Busting the myth of ‘labor shortage’
There are many of us who feel herded by the media and not heard. I would like to thank our government representatives, big business and the media for the whitewash leading us to believe that Americans are too lazy for many jobs; that we’re too educated and have moved on from menial hire; that supply and demand laws don’t apply; that Americans are better off governed to serve the wealthier portion of the population.
They say that illegal immigrants are needed to address a severe labor shortage. We now have long lines of people who are 30, 40, and 50 years old fighting over $6.50-per-hour jobs at big box stores like Wal-Mart.
There is no labor shortage. Our labor surplus has driven wages down far below a living wage. Our quality of life is better when companies have to compete for labor by providing better wages, 40-hour work weeks, educational, health care, optical, dental, stock option, profit sharing, cafeteria plan, vacation and retirement benefits.
Immigrants? Keep the best, ship the rest, seal the borders and use quality of life to measure the government’s performance.
Clayton Hinman, Thornton
You are right. Wal-mart will have thousands of people applying for low paying jobs and they claim there's a labor shortage. You used to be able to make a middle class living, buy a house, send your kids to college, etc, even if you worked in meat packing, as a janitor or in a factory. Meat packers probably make less now than they did in 1980.
The media and the government come up with statistics telling us how great the economy is doing, but for most of the people I know, even the ones who are doing well right now, have a good education and experience in currently hot fields, long term job prospects are not too nice.
The ability of the working class to have a decent life is one of the better things about this country. Seeing us go to a more plantation style economy isn't something I look forward too.
Posted by E on July 23, 2007 12:40 AMYou are right. Wal-mart will have thousands of people applying for low paying jobs and they claim there's a labor shortage. You used to be able to make a middle class living, buy a house, send your kids to college, etc, even if you worked in meat packing, as a janitor or in a factory. Meat packers probably make less now than they did in 1980.
The media and the government come up with statistics telling us how great the economy is doing, but for most of the people I know, even the ones who are doing well right now, have a good education and experience in currently hot fields, long term job prospects are not too nice.
The ability of the working class to have a decent life is one of the better things about this country. Seeing us go to a more plantation style economy isn't something I look forward too.
Posted by E on July 23, 2007 12:40 AMYou are right. Wal-mart will have thousands of people applying for low paying jobs and they claim there's a labor shortage. You used to be able to make a middle class living, buy a house, send your kids to college, etc, even if you worked in meat packing, as a janitor or in a factory. Meat packers probably make less now than they did in 1980.
The media and the government come up with statistics telling us how great the economy is doing, but for most of the people I know, even the ones who are doing well right now, have a good education and experience in currently hot fields, long term job prospects are not too nice.
The ability of the working class to have a decent life is one of the better things about this country. Seeing us go to a more plantation style economy isn't something I look forward too.
Posted by E on July 23, 2007 12:40 AMYou are right. Wal-mart will have thousands of people applying for low paying jobs and they claim there's a labor shortage. You used to be able to make a middle class living, buy a house, send your kids to college, etc, even if you worked in meat packing, as a janitor or in a factory. Meat packers probably make less now than they did in 1980.
The media and the government come up with statistics telling us how great the economy is doing, but for most of the people I know, even the ones who are doing well right now, have a good education and experience in currently hot fields, long term job prospects are not too nice.
The ability of the working class to have a decent life is one of the better things about this country. Seeing us go to a more plantation style economy isn't something I look forward too.
Posted by E on July 23, 2007 12:41 AMBoth the letter writer and "E" are right.
All this talk of a labor shortage is rubbish.
For years we heard the business types babble about the need for American workers to be competitive. This was really just an excuse to cut wages, benefits and the overall quality of jobs.
However, if there's a labor shortage, it seems that it's business that should be trying to be more competitive in attracting good employees/workers. That would mean that they'd have to offer decent pay packages and decent benefits.
Of course, why would they do that (be competitive in the labor market) when they can hire illegal aliens, "guest workers" or whatever their calling non-American workers these days.
Posted by Thom Challenger on July 23, 2007 01:44 AMhey e
hey e
hey e
you only hav eto hit the post button once.
why is it that everytime a wonderful liberal complains about low wages they state their favorite target Wal-Mart? what about target or k mart, or big lots, or the dollar store?
With a national unemployment rate of only 4.5% and about 3.5% in Colorado--both well below their long term historical averages--its hard to make a case that their is an oversupply of willing workers. On the other hand, without WalMart employing a million folks, those unemployment rates would be higher. Nobody forces those folks to work at WMT and most of its employees appear not to fill the bill as brain surgeons, rocket scientists, investment bankers or corporate executives.
America is a great place to live and work. Household net worth is closing in on a record $60 trillion and household incomes, the number of people employed and consumption has never been higher. So what's all the pissing, moaning and whinning all about? If you think its better in Havana, I have a one-way plane ticket to Fidel International for you.
Posted by hank on July 23, 2007 07:20 AM
Hank... people are pissing and moaning because foreign, illegal, workers are flooding the job markets in this country and stealing American jobs! They have absolutely no right to the American dream or Americas jobs!!
Posted by A on July 23, 2007 07:52 AMAbsolutely right A - Hank must be a corporate shill - either he owns a company or works in an industry where his job can't be offshored.
Let me tell you about the jobs in the IT industry. Folks with experience are getting laid off in favor of offshoring the jobs with the claim that we are 'globalizing' and many of them get out of the industry. Those of us who are left in the US are working 50-60 hours per week and are often oncall the rest of the hours (with a requirement to respond in 30 minutes or left when we are paged out). Since those of us working for the major IT companies (IBM, Sun, HP, MS, etc) are salaried, we get no OT pay - and since we are short-staffed, get no comp time. When the company absolutely must have someone stateside, they bring on the contractors (earning 1/3 to 1/2 of what they earned as full time employees, with no benefits) - but since contractors are paid an hourly wage, the employees are often told when there is an outage they must work until the problem is resolved (often more than 24 hours straight without even breaks for food). The US used to lead in this industry - where do you think innovations are going to come from when the 'take the profits & run' crowd has managed to offshore every job that doesn't require a physical presence? And - by the way - it's going to be a real kick when some terrorist organization figures out that they can sabotage this country by hiring some offshore firm to mess with bank or credit card balances, prices that ring up in stores, or even set all traffic lights to green at a set time.
My personal experience is that in the last 9 days, I have worked 96 hours - and been paged out 3 times while I was sleeping - meanwhile the company laid off a dozen worker over the last year. Last year, I worked over 2500 hours & wrote off 2 weeks vacation because we were so understaffed - working with Indian subcontractors who, when their shift is up just hang up & go home - even when they are part of a server crash resolution team. Frequently those folks are taking IT 'starter' jobs - and it takes them 3-4 times as long as a US worker to get them done. The irony is that while they (& other offshore workers) used to make 1/4-1/2 what the US workers made, now it is up to 2/3 what a US worker makes & rising.
The fact that the unemployment rate APPEARS to be low is that under Reagan, they started including members of the military (a group always fully employed, so that automatically lowered the unemployment rate) and many folks who are unemployed have given up. Their unemployment benefits have expired (and that's how they come up with the unemployment rate - as Dick or Jane 'falls off' the unemployment benefits lists, the unemployment rate goes down), but they haven't found jobs to replace the ones they lost thanks to offshoring & illegal employers. My personal belief is that if offshoring is such a great idea, we should offshore CEOs & boards' jobs - am quite sure some Indian CEO would love to make a tenth of what the IBM CEO made last year (18.8 million)!
Posted by Mary on July 23, 2007 08:42 AMHas your teenager or college student tried to find a summer job lately? The fast food industry and landscape services, for example, were primo jobs for them years ago. No longer---when you pull up to a fast food window and hear the spanish music blaring (which I have experienced) and the order is all screwed up because they do not understand what you said, you know an illegal is working that job. It has softened a little lately after the ICE raids but it is still out there. MANY other jobs out there have been taken by illegal immigrants. It is upsetting to hear people say that they take jobs that no one else wants. Visit a new housing development and check out the workers there. Construction was huge for American workers in the past. They no longer want to work for dirt. They have to make a living wage. Employers must be fined and prosecuted for hiring illegal workers. Can we really trust that this will ever be done??
Posted by c on July 23, 2007 09:28 AMHank--The USA is a wonderful place to live and work and we are all entitled to the American Dream IF WE ARE HERE LEGALLY. If one has snuck into this country, stolen identity, and taken money under the table for jobs that they have STOLEN from the citizens of this country, continued to hide under false identity for years and years, sucked dry the health and school sytems while you and I pay for these services FOR THEM, WE OWE THEM NOTHING. They should all be deported, we should work far harder to secure our borders and insist that our leaders actually do something to stem the tide of illegal invaders of all ethnic backgrounds. I would never dream of sneaking into a foreign country and expect them to cater to my needs. English has always been the official language of this country but walk into a Lowe's, for instance, all signs are subtitiled in Spanish. Don't shove it down my throat that we need them for jobs that citizens think they are above doing. It's all about profit for the fat cats. Bottom line.
Posted by es on July 23, 2007 09:44 AMLike Mary, I work in IT and I have concerns similar to the lower end of the job market. With the recent immigration bill, there was a proposal to increase the number of H1B visas to almost 200,000 a year. That's about all the new jobs in IT, set aside for foreign workers.
Let's see, are these jobs American's won't do either Mr. McCain?
Another thing they had in that immigration bill was a proposal for temp workers. (Like we don't have tons of those now.) Great, I'd really like to work with people who come from a place where they make like 1 dollar a day and they know that if their employer has a problem with them they are going to have to go back there. That'll keep the shop floor quiet! (Of course, many temp workers won't leave and a few years from now we'll have to have another amnesty to legalize them too, cause you can't deport anyone).
mary your life and job suck really bad. maybe you should go to work for wal mart or start your own business and compete in the IT world.
now remember that will comsume a lot of your time and there is no pay for it so I guess you wont do that.
The Agenda calls for the destruction of the American middle class. All of you are simply talking about one of the pieces of that agenda. Thank the CFR, IMF, World Bank, Federal Reserve, and the rest of the Global, New World Order.
Posted by on July 23, 2007 11:46 AM"jobs Americans won't do" is a complete lie.
Once again....a LIE.
When I was a teenager in the early eighties,
I swept floors, bussed tables and cleaned toilets. Now we hear about teens not being able to find these entry level jobs.
Hmmmmmm...I wonder why?
Funny how some peoples' hearts bleed for all the poor people in the world
EXCEPT the American ones.
RICHARD LEE LANDRUM II
LONGMONT
I used to own a construction company doing high end remodeling, retail tenant finish and small commercial office and retail buildings. We took pride in hiring teenagers at entry level positions -- well above minimum wage -- and teaching them the various crafts involved in construction. We offered paid vacations, overtime, holiday pay, sick time, profit sharing (after a year) and a basic health plan. Workman's comp was carried for all employees. We usually promoted from within.
The young people were eager learners of a trade that SHOULD HAVE provided them with solid careers over their lifetime. However, as the flood of cheap illegal labor saturated the industry and artificially suppressed the wages it became almost impossible to stay competitive.
I was fortunate in that I had other skills and a college education that permitted me to sell my company and move into an area not nearly so directly affected by the illegal workers. Many of the people who once worked for me were not so fortunate. And entry level positions for building a career in the construction industry have all but evaporated.
Even if a young person is willing to accept a basic position without much hope for advancement or longevity in the construction industry many of the company owners will still hire the illegal. By hiring the illegal the owner knows that there is a strong likelihood that income tax returns are not going to be filed and social security will never be claimed as the illegal is most likely working under a false name and social security number. Hence, taxes are withheld from the illegal's paychecks and pocketed by the owner. Can't do that with a legal worker.
Another route around paying taxes is to "subcontract" the work to another company -- usually a straw company. For example, a roofing contractor will sign a contract for ten houses. He'll go to an illegal who regularly works with him and tell him to put together a couple of crews to do the work at an agreed upon rate per unit. The contractor has the materials delivered to the site, the "subcontractors" do the roofing. When completed, the contractor writes a check to the guy who puts together the crews. The contractor has no responsibility for income or SS taxes; no need to carry workman's comp or any insurance outside of basic business liability (he is responsible for the work).
Can't hire legal workers under those conditions as they would have to be earning enough to pay taxes, and would have to be covered under a workman's comp policy. Once that labor check is written to the "subcontractor", the subcontractor vanishes back into the wood work after paying his laborers cash.
Posted by darfor on July 23, 2007 01:02 PMHank said ”… national unemployment rate of only 4.5% and about 3.5% in Colorado…”
That figure doesn’t count people no longer able to apply for unemployment, yes?
Mary, your points are well taken, but not all employers are like that.
– are you on Monster?
My daughter had a good job $17.00hr.They layed off 20 employees including her..they outsourced.That same month, she found out she had breast cancer.A single mom w/ two children, she owned her home..after chemo and radiation,etc. Dhe said she was going to get a job making the same amount of money in order to meet her expenses,and make the morgage payment. I told her..there's no longer jobs like that. She searched and looked..no, the jobs were from 6-9.00hr.
Hows a single mom to pay a morgage house payment and meet expenses on this low pay? With continued surgeries..she lost her house. While illegals are buying their houses..and collecting gov. benefits..saying the fathers in Mexico..or don't know who the dad is. The rest is history..the stolden S.S.#
false ID"S, crooked realestate Mexicans,etc.
Thank you our government for our American nightmare!
A truly sad story anonymous 2:02 but, your daughter and her two children are American citizens and we don't count anymore!
The World Order Globalists, companies, politicians, elitists, and illegal aliens are the only people who are allowed to make any money in America.
We are being relegated to the trash heap while our so called leaders give America away to foreign interests.
It would be refreshing to see the RMN or Denver Post run stories about AMERICAN families who have lost everything due to outsourcing and the hiring of the dishonorable illegals who have flooded our cities with crime, disease, and total socio-economic chaos!
Unfortunately we won't see many, if any, of these type stories. How bout it RMN??
Posted by A on July 23, 2007 04:48 PMA, you make a good point. We never hear about the impact on people like Anonymous 2:02. Do our legislators care about people looking for a job here who AREN"T illegal aliens? Look at Darfor. Construction is another industry that's going towards Mexico level wages. Great.
Posted by Rocky on July 23, 2007 05:27 PMI think the only way is to bombard your elected official with e-mails threatening them to be voted out of office as we did with the annesty bill . Then vote them out if they can't understand what their voters want from them .
Posted by Robert Barry on July 23, 2007 07:44 PMI think the only way is to bombard your elected official with e-mails threatening them to be voted out of office as we did with the annesty bill . Then vote them out if they can't understand what their voters want from them .
Posted by Robert Barry on July 23, 2007 07:45 PMI think the only way is to bombard your elected official with e-mails threatening them to be voted out of office as we did with the annesty bill . Then vote them out if they can't understand what their voters want from them .
Posted by Robert Barry on July 23, 2007 07:45 PMIt never ceases to amaze me how many people will defend to the death the free market; whine and cry when they are affected, all the while failing to connect the two.
You want the free market, you also have to accept the consequences, such as the loss of jobs to cheaper labor. Captalism isn't always pretty.
Posted by James on July 23, 2007 10:01 PMIllegal workers have nothing to do with capitalism. The free market does not include accepting illegal workers or the outrageous government benefits they drain away from American citizens.
Enforcing the laws is what a free market and capitalism require.
Some use those two as excuses for their lawbreaking but it is as sensible as accepting bank robbery as accessng captial.
Maybe we should all e-mail or call our leaders and ask them to read these pages. Good idea? Or maybe they will be too busy spreading false promises and kissing babies to bother.
Posted by C on July 24, 2007 11:28 AMNo one hears of tragic stories like annon 2:02 because all the newspapers are busy with Border Street stories or other illegal alien sob stories and the American Citizen is left out. Shows that no one cares. We have to pull our selves up by our own bootstrap.
Posted by on July 24, 2007 01:55 PMI've said it before,I'll say it again.All of this talk has dead-on accurate arguments.Unfortunately,the outfits profiting from the uninvited guest worker program have highly paid lawyers who can talk much faster than any of us here.Want government to pay attention?Go in a LARGE group to an immigration rally and burn the Mexican flag-bring a few Iranian flags too.
Posted by Jimminy on July 25, 2007 07:25 AMYou know Jimminy, it may just come to that in the future!
Momma Y.... I truly feel that some people including some politicians in this land are bent on a socialistic future for us all...They want to rid America of capitalism. These people, undermine, are trying to destroy, in every way, the structure needed for capitalism.
Posted by A on July 25, 2007 10:45 AMA,there are indeed a great many people and organizations that are virulently anti-capitalist,and I do believe that since capitalism has to make a profit or cease to exist,it provides a slightly better environment for individual liberty than Communism.I think,however,that American capitalism these days needs a little more oversight than it gets.Examples?The obscene amounts of money the oil companies make,the continual outsourcing of jobs,the wink-and-a-nod disregard of immigration law.The stock market may be at an all-time high,but are YOU better off than you were ten years ago? Do you know any working man who is? I'm suggesting that capitalism too can run amok.The last time capitalism ran amok it caused several reactions.The first was the emergence of Marxism,a cancerous non-religious religion that has killed hundreds of millions and continues to plague society today.The second was the 1929 crash,caused by what amounted to reckless gambling in stocks.Well,the stock market IS the biggest casino on Earth.Playing can be fun and profitable,but enter at your own risk.The consequence of the Great Depression was Naziism and WW2.I worry a little bit that We The People don't have much of a mechanism to rein in the "isms" we currently work with.
Posted by Jimminy on July 25, 2007 11:32 AMJimminy,FYI
I'm sure everyone knows that the socialist party has been at work here in Denver for
many years, all the youth protesting, all the protesters when they all came out were organized by socialist...The group Padres Unidos..is one. Go to Terry Anderson Talk Show.com see what they're doing to our flag,it's also upside down.
Socialism in this country was always a front for Soviet/Cuban mischief.and has of late been interested mostly in the harassment of those who like all things American.Has nothing to do with the aims of old-line liberalism,which were in large part the stabilization of society through keeping the poor from becoming so wretchedly poor that they have nothing to lose by revolting.That should also be one of the aims of the large capitalist entities.That they now pay too much attention to concentrating wealth is a criticism of corporate administrative shortsightedness,not the system.
Posted by Jimminy on July 26, 2007 01:22 AM