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A Shift Will Happen in the Future

hard to believe

it
veterans administration
Wed Apr 9, 2008 7:32 AM

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If there are so many available jobs.Why is there any
unemployment? many layed - off workers are highly
skilled.

A shift will happen in the future - labor shortage

Business Development Specialist
U.S. Small Business Administration
Wed Apr 9, 2008 9:31 AM

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Four people in my office of ten, that has beeb stripped down from 37-two years ago (to outsource government jobs) have educated children in their early to mid 30's out of work. Companies want us to think their is a labor shortage, so they can hire cheap labor from out of the country. My daughter an Engineer has not had a raise in four years and is working a second job at Sears Dept. Store. God Bless Sears because no one else would hire her she was over qualified. What about my other friend who's daughter just graduated from ASU with her degree in teaching and $150,000 in educational loans at 8.5% with her first job paying $33,500/year. ASU has increased their costs 425% over the last 2-years and who is making that money? Stop the crying about labor shortage, pay the prevailing wage.

Shift Will Happen -- Baby Boomers

A/C
FAA
Wed Apr 9, 2008 10:07 AM

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Someone once said, "Poor planning does not constitute an emergency on my part." Why are we not training more young workers to fill the slots of eligible retirees? The baby boomers have already had their opportunity to work & save & accumulate for the future. The majority of them are not hurting, just becoming greedy. If we would give more dignity to blue (& white) collar jobs, & more opportunity for our young people to train into them, we would be doing our citizenship a great service & boost our economy at the same time. Our youth are bored, unstimulated, & hopelessly paralyzed in the current systems of education & opportunity. Let's get behind them & give them the hope & the work that gives them dignity & a living wage so that they can be productive citizens with a share in the spoils -- & not fear to have families, & gratefully contribute to this society. Retirement-eligible folks should step aside & give youth a chance, unless there is a significantly worthy reason not to.

Re: Shift Will Happen -- Baby Boomers

WORKERBEE
DOD
Thu Apr 10, 2008 9:27 AM
You hit the nail on the head. Job openings at my installation are very few. Those that can retire aren't doing it, whatever their reasons are. It has created a stagnant work pool. It used to be that people would retire, current workers would compete for vacancies left by them. Younger workers would come in at entry levels to learn an organization from bottom to top. A good theory.

Labor shortage

Nameless, Faceless Nobody
DOD
Wed Apr 9, 2008 10:27 AM

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Used to be that someone with basic literacy was considered able to do a great deal of the work available. Not as many had higher degrees and not all the jobs needed one. Now, even for work that I have done well for a most of my life, degrees are becoming required. We have positions, that less than a decade ago, were open to high school graduates who learned the fine points over several years of working in an office with several experienced people. Now, they come straight from college, enter an internship program, and spend several years learning the job from a few more experienced people. I have yet to see any practical difference in performance between the two groups, except the young college grads are being promoted over the old "shirt-sleeve" grads. Some of the kids are pretty good...the rest are self-aggrandizing whiners. But there is a program that costs more, degree requirements that reduce the numbers of available workers, and absolutely no gain work quality.

Re: Labor shortage

Reformed Conservative
DFAS
Wed Apr 9, 2008 2:33 PM
This is a point well taken. Unrealistic hiring requirements shrink the already small pool of potential applicants even further. I have met (and worked under) any number of half-literate college graduates in my time, so I am not nearly as impressed by a degree as OPM seems to be. I think it might be a good idea to jettison the degree worship and reinstitute a Civil Service test. Such a test could weed out half-literate applicants regardless of how many years they had sat in school, something the resume-cv approach does not do (the hiring office has no way of knowing if an illiterate, or half-literate, applicant, hired someone to write his resume).

Need for skilled foreign workers

Team Leader
SSA
Wed Apr 9, 2008 1:32 PM

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Mr. Armstrong's article is a self serving BS, (outright lie?). He and Bill Gates aren't worried about the numbers and quality of the American worker. They just don't want to have to pay for it, so they "rent seek" by having foreign shills imported by the pound; willing to live in virtual communes. My son-in-law just started a full time IT job, one not even up to his skill level, AFTER A YEAR OF BEING OUT OF WORK. One of the respondents to his resume let the cat out of the bag with their promise of living quarters with five or six other workers, blankets and mattress included.

Yeah, yeah...

HR Guy
Been Around
Thu Apr 10, 2008 6:41 AM

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Here we go again...and it isn't going to happen soon because American knowledge workers are staying on the job longer, a reflection of active lives, expanding life spans and extended good health. There is ALWAYS a shortage of professionals because entry is restricted - Want more doctors, pharmacists, or engineeers? Then open the professional schools to more students - there are plenty qualified who are passed over and left out. In the meantime, for many overhead services, self-service is the future - checking out groceries, banking at ATMs, even stock brokering and PCs. It's all about productivity. New processes offset the need for manufacturing workers - an auto today uses about 20% of the human assembly input as in 1985. The auto industry is swamped with workers it can't shed. Yes, a shift will happen, and is continually happening - but it has nothing to do with boomers rushing out of the productive economy into leisure status, and it doesn't appear that it will soon, either.

Re: Yeah, yeah...

Analyst
DOD
Wed May 7, 2008 11:16 AM
I absolutely agree with Mr. HR Guy, Been Around. We (boomers) have nothing to do with it, but we do make for good fall guys.

Part-Time

Program Technician
Farm Service Agency
Wed May 7, 2008 12:46 PM

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I would like to see the Federal Government offer in leiu of retirement part time work in our present job.

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