Whenever I see articles where businesses are moaning about not being able to find workers in this economy, my first thought is Econ 101: what wages and benefits are you offering the prospective employee?
More and more hiring managers want employees who can do the jobs of two or three people and want to offer a fraction of the wages that companies offered people just a few years ago. And frankly, businesses are of the mindset that they have all the time in the world to out-wait workers.
Getting laid off two years ago at company X and seeing company Y is now hiring for the kind of work you did, only offering 20%, 33%, 40% less for a salary and expectations of far more actual work is the new reality of the American job market. Hey, there's 8.5 people for every job opening, counting underemployed Americans right now.
Employers will continue to cut wages in order to push productivity numbers and gain profits. They have that luxury now. They will have it for a long, long time to come.
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