What is happening to the workforce.

Understanding The U.S. Economy: Lots Of Rotten Jobs

See above.

Though this article may be trying to push a universal basic income, I am starting to wonder if that isn't the way we are going to go. I am sort of stymied by the poor choices out there for jobs. Even in my workplace we have several jobs available and they are not being filled. Mostly because they are terrible jobs which don't pay well.

Management imho is bound and determined to make them as unattractive as possible.

For instance one of the jobs is like a data entry job. But management has made it clear if you take this job you will be doing data entry every day without any ability to change things up. If they really wanted a good candidate they would find a way for the employee to learn and grow.

I am starting to believe that we need this guaranteed income to destroy the power of the poor management out there today. I feel like the "market" that I studied as a kid did not calculate for corruption. And I find too many managers to be corrupt. Using the workplace as their own personal fiefdom.. rather than a place were good work is rewarded.

I heard a quote recently that said you "hire for personality" and then train employees. That says it right there. Hiring for personality makes it clear that the managers don't have to follow any objective guidelines. And frankly, college didn't have any "personality" classes.

I look at websites and the jobs are just terrible... no one wants them.

Uh boy. Now you've gone and done it...

Speaking as someone who both owned his own small business and also helped run a good-sized public company, I have come to some similar conclusions. From a corporate standpoint, the US economic system is designed for senior managers and executives and CEOs. And again, speaking as one who did this for a living, public companies only care about one thing--quarterly numbers. Nothing else matters. It is entirely shareholder driven. That conference call is everything.

So, what is the solution? I believe the best solution for most people would be owning their own business. Then, you're the boss. You pay yourself whatever you want and can afford. You hire. You do it. Otherwise, you are bound to be stuck dealing with selfish people and selfish companies, who will never have your back. Ever.

Is America still the land of opportunity? It depends. Do you have access to capital? If yes, then, yes, it is. If no, then, heck no, it is not. The rich get richer and everybody else struggles to eat. Great system.

So in the end, my answer to this is--try to own your own company. At least then, you're the boss.

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Originally Posted by bpcyclist So, what is the solution? I believe the best solution for most people would be owning their own business. Then, you're the boss. You pay yourself whatever you want and can afford. You hire. You do it. Otherwise, you are bound to be stuck dealing with selfish people and selfish companies, who will never have your back. Ever.

I suspect a similar thing. Most of the people I know who opened their own business has success.

But I wonder how long it will be until those managers turn their sites on small business.

I feel like on the lack of capital, I feel like families use to band together so they could have little family capital branches. It was a thing. But I think someplace around the 50s people stopped dong that, perhaps because jobs were good so what was the point? Now that needs to start again.

I see the same, and am glad to be OUT of …..healthcare, yeah, same in that industry. My entire career I had all of two (out of dozens) interviews that required me to exhibit knowledge of my field of work (and I got all but two of many jobs before the interview ended)...kinda scary...
And not everyone can, or wants to, be a business owner, and not all societal/other problems can be addressed by a business model...

A lot of these crappy jobs would be okay jobs if they paid livable wages. Someone working a 40 hour minimum wage job could not afford the average rent here.

yes. I worked with people (eg LNAs/CNAs/Kitchen/Housekeeping) some of whom worked full time and then some and still qualified for section 8 housing and/SNAP---and people looking at them as if they do not matter...

One person working full time, it seems to me, should (as an adult) be able to support themselves and at least one other person if necessary & wages should reflect this.
In the 50's & 60's my father supported a family of four comfortably on less than $10,000.00 a year (and he had two graduate degrees and a professional job---in the public sector so low pay but good benefits and security)….

It's scary when people work 2-3 jobs and still don't make enough to pay for basic living expenses. Tourism is growing where I live, bringing in lots of crappy jobs while at the same time housing stock gets turned into vacation rentals or second homes. It's a dangerous combination.

Here it is the same thing. I am unemployed and it depresses me to look at job listings; there are so many awful jobs out there. My last job was crappy too. There were no opportunities for advancement. Even an attempt at a lateral move to get away from my toxic boss was shot down by HR, although the people in that area would have loved me to transfer over to there.

Just one example. I recently was looking at job advertisements on a winery website that is near my house. I figured my language skills might be useful. One of the ads was for a night receptionist at their boutique hotel. They wanted someone that was trilingual (English, Spanish and Portuguese); you were supposed to have prior experience with the software they use. They wouldn’t even train people on that. The salary was so low that cost of a room for two nights pays the monthly salary for that person. And, there didn’t even seem to be a shift bonus for having to work at night.

Ha, hvert, I see I was using a tourism example, and you were talking about the same sort of thing. I just don't get how they can ask for proficiency in 3 languages and pay so little.

Honestly, I don’t know how someone in this country lives on minimum wage or a bit more than that when you consider the high cost of housing, food, transport, utilities, especially if they have children. Minimum wage is around US$400 gross a month (health insurance and pension contributions totaling about 20% are deducted from that figure). And, that is for 45-hour work week. Even my husband and I had to move out of the capital to be able to afford a house, and we are both professionals. No wonder people are so pissed off and protesting.

Fluency in three languages, experience in niche software, 3rd shift - for not enough to pay monthly expenses? I don't understand it either. I'm starting to feel bad about my own tourism when I see what is happening where I live. People moving back in with their parents, divorced couples continue to live together because they can't afford to live apart.

I am also depressed looking at listings, partially because I am so burnt out on my field. I have been looking at part time jobs outside my professional area of expertise, but it's so discouraging. One wanted written reference letters, a drug test, background check, etc - for a ten hour a week minimum wage job! No weekends off!

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Originally Posted by hvert I am also depressed looking at listings, partially because I am so burnt out on my field. I have been looking at part time jobs outside my professional area of expertise, but it's so discouraging. One wanted written reference letters, a drug test, background check, etc - for a ten hour a week minimum wage job! No weekends off!

I feel like I don't know what happened. Things weren't like this in the 80s. Is it possible it is just a failure of Human Resources. There is an entire industry that seems to be messing up the workplace process. In my workplace everyone I know HATES HR but I swear to god all they do all day is tell the managers how important and necessary there are.

But by HR not hiring people and not hiring the right people, they keep themselves employed and allegedly indispensable.

Yeah, hvert, some people have suggested I just go and try and find some sort of retail or similar minimum wage job. But, as you can see, minimum wage here is so low, as to not be worth it. Plus, I'd be seen as completely overqualified so I doubt I'd even get an offer. I also think there are many people out there who would need that sort of job more than me, especially with unemployment on the rise. At least in my case I have severance pay and am on unemployment insurance and we can pay our bills with my husband's salary. We were reasonable about how much house we could afford when we bought, which is now looking like a very smart decision.

Emily - yes, I agree that HR at many places is part of the problem. For example, at my last my last job, they signed off on my boss hiring unqualified bimbos who did not possess even the basic requirements in the job description.

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Originally Posted by rechu Emily - yes, I agree that HR at many places is part of the problem. For example, at my last my last job, they signed off on my boss hiring unqualified bimbos who did not possess even the basic requirements in the job description.

I think for most basic jobs like retail companies should have to hire anyone that applies - with certain massive exceptions (like criminal or something). I would like to see that made part of someone's presidential campaign.

In this case it was sort of the other way around. You were supposed to have certain prior work experience and language skills. In the past, the people she hired met these requirements.. Then, suddenly, she started hiring these bimbos with no work experience and no idea of even how to act professionally in an office. It felt like junior high.

Few things are as depressing as looking through job listings. I can't think of any position in either the public or the private sector that's willing to train anybody on anything, including incredibly niche skills or software. Even for a bottom-of-the-barrel job, they demand at least a year of experience plus all these other requirements, plus knowing somebody, plus having that "something extra." At least some places give priority to veterans, but not enough, and other forms of public service should be treated with equal respect as military service. People are often urged to start small businesses, but it's harder and harder for one to get off the ground in the face of the mergers of giant corporations and a lack of net neutrality. These are all problems of structural inequality, and it isn't just happening here in the US. Do some research on the collapse of civilizations and it's disturbing who quickly you'll check off box after box. We certainly need to look after our immediate interests and survival, but keep our eyes on the bigger picture too. Apathy in voting, no matter how hopeless we might feel, is just not an option.

One thing I have noticed lately that seems new to me are part-time positions that require full-time availability. I saw a part-time remote job, 15 hours a week. Based on the job title, it was the kind of thing you could do anytime, data management and reporting – but reading the ad, they also wanted you to answer all their customer calls. How does that work, now you have to be near the phone all day but only get paid if you take a call?

That is weird, hvert. They'd probably pay 10 cents per call taken.

Wow, another thing I have been noticing. I have signed up for some sites to get freelance work. Some seem okay, others are pretty terrible. There is this one site, Freelancer.com, with many freelance positions listed where the employer’s suggested wage is US$2-4 dollars, for things like an administrative assistant. A lot of them posting the job were companies based in the US, while those who were bidding for work were from places like Bangladesh, India or Kenya and they were bidding at those rates. I guess US$3 is probably better than a dollar an hour or less working in a factory there. Still, to me it seems like exploitation of people who are desperate and a way to get out of paying minimum wage. More research on that company also showed a lot of complaints about freelancers not getting paid for their work. Good thing I never accepted a job from there.

To be a freelancer of any kind, you really have to be familiar with the dirty tricks companies and other types of organizations would try to play to get out of paying you fairly, or at all. And of course there's no union representation.

Serpentine Leaf - actually, I have freelanced for years. The last three years with a real work contract were the first time in ages I had that sort of situation and it did not end well. Plus, I am in a country going through an economic implosion so permanent jobs are few and far between at the moment.

I know what to watch out for and do not apply to things on sites that look shady like that. I just mentioned that example, because it shocked me that people were actually bidding for a job that paid US$2 an hour.

I am currently doing projects for one company that does pay decent money and is paying me quickly. I will see how much work I get from this before deciding if I should look for additional work or not.

Unions are a thing of the past in many countries/industries. Here, they are mainly in the public sector and a few companies like the national copper company.

Yeah, i don't know why people want to live on minimum wage. Wouldn't you want to learn and take on more responsibility and have more interesting work to do? I guess I have always looked at it as trying to add more value to the employer - because that's more satisfying and interesting, and because it pays more. I wish people didn't look at it as minimum wage should support a couple or family (or even an individual adult), because IMO, those jobs are mostly for high school kids who need to learn basic skills like showing up on time, being courteous to customers, some problem solving on the job, etc.