Atlanta top metro area--for job losses (Sandy Springs, Marietta: how much, unemployed, statistics)

[waronxmas]

Originally Posted by rcsteiner

It's not quite as simple as you make it sound, Neil.

If these companies were willing to invest anything at all in training, I strongly suspect that many of these "millions" of open positions would be filled to their long-term satisfaction quite quickly.

You can't obtain experienced FTEs for zero cost. If the salary isn't enough to bring people in, lower the salary, factor in some ramp-up time, and provide the required training to someone who meets most of the core requirements.

I'll bet you'll get a LOT more qualified hits if you take that approach.

Companies used to use an apprenticeship system of sorts to bring new IT employees into the fold. Old-timers would show newbies the ropes, and the two would work together for a period of time before the buck was passed.

Why aren't most companies doing this anymore? It makes no sense, and it results in a "skills deficit" which is largely of the business world's own making.

+1

I have seen the exact same thing happen across three companies since I began working in the corporate world (three very well known corporation btw).

[neil0311]

Originally Posted by rcsteiner

It's not quite as simple as you make it sound, Neil.

If these companies were willing to invest anything at all in training, I strongly suspect that many of these "millions" of open positions would be filled to their long-term satisfaction quite quickly.

You can't obtain experienced FTEs for zero cost. If the salary isn't enough to bring people in, lower the salary, factor in some ramp-up time, and provide the required training to someone who meets most of the core requirements.

I'll bet you'll get a LOT more qualified hits if you take that approach.

Companies used to use an apprenticeship system of sorts to bring new IT employees into the fold. Old-timers would show newbies the ropes, and the two would work together for a period of time before the buck was passed.

Why aren't most companies doing this anymore? It makes no sense, and it results in a "skills deficit" which is largely of the business world's own making.

I don't disagree with you at all. My point was that positions were available, but the talent pool is currently too shallow. Exactly how we get the people ramped with the skills to fill the open positions is another story.

While I'm not a big Newt fan, Newt Gingrich has a proposal that I like. Instead of paying people endless unemployment benefits and welfare, we should invest that money in education and training to get the people and skills matched to the open jobs. Individuals have to be willing to make the investment in time, energy, and hard work. The problem today is some people expect a job to land in their lap. They then blame the gov't or some other nebulous entity like "corporations" or "rich people" when a job doesn't land in their lap.

[green_mariner]

Originally Posted by Ms.MJ

I was just speaking with some co workers about this the other day. There are literally no opportunities here. I am born here, all my family is here, but I no longer desire to stay here. I am researching other cities for employment opportunities. I am nervous, but I realize I have no choice. I have a physical science degree, but I am thinking about going to school for Information Technology because its such an important field. By the way, government employees are not overpaid, the dimwits in Washington would like you to think that. They are the ones who are overpaid!

I understand. I wasn't born in Georgia, but I did spend a large part of my childhood here. I too do not desire to stay here anymore. I will be graduating in May 2012 and I don't know what will happen if I will have a job straight out of college or if things will get scarier. All I know now is that I am looking for jobs outside of the state.

[testa50]

Finally, this month's labor report shows some positive trends.

- The metro gained 13,900 jobs compared to last month. It's typical to get a bounce heading towards Christmas, but this is bigger and earlier than typical.
- The biggest gaining categories this month were Education and Health Services (3,100 jobs gained), Professional and Business Services (6,500 jobs gained), and Trade, Transportation and Warehousing (5,200 jobs gained; retail accounts for 2,600 of these).
- Year over year job losses are 22,100. However, if you look at what sectors the job losses were in, this is a lot less startling. Government lost 11,100 jobs, finance lost 13,400, and construction lost 7,700 jobs. If you look at all other sectors besides these three, year-over-year 10,100 jobs have been created.
- Year over year, the Professional and Business Services added 6,400, including 5,000 new jobs in Computer Systems Design, and also there were 3,700 manufacturing jobs, 5,000 jobs in transportation and warehousing (ie logistics).

To update my chart from earlier in this thread:



The best thing for last: when you take away the horrid performance of government, construction, and finance, all of Atlanta's other sectors are at their highest level of employment since February 2009. Our low point came in January 2010, and since then we have added 62,000 jobs when you exclude the "moribund three" of government, finance, and construction.

When government, finance, and construction finally turn around is anyone's guess. But, more and more, our economic malaise is confined to those three sectors. Just about all the other sectors are doing fine and adding substantial numbers of jobs, and the areas we are focusing on from a policy standpoint--tech jobs, manufacturing, and logistics--are posting solid gains. The hope is that the housing bubble-related sectors will bottom out (in the long run, they are functions of the performance of the overall economy more than anything), and we can start seeing some growth in the overall jobs picture.

[Atlguy39]

Originally Posted by RandyWatson13

I find this to be bull****. I find companies listing jobs they have no intention of filling or they eventually get canned or filled internally. The fact of the matter is companies have gotten productivity up as people are walking on eggshells and they have no intentions of back-filling if they can do more with less payroll.

The B.S Unemployment rate here is basically 10%, which means it really is 15-18%.

Now the other problem is wage issue. Since the govt also has a B.S Inflation index/data, wages do not match the REAL WORLD. $10-$12 an hour with a family of 4 is basically poverty level. Yet these are the jobs that are growing, low wage jobs.

Exactly!!!! I have a degree in Finance and 3 years of extra education on top of it...certification after certification. Yet I can't find a job to save my life! Oh, and those $10-$12 an hour jobs I'm "overqualified" for. Its basically over for me. Just waiting to lose the house and be homeless now. So much for the years and years of education! Once the money is gone, suicide will be my only option left. I'm finished.

[Cameron H]

Originally Posted by neil0311

While I'm not a big Newt fan, Newt Gingrich has a proposal that I like. Instead of paying people endless unemployment benefits and welfare, we should invest that money in education and training to get the people and skills matched to the open jobs.

There are several such programs in the American Jobs Act. Congress should pass it right now.

The problem today is some people expect a job to land in their lap. They then blame the gov't or some other nebulous entity like "corporations" or "rich people" when a job doesn't land in their lap.

Some people probably do expect that, but isn't that always the case? I think it's hard to support the idea that this is a significant cause of the current employment crisis. It's not as if people were perfectly willing to work in 2006-2007 and then suddenly became too lazy and entitled to get off their arses.

[brownhornet]

Originally Posted by Atlguy39

Exactly!!!! I have a degree in Finance and 3 years of extra education on top of it...certification after certification. Yet I can't find a job to save my life! Oh, and those $10-$12 an hour jobs I'm "overqualified" for. Its basically over for me. Just waiting to lose the house and be homeless now. So much for the years and years of education! Once the money is gone, suicide will be my only option left. I'm finished.

You sound crazy as hell. There's no way i'm killing myself because I lost a job. Must be one of those folks that has never known what it's like to struggle. That's one thing I definitely appreciate being from the hood for. This type of stuff that "some" of you are just now experiencing, many have dealt with for centuries.

[7ttjms7]

I've been disppointed since I moved here from a northern midwestern city. I've always worked in government, so what I say has to do with that segment. Noone here seems to want to move forward and be innovative. New ideas are quickly squashed, and if you suggest a newer or better way of doing things, it's quickly shot down by "We don't have the money to do that", or "What we've been doing fine for the last 20 yrs. works just fine." The women here don't walk or talk with confidence. If another woman walks in the room, they look like they want to die if she's attractive. The women here stare at people strangely, like they've never seen humans before. If one had drive, energy, and innovative thinking before they got here, this place will quickly use its laziness, depression, no drive, and no lofty ideas to change that. It feels like a slow death living here. I miss the beautiful skyline from my home city,the water, people walking around, a cool breeze in the summer, and energy. This place is good if you came from a smaller southern city, and you find this place to be "better". But if you've already come from NYC, LA, Chicago, Miami, etc., this is like several moves down. There are not many schools here to choose from, and what makes me sick to my stomach is that you've got Georgia Tech here, but all I hear on the news EVERY night is how students are being raped and robbed EVERY day. The police system can't or won't protect these students. I have not heard of such crime bestowed on a university anywhere else in the nation. Although there are many trees, they are so high and so crowded together, that you can't see the sky. Whenever I leave Atlanta to another city, I always feel like I can finally see the sky. The summers are so hot and miserable, that you children cannot even go outside but for a few days during the summer. And let's not talk about what happened to the Atlanta public school system. If you want your children to grow up in a place where they will not be crime victims, where their intelligentce will be recognized and encouraged, where STRANGE women will not be staring at them for no good reason, and where they will have a world that literally and figuratively is moving, and not dying a slow death around them, please don't waste another minute living in Georgia.

[AcidSnake]

Don't fret.

If nothing else you can become a revolutionary or anarchist or something when the bottom truly falls out with this crony corporatist economy.

And no, I'm not joking...

Originally Posted by Atlguy39

Exactly!!!! I have a degree in Finance and 3 years of extra education on top of it...certification after certification. Yet I can't find a job to save my life! Oh, and those $10-$12 an hour jobs I'm "overqualified" for. Its basically over for me. Just waiting to lose the house and be homeless now. So much for the years and years of education! Once the money is gone, suicide will be my only option left. I'm finished.

[testa50]

I didn't make the news much because of Thanksgiving/Black Friday/LSU-Arkansas, but Atlanta's unemployment rate dropped three tenths to 9.9%, down from 10.2% last month and 10.2% a year ago.

Metro Atlanta’s jobless rate falls to 9.9 percent in October | The Biz Beat

It would really be nice to see a strong holiday labor market this year.