posted by gut
Technically, the job pace is a bit behind Obama's last 12 months. 2.2M jobs (over 12 months, I believe) is only about 400k above the rate needed to pace population growth.
And I think I mentioned it before, but we're probably 2.5M jobs behind true "full employment". These are people who have long given up and no longer count in the artificially low unemployment number.
Now, I also saw where job postings are at like a 15-yr high, but I'm pretty skeptical of that number for a couple of reasons. While anecdotally I do hear of employers having trouble filling jobs, I think it's also the case with technology today that many of these are "perma-postings" that are collecting resumes in order to have a pool to draw from for turnover. And you have postings that are more "nice to have" instead of need, in the sense of if a local candidate has the right experience and asking price then they might hire you.
There also clearly are structural issues where employees are not willing to relocate where the jobs are, but employers aren't doing much to help make that happen. Larger implications there of incentives for both employer and employee. Millions of people either out-of-the-workforce or underemployed, but there are 6.5M unfilled job postings? I call bullshit on that.
We've seen an uptick in optimism and some planning/investment, but I don't expect to see much real movement until Trump's economic plans actually get thru Congress. And I haven't seen anything to address the above lack of mobility in the workforce.
I'd largely agree with that. The labor participation rate has slowly ticked up, which is great. But, there is still a long way to go. Wages too have largely been meh, flat in areas.
The relocation issue is a big one I know for some fields. I know some people just simply do not want to move to a small town or a big city. I know I moved to DC from Ohio for school, but also becasue I knew the job prospects would be better. I do know relocating is expensive as shit and companies could kick in as a bonus to pay for moving expenses. Some companies I know do this, but I'm not sure if it is something a lot of companies do.
I know in my field now, transportation and infrastructure, there is a constant demand for technical jobs to be filled on complex job sites. There is a serious lack of engineers and designers as more and more of the baby boomers retire. The industry feels that it may be hammered if boomers retire and there is that huge influx of projects on the infrastructure side. The demand is high, but the technical skills and know-how is simply not there yet.
The industry is unsure yet how to address it, other than the usual, there needs to be more training and education, more STEM and engineers in the field.
posted by QuakerOats
And we have a major problem with jobs going unfilled because a ridiculously high percent ofapplicants fail drug tests.
That is true. I'm not sure of the solution in that one.