Employers only hiring kids with no experience. (Pueblo: employment, construction)

[Vanskills]

Hello

I am a journeymen electrician and am getting seriously pissed off now.

I am a journeymen Electrician with 10 years experience from projects all over the world and the only people getting hired are people with 1-2 years experience.

I dont get it, why the hell would you want to have a bunch of young kids who dont know what they are doing working for you?


Every day i go on craigslist and see "1-2 Apprentices ONLY!"...i just dont get it

[Vision67]

Answer is obvious; they must be cheaper.

Age discrimination in employment is illegal, and pervasive.

We are in a deflationary economy; wages and prices are falling.

[vegaspilgrim]

How the **** are us "kids" supposed to ever get experience if no one will hire us?

[goyanks57]

Have you thought about going into business for yourself? I know a lot of plumbers who spent 10 years in the union then started their own plumbing businesses and are doing quite well right now. I also understand that starting a business isn't as easy as it may seem though.

Your post suggests that you spent some time in the IBEW and worked mainly on commercial projects. Right now, the commercial building market is in the tank almost everywhere in Colorado. I know several younger people who are in the plumbers/pipefitters union, ironworkers union and IBEW who are having to consider moving elsewhere because of the economy.

Keep at it. Electrical work is a valuable trade to have and you'll find work somewhere.

[DOUBLE H]

Goyanks57 is right. I worked in the Colorado Building Trades for well over two decades. That was also in the mid 90's when I was still at it. There is very little commercial work going on.

I worked with a lot of Electricians out of Local 68. If I had to do it all all over again that's the trade I would have joined, be it wireman or welder. An electrician with a master's license? Pretty valuable thing to have. Now when the guys are going out of the dispatch office, I would have thought only journeymen go first. I do know that like other construction trades, that local is required to send out X amount of apprentices.

Vegaspilgrim makes a good point about experience gained in the construction trades. Unless things have changed (they probably have), the craft stewards keep track of all hours worked by the apprentices, and the contractors have to hire X amount of apprentices (the companies keep a running account as well) regarding large commercial projects (like power plants).

Speaking of power plants! Goyanks57! Noticed you are from Pueblo. What's going on at the Commanche plant? They through out there or is there any work for the trades?

[Vanskills]

No im not in the Union.

I lived in Hawaii and would travel around the country/world working on Commercial projects and and Industrial jobs.

I have lived in Colorado for 3 years and love it and really didnt want to travel, i have a baby now.

Its really disappointing to have so much experience in a good trade and not be able to get a job.

I still dont understand why a company would want to pay an apprentice a few bucks less than a journeymen who actually knows what the hell they are doing, electrical work is not something you can half ass.

[cl723]

Speaking of kids with no experience. My child works at a fast food place and two of the managers there are only 19 and 20. I was floored when I heard this. How does an 19 and 20 year old have enough experience to become a manager...

Another thing that I wanted to add is that we know someone out of work that use to work for the gas companies out here. Apparently, because of his age, he`s having a hard time finding work with another gas co. His wife said that they are wanting younger people to work for them and these younger folks don`t have the experience as the older ones do.

[DOUBLE H]

Sorry, wasn't sure. And you're right about that level of experience. Lots of companies will cut corners any way they can. To do that with the electrical trades? Dumb, very.

[goyanks57]

Originally Posted by DOUBLE H

Speaking of power plants! Goyanks57! Noticed you are from Pueblo. What's going on at the Commanche plant? They through out there or is there any work for the trades?

The addition to the Commanche plant finished up about 6 months ago. When it was going strong, there were 500-plus construction workers out there.

I'm not sure if you've heard, but Black Hills Energy is close to an agreement that will allow them to build a new plant east of the city. They've been having a big dispute with the city council about whether or not they should use union labor though. As far as I know, however, BHE reluctantly agreed to pay for union workers.

BHE argued that if they were to be forced to pay union wages, the project would cost an additional 30-50 million dollars. While I'm not a big fan of unions, I agree with city council that they will have to use union labor in order to get the project done the right way and in a timely manner.

City council is also arguing that BHE needs to hire nothing but local contractors for the project. The problem I see is that there aren't general contractors in Pueblo who are qualified enough to oversee such a massive project. We have some qualified subcontractors, but there aren't enough workers (in the unions) in Pueblo to fill every position there will be. Its likely that they'll be pulling workers from all over the state and from neighboring states for that project (that is what they did for the Commanche project, too).

[Mike78613]

Originally Posted by Vanskills

Its really disappointing to have so much experience in a good trade and not be able to get a job.

Maybe with these economic times (bad), have you ever considered letting the employers know you are willing to take a pay-cut?


Heck; Right before 9-11 happened, I took a $18K pay-cut. I did eventually gain back the loss of income, but it took couple of years of proving to be a loyal, hard-working employee that matched the companies criteria's.


With that being said, I started to live below my "past" means. I sure do value what I do now with my money/spend now-a-days .