Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, August 10, 1995 TAG: 9508100027
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOHN CUNNIFF ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
Manufacturers are cutting payrolls and scores of companies are downsizing, but many also are facing a challenge of another sort: Finding qualified workers to fill job openings.
The problem isn't new, but it may be growing, reflecting the rapidly changing demands of the job market and perhaps indicating also a failure to deal quickly with the disruption.
Two small-business surveys released in the past few days suggest the situation is worsening, an ironic twist in a labor market that so often seems infused with insecurity and apprehension.
Economist William Dunkelberg reported that 25 percent of all member companies responding to an ongoing National Federation of Independent Business survey in July said they had one or more openings that were hard to fill.
Plans to hire were strong, he said, but finding qualified workers was increasingly difficult. In fact, he said, 10 percent called it their No. 1 problem, a complaint category usually reserved for taxes.
The other survey, by National Small Business United and Arthur Andersen's Enterprise Group, found much the same problem. In that poll, 25 percent of respondents called it a ``significant challenge,'' up from 13 percent in 1993.
What causes such a situation? Fast growth, for one thing. And perhaps a slowdown in job mobility. ``Downsizing'' headlines spread insecurity, perhaps inspiring workers to stay put rather than aspiring to better jobs.
That, too, is somewhat ironic. Despite the tone of headlines, job creation has been very positive. About 3.6 million new jobs were created last year, and a record 63.2 percent of adults were employed in this year's first quarter.
Nevertheless, workers do not appear confident. Compensation remains modest. Dunkelberg's survey shows that fewer employers than last year are raising wages, and that future raises are likely to be even lower.
Workers, he says, are ``happy to have a job, prefer to remain inconspicuous and so don't ask for a raise,'' an attitude suggesting they might also not risk reaching for one of those unfilled higher-skill jobs.
Whatever the reasons, the list must include education and training.
Gary Kushner, National Small Business United chairman, laments that owners must hire and train their own work forces, a complaint that reflects the breakdown of the apprenticeship system that once sustained small businesses.
More indicative of failure are some of the statistics so often ignored by those who believe the overall jobless rate - it was 5.7 percent in July - tells the story of labor. It doesn't; sometimes it disguises the story.
The July jobless rate for teen-agers was 18.2 percent, and for black teen-agers 39 percent. Both figures rose sharply over the previous month, discrediting claims of those who argue the economy is ``fully employed.''
The term is tricky, variously explained as a point beyond which more hiring merely produces inflation, and as the minimum attainable level in view of a certain number always moving between jobs and so temporarily unemployed.
But those teen-agers aren't likely to be temporarily unemployed. More likely, they are unemployable without additional education and training, no matter how hard they look. And, presumably, they have been looking.
It is sometimes argued that youngsters can't get jobs because of the complex skills required by employers in the computer age. But, while that might apply to upper-level applicants, it probably doesn't for beginners.
by CNB