Even as layoffs persist, some good jobs go begging

[Peacetrain]

In a brutal job market, here's a task that might sound easy: Fill jobs in nursing, engineering and energy research that pay $55,000 to $60,000, plus benefits.

Yet even with 15 million people hunting for work, even with the unemployment rate nearing 10 percent, some employers can't find enough qualified people for good-paying career jobs.

Ask Steve Jones, a hospital recruiter in Indianapolis who's struggling to find qualified nurses, pharmacists and MRI technicians. Or Ed Baker, who's looking to hire at a U.S. Energy Department research lab in Richland, Wash., for $60,000 each.

Economists say the main problem is a mismatch between available work and people qualified to do it. Millions of jobs with attractive pay and benefits that once drew legions of workers to the auto industry, construction, Wall Street and other sectors are gone, probably for good. And those who lost those jobs generally lack the right experience for new positions popping up in health care, energy and engineering.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091004/ap_on_bi_ge/us_good_jobs_unfilled;

[tinkerbell41]

1. Yes that would be me.

Trying to get into nursing. But at my age with no education besides trade school, and a mortgage and child in college, I can't figure out how to take these classes and still keep a roof over my head.

[Peacetrain]

2. That is an incredible plate full... I went back to college as a parent and working

and you have my full understanding and sympathy. :pals:

I know my college, really gave me a lot of good advice.. and there was even advice on financing.. It helped.

[tinkerbell41]

15. Thanks for the hug.

I have asked, I'm not shy. "Can you tell me how I can go to school full-time and support my family?" I just get a blank look. My father tells me it can be done, look your cousin did it and she had 4 kids. What he leaves out is the fact her ex-husband paid the mortgage and child support.

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

27. Just how long ago did she did this? 'look your cousin did it and she had 4 kids'

I'm afraid I won't see those times again for a long time, if ever.

[tinkerbell41]

33. within the last 2 yrs.

[sandnsea]

9. Straight A students can't get in here

My daughter is afraid to take on more debt because there's no room in the nursing schools.

[tinkerbell41]

16. I tried for diagnostic sonographer

I was told they only take 20 people a year. Are you kidding me?? Nursing school the same thing they are crying about shortages but won't accept them at school.

[Deja Q]

3. So training is out of the question?

[Peacetrain]

4. Well it depends.. I think there is a huge need for "green" trained worker for the

wind turbines, set up and operating etc. A person has to go where those jobs are.. big here in the midwest. Alternative energies..

I will never forget the advice one of the counselors gave me.. dream big, but look at reality.

So if a person trains for a job that does not have a lot of openings.. It might not be in their best long term benefit.

But if it is something they always wanted to do.. well then they might want to look into being an independent buisness owner with whatever their passion is.

[Ruby the Liberal]

5. The job sites are begging for medical people

CNA, RN, Technicians, Radiologists - you name it.

These aren't the jobs that were lost and/or outsourced, unfortunately.

I would go into healthcare if I didn't feel faint at the sight of blood. All it would take is for someone to puke on my shoe once and all that schooling would be out the window.

[Peacetrain]

6. They are begging for CNA's locally..

They have to ask for medical people literally from India and other countries to cover the need

[Xenotime]

7. This is the rich keeping the jobs to themselves.

Those who want to work can't and should be illegal.

[gratuitous]

8. $50 an hour picking cabbages?

Oh, jobs that require education and training. We don't educate our populace anymore; turns out people with book learnin' start expecting more out of the system than the folks running the system want to give them. So we took a public education system that was very, very good and ripped it to pieces in the name of the free market.

Now, them that have, get more. And them that hasn't, join the military and fight so that the haves can have even more. It works out very nicely . . . for them. Sucks to be the other 90% or so, but what are ya gonna do? Can't go against the free market! 'Cause that's socialism.

[Peacetrain]

10. We really do not value education as a nation.. and the right especially

devalues education..

[kath]

11. Where exactly are nurses making $55-60K?!! The wages around here are crappy.

Nurses don't get nearly the pay they deserve.

And I was SHOCKED to find out how little EMTs make - not even a living wage, or only barely.

Wages peaked more than 35 yrs ago in this country, and the typical worker gets more and more screwed each year.

[Peacetrain]

13. Texas... they come up here and recruit from our nursing schools..

[Warpy]

17. I knew people who made that kind of money doing floor nursing

They worked 5 or 6 12 hour shifts every single week. Management loved them since they were doing the work of two people and getting benefits for one.

You're right about the scandalously low pay for EMTs. It's really disgraceful.

It seems that the more your job helps people, the less valuable it is.

[tonysam]

30. Sure there are nursing jobs and the like, but

the working conditions are horrendous. No wonder relatively few people go into the field.

[Warpy]

38. It's why 50% of us with degrees and licenses got out of it

myself included.

It does pay a living wage. However, it costs you your health.

[juno jones]

24. EMT's are not paid nearly enough to deal with the shit

you have the potential to see every day.

I've worked in kitchens with a couple of people who were also PT EMT's. They had some horrific stories to tell, not the best thing around food frankly. :(

You couldn't pay me enough to do that, but they do and do it with dignity and humor for the most part.

[Heddi]

36. In Seattle I made $60k+, in Florida I'm making $55K+

that's with 3 years as an RN. Hubby has 1.5 years and is making about $65k.

[lib2DaBone]

12. MRI/Radiologist sequence is 2.5 years FULL TIME...

Very expensive tuition to boot. How.. can anyone do this and pay Health Care, Mortgage, rising insurance and utilities...plus sky rocketing property taxes?

I've already re-trained 3 times in my life. Every Friggin time a Bush or Republican gets into office.. I end up out of a job and "re-training".

Anyone remember Poppy Bush and his "thousand points of light?" We were all supposed to volunteer and work for free. I went back to school for IT Tech and then Fuckhead Bush flooded the market with H1B Visa workers and shipped the remaining IT jobs to India. (April Fools...)

I am nearing retirement age..I don't know how many more times I can re-train and have the rug pulled out from underneath... just like when Lucy Pulls the football away from Charlie Brown..

It is "not-that-funny" anymore.

[Peacetrain]

14. I hear that.. If a person is over 50, it really is almost more than they can handle

This is probably news younger citizens can use to make choices in their future career goals.

School costs are so out of sight now, that the older worker cannot afford to retrain.

[doc03]

18. With a few weeks training there are jobs

paying $50-$100,000 in the coal mines.

[Odin2005]

19. That's because education is so F-ing expensive.

I would have my Biotech degree already If I didn't have to save up for each course!

[izquierdista]

20. Oh, fuck you Ed.

Maybe if you would take a look at people over 50, you might find someone. I've heard enough of "lack the right experience" from imbecile managers who want 15 years experience in one technique, and 3 months after you are hired, close that lab and move you into another department.

Experience goes both ways, you know. If you want someone who has enough years at their job to know what they are doing without having a crib sheet taped to their forearm, you need to prevent them from thinking that working for you was a bad experience. There are plenty of 'qualified' people out there to do the work that needs to be done. However, since you cried "wolf" so many times by posting a job opening you had no intention of filling (you were just abiding by the rules of posting the job before you brought in an H1B at 1/3 the going rate), why are you surprised that people are not lining up at your door to work for you?

This throw-away attitude toward workers has come back to bite employers in the ass.

[2Design]

21. I saw stories like this in the 90's and they weren't even reading resumes

they posted ads and never read submissions - they were just looking for ways to do h1b visa's - I don't believe these stories - there are nurses who can't get jobs - this is one of those where they are trying to defend importing out of country workers

[sandnsea]

22. That's exactly what I think - and doctors too

Half the new doctors in our clinic are foreign, and educated overseas as well. I suppose when doctors start losing their jobs all over the country we'll start hearing the truth.

[2Design]

23. First they came for the textile workers jobs, next they came for the IT workers jobs, ...........n/t

[treestar]

25. Are they really that malicious?

How much less do the foreign nurses get?

Why don't the American nurses just agree to work for what the foreign nurses work for? It's better than no job at all.

Do American nurses really refuse to do the job unless they get a certain salary?

[treestar]

26. It's hard to match the jobs with the people in a complex modern economy

These careers take a long time to train for and then can end up obsolete.

We shouldn't pay to train ourselves - that's what the companies have gotten us to do. We pay for college to prepare ourselves for a career for a company that doesn't care if that career becomes obsolete.

They have us trained. We should have them paying for people to be trained (and it should not take four years - all the general college stuff required for a four year degree is time unrelated to the training).

[treestar]

28. Interesting DOL stats

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t10.htm

Unemployment is only at 5.2 for management, financial, business and professional occupations. So much for the constant scapegoating of H-1Bs.

The worse field is 17.7 - construction.

[tonysam]

29. Not practical to "retrain" when you're 55 years old

and had "retrained" once going into teaching but being wrongfully dismissed. I am not going back to college another 15 years and go into more debt.

[rainbow4321]

31. Oh there are qualified nurses out there

for the hospital jobs...they just have all LEFT the acute care setting because of the stress, patient load, and hospital politics that get in the way of giving safe patient care and protecting one's nursing license.

Couple that with nursing schools cutting back on classes (instructors leaving d/t poor pay) and baby boomers nearing retirement and it is going to turn into a crisis for hospital patients soon, if it has not already.

Health care providers usually get the short end of the stick overall.

I heard this week that there is a political tif going on in a nearby city. Because our area is not going to get as many swine flu shots as expected, there are arguements going on whether healthcare providers should be offered the shots before the community. To which health care officials are going "If our STAFF gets sick, there will be NO ONE to take care of those in the community who have to be admitted to the hospital--not just with swine flu but with ANY illness".
We'll see how THAT pans out soon enough, unfortunately.

[imdjh]

32. Hoping not to hurt anyone's feelings, if I were an in demand RN Indiana would not be my 1st choice.

[47of74]

34. My sister is a pharmicist

She had no trouble finding a job after graduating from school with her PharmD. A good paying one too. Thing is it cost a lot of money for the education required - it took seven years of schooling for her to earn her PharmD.

[Triana]

35. Um. There has ALWAYS been a shortage of nurses. That is not anything new

as of this particular time.

The PROBLEM is a mismatch between available jobs and people willing to do it for LESS THAN A LIVING WAGE that employers only want to pay.

THE PROBLEM IS that employers want CHEAP labor. SO - they post the job with NO INTENT of filling it with an American worker at a living wage - or EVEN at the salary advertised. Then they say: "oh well! We TRIED!". Then they fill it with an H1-B holder or send it to India, if possible to get the cheapest hourly wage or lowest salary with NO benefits, if possible.

I call corprat BULLSHIT on this meme. Somebody needs to thoroughly fact-check this crap before publishing it as news - the AP or who-ever.

NOT that I expect the "news" media to suddenly have an awakening and START DOING THEIR DAMN JOBS and INVESTIGATING crap like this before they report it as fact.

[chatnoir]

37. Interesting...

MRI technician training is the 57th most popular search in the past hour, according to Google.

No doubt due to this article...

A lot of ppl hurting for jobs.

http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?sa=X&oi=prbx_hot_trends&ct=title&q=mri+technician+training


Edit to add link

[eppur_se_muova]

39. Rec for the discussion, not the OP.

A lot of DUer's know what's going on here, judging by responses. The 'good' jobs are not going begging (on the contrary, they're charging high admission), and the jobs going begging are not good jobs (unless you really, really like overtime and overwork). But the cheerleaders for the corporatocracy want to convince us otherwise.

Ask any current or former nurse about her work schedule and working conditions. It's not pretty.