they have kids their own age and many of them. They need parents to parent them.

Spare the rod, spoil the child. We lost the plot the day society made it "wrong" to spank their kids among other punishments for bad behavior. In high school you see the difference starkly. The Asian kids are mostly high performers and end up in top American schools. The Caucasian kids who parents are their buddies are occupy the B and C grades in the class and end up in community college and then do hourly wage jobs.

Maybe your cousin can move to Alabama and work for me....

....I am leaving Minnesota and starting a BBQ shop in the Gulf Shores area.

About to be done with corporate life forever.

But had I tried it here in MN, it would have cost me almost 3 times the cost to get started. Thanks to the DFL (Democrats) here.

The lockdowns showed many people they don't need much in life, or that whatever job they had just wasn't worth it.

Line Ate Member said:

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Year of the Germaphobe said:

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Aside from those with truly credible reasons....If I'm employed, there is no excuse for any functional human being in the Country to be unemployed.

Graduated from college, and don't like your paycheck? Learn to be a plumber, an electrician, AV technician, welder/fitter, commercial or residential appraiser, etc. Etc. (Don't become a realtor, they get CRUSHED in a bad market)

After about 10k work hours you should have general mastery of the subject you chose, which is ~ 5-6 years at 2080hrs/yr. You should now file under your own LLC, or respective designation. In a halfway decent economy you will make more than many doctors, lawyers, loan officers etc. This isn't a joke.

Health insurance, E&O insurance, licensing renewals, quarterly taxes, angry clients etc. are headaches that come with the territory, but they're worth it!

**** you if you're unemployed for no good reason.

---

This.

I worked in a lower income area school. I taught math so no one liked my class. However, we did have a very robust auto mechanics class, usually for Sophomores and up. The second I found out one of my Algebra 1 kids were thinking about doing that, I made sure that they knew they were making one of the best decisions for their livelihood after school (entering a trade).

Our school system is failing kids because it is being preached that they have to go to a 4 year school. I am sorry but a junior still trying to pass algebra 1 is not going to a 4 year school. There needs to be a renewed focus on the trade skills in our schools whether that is plumbing, carpentry, auto mechanics, welding, health and beauty (cutting/dying hair) and the like. These people are making a killing doing jobs that those students of Gender Studies think are too good to do.

One has a job making good money while the other is paying off loans while working at Starbucks.

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I completely agree.

I have no idea what the outcome of the student loan debt nonsense will be...my assumption is that it's going to be very, very bad.

This is on parents and society, in general, and also politicians and doctors for freaking out like morons over a weakass virus, closing down productive society.

Are any of the jobs in Marketing or Supply Chain because my son has been looking and can't even get an interview? He has a degree in both and graduated Cum Laude.

Ellis Wyatt said:

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I have a second cousin who was indoctrinated with far left ideals in college. She is about 30, and has never had a real job because of "migraines." She and her cats have shared an apartment for several years with no job, while she of course lashes out on social media against people who pay for her not to work.

Now that all the covid money has run out, she is moving back in with mommy and daddy. I guess work is still of the table. We have failed our youth.

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I have several aunts and cousins who do the same on right side of political equation spewing absolute nonsense (like satire tweets, q conspiracy, etc as fact). I don't extrapolate their lifestyle or point of view to the entire Republican voting base. HTH.

MallalieuAg said:

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Are any of the jobs in Marketing or Supply Chain because my son has been looking and can't even get an interview? He has a degree in both and graduated Cum Laude.

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It's a nuanced issue. Oversupply of marketing and psychology majors, undersupply of skilled craft professionals.

Ellis Wyatt said:

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I have a second cousin who was indoctrinated with far left ideals in college. She is about 30, and has never had a real job because of "migraines." She and her cats have shared an apartment for several years with no job, while she of course lashes out on social media against people who pay for her not to work.

Now that all the covid money has run out, she is moving back in with mommy and daddy. I guess work is still of the table. We have failed our youth.

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I have a cousin like that as well, cept they been doing this for 20 years.

Yep
There are so many WFH opportunities now they can be one cat short of crazy (or over) and make a living.
It is very sad.
Work can bring so much self esteem and worth to someone.

BigRobSA said:

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This is on parents and society, in general, and also politicians and doctors for freaking out like morons over a weakass virus, closing down productive society.

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The politician's signatures are what closed us down. Had they not signed to lock us down, everything and everyone else would've just been noise.

Doctors and the peasants can rabble all they want, but at the end of the day the fault still lies in he or she who signed the paper to lock us down

Guys this is only going to get worse. We talk about Zeihan regularly on here but we've got to hear what he's saying. Our demographics are better than most of the world but they aren't good. The Baby Boomers are our largest generation and they're well into their retirement. This is corporate leadership so we're about to see a substantial void at the top so to speak. There aren't enough Gen X to fill those jobs so the Millennials are going to take over probably before they're ready.

If you're an owner or hiring manager start getting creative. I'm a fractional controller. A few years ago I had 1.5 headcount not counting me. Today I have zero with 2x the amount of work. I've automated all of what those two were doing and some of what I was doing. The basics are done with apps and I'm more responsive to my clients and their businesses. That's the world we live in now and it's never going to go back. Get used to it.

No Spin Ag said:

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BigRobSA said:

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This is on parents and society, in general, and also politicians and doctors for freaking out like morons over a weakass virus, closing down productive society.

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The politician's signatures are what closed us down. Had they not signed to lock us down, everything and everyone else would've just been noise.

Doctors and the peasants can rabble all they want, but at the end of the day the fault still lies in he or she who signed the paper to lock us down

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The pols did it because moronic, idiot "doctors" fed them fearporn not based on science.

LOYAL AG said:

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Guys this is only going to get worse. We talk about Zeihan regularly on here but we've got to hear what he's saying. Our demographics are better than most of the world but they aren't good. The Baby Boomers are our largest generation and they're well into their retirement. This is corporate leadership so we're about to see a substantial void at the top so to speak. There aren't enough Gen X to fill those jobs so the Millennials are going to take over probably before they're ready.

If you're an owner or hiring manager start getting creative. I'm a fractional controller. A few years ago I had 1.5 headcount not counting me. Today I have zero with 2x the amount of work. I've automated all of what those two were doing and some of what I was doing. The basics are done with apps and I'm more responsive to my clients and their businesses. That's the world we live in now and it's never going to go back. Get used to it.

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You definitely don't mess with the Zeihan!!

BigRobSA said:

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No Spin Ag said:

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BigRobSA said:

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This is on parents and society, in general, and also politicians and doctors for freaking out like morons over a weakass virus, closing down productive society.

---

The politician's signatures are what closed us down. Had they not signed to lock us down, everything and everyone else would've just been noise.

Doctors and the peasants can rabble all they want, but at the end of the day the fault still lies in he or she who signed the paper to lock us down

---

The pols did it because moronic, idiot "doctors" fed them fearporn not based on science.

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Then we need better politicians who can think for themselves.

My company is having a hard time filling office roles because people have such unrealistic salary expectations. I've talked to people that are graduating community college looking for entry level roles and asking for $60k. I had a Receptionist ask for $50k last week.

We're having no issues filling specialty roles like Welders and Electricians. Hired a 19 year old out of HVAC school for $18/hour, turns out he's a natural at Welding, is now a lead after 6 months, and is making like $26/hour.

ScapeGOAT said:

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My company is having a hard time filling office roles because people have such unrealistic salary expectations. I've talked to people that are graduating community college looking for entry level roles and asking for $60k. I had a Receptionist ask for $50k last week.

We're having no issues filling specialty roles like Welders and Electricians. Hired a 19 year old out of HVAC school for $18/hour, turns out he's a natural at Welding, is now a lead after 6 months, and is making like $26/hour.

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Just to play devil's advocate, why is it "unrealistic"? Why not let the market decide? Maybe your company is being unrealistic and keeping wages low? Companies did that to tech workers by importing in planeloads of people from Asia and flooding the market paying low wages. They later found out that low wages also meant low quality but that is a different discussion.

If a Receptionist is asking for 50k, it probably means he/she can get a job elsewhere and your company is not keeping up. This is business. So pony up.

I just switched jobs and got a 10% pay hike. I will keep doing it when I see a market like this. My previous company would give 1-3% thinking it is 2005. No wonder most people are leaving that place.

The collapse is going to be epic - nobody is safe.

ScapeGOAT said:

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My company is having a hard time filling office roles because people have such unrealistic salary expectations. I've talked to people that are graduating community college looking for entry level roles and asking for $60k. I had a Receptionist ask for $50k last week.

We're having no issues filling specialty roles like Welders and Electricians. Hired a 19 year old out of HVAC school for $18/hour, turns out he's a natural at Welding, is now a lead after 6 months, and is making like $26/hour.

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Infinity nailed it here. It's your job to pay a competitive wage, not there's to accept your job at an uncompetitive one. Look at it from their perspective because that's the only one that matters. Sounds like Receptionist is a $50K job now. Your decision is do you need a receptionist, not can you get one for cheaper than the market rate. What do you want to pay for that role? I'm guessing $45K which is less than $100/week delta to get what you otherwise think is the right person. Understand that the right person is expensive, the wrong one catastrophic.

Ellis Wyatt said:

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I have a second cousin who was indoctrinated with far left ideals in college. She is about 30, and has never had a real job because of "migraines." She and her cats have shared an apartment for several years with no job, while she of course lashes out on social media against people who pay for her not to work.

Now that all the covid money has run out, she is moving back in with mommy and daddy. I guess work is still of the table. We have failed our youth.

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Her parents are partly to blame for that ***** Move back in? Nope. Get a ****ing job you free loader and I wouldn't care if it was my kid. That's ****ing bull*****

Part of it is also what I've been given to work with. Boomer-mindset across the board of "This is how we did it in my day, so this is how we need to do it now". We're not even offering remote work, which is a huge reason in why we can't retain/attract office talent.

I'm working on getting these processes implemented, including raising pay, but it's tough to get it through the heads of the people that control the budget even with the amount of data I'm showing them.

ScapeGOAT said:

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Part of it is also what I've been given to work with. Boomer-mindset across the board of "This is how we did it in my day, so this is how we need to do it now". We're not even offering remote work, which is a huge reason in why we can't retain/attract office talent.

I'm working on getting these processes implemented, including raising pay, but it's tough to get it through the heads of the people that control the budget even with the amount of data I'm showing them.

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That's definitely a challenge. The Boomer's are retiring en masse and the last hold outs will potentially set their orgs back several years with an outdated mindset on how to hire, train and retain people. Good luck with that, I don't have an answer here!