JTN_. Newly released small business survey data shows that those businesses cite the labor market as their top concern.
The National Federation of Independent Businesses released a survey of small businesses which found that the labor market is their top concern, with 43% of small businesses saying they have job openings they cannot fill.
“The labor force participation rate remains below pre-COVID levels, which is contributing to the shortage of workers available to fill open positions,” NFIB Chief Economist Bill Dunkelberg said. “Small business owners are struggling to take advantage of current sales opportunities.”
The concern from small business owners comes as new federal hiring data released Friday showed that hiring has slowed. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released the data, which showed employers added 236,000 jobs in March, keeping unemployment at about 3.5%. more
87 million people voted for this train wreck
I’m sure I’m not the only biz owner here, and thankfully we’re some what insulated from this train wreck, but these are the worst biz conditions I’ve seen ever. We have the Obama regulation crazy assholes combined with rampant inflation, rising interest rates, and vendor base issues created by all of the above. For us purchasing automated equipment is way easier and cheaper than hiring people.
Prediction: The next “shot heard around the world” will be a tax strike.
I feel like it’s just around the corner.
Legalized theft is no bueno. Even IRS agents can’t refer to any law that says we have to pay taxes…..especially on wages. Wages are NOT income.
An unemployment rate of 3.5%, is only those looking for a job. How about the percentage of totally useless employees that show up and do little to nothing.
The American work ethic is dead among young people.
I’m 60 and own my own dental office. I figured I’d sort of work a little easier the last few years of my career. Nope, I’m working harder than before. I can’t hire anybody good, so I have to do my job and think for someone else. I got to work this A.M. and for the first time in my career I seriously thought about selling it all and retiring. Then I look at my retirement account balance and all the expenses/taxes going up and I have to keep at it awhile.
Brad
AT 2:31 PM
“For us purchasing automated equipment is way easier and cheaper than hiring people.”
…true as far as it goes, but its getting hard to get some electronics, particularly freq drives and IO/PLC parts. Legacy support with even major suppliers like Allen Bradley is even worse than Microsofts, and good luck getting stuff out of Europe like Siemens and ABB.
And if you can get a machine OEM to do anything more complex than a CNC in under a year for you, you are truly blessed.
And in-house programming support can be problematic. I do it but the kids coming up behind me can’t think logically enough and don’t have the patience, and considering that I spent a good 10 minutes today trying to say “PRESS THIS BUTTON” in pantomime to an African named Abou that I didn’t seem to have a common language with, I’m REALLY not sure how the Democrat preferred populations are going to ever learn the kind of grotty ladder-to-letter logic transitions I have to do to get something useful from HMI through PLC to Cartesian robot and back again, good luck with THAT because they certainly aren’t capable of learning it OJT…
SNS
I’ll only buy Fanuc. The USA use to own CNC tech. We gave it to the Japs. And they’ve done a pretty damn good job actually. I’ll certainly support the Japs faster than the Chicoms these days. We do have a couple upstart American companies trying to challenge them. FADAL had a good run. Now it Haas.
I am the programmer in my org. And can’t delegate. My down fall. But damn I love taking shit prints from 1960 and turning them into actual parts. That’s why I’ll die in front of a Horizontal mill.
I like my Fanucs, have them from M410s to B2000s and a brace of LR Mates, but I have a Motoman cell that’s USA made thats been with the company longer than me, and I go back to ’95. My ABBs are Delta robots but in my alternate org I have three Kukas that are very solid in a German way, meaning good, but overly complicated. Most of my work is pick and place, but I would imagine CNC applications would still be XYZ, just far more precise and less repetitious.
I’ve yet to have Fanuc not be able to provide something, but they have people problems too. We had them send a guy to replace a J2 joint and he drank his lunch and it showed; and even a more reliable guy left me with 2 improperly mastered cells that I had to remaster to make them usable, mostly because he didn’t understand our tooling.
So good on you as lomg as you can kerp it up and don’t need help, but even OEM help from normally great companies like Fanuc can be weak and slow in this day and age, and I don’t see them bringing kids along either.
“Most of my work is pick and place, but I would imagine CNC applications would still be XYZ, just far more precise and less repetitious.”
XYZ and B and C. B and C are where the fun begins.
One day you and the misses need to spend a couple days with me and mine. You seem like a code guy. We’d have a blast.
SNS, it amazes me that PLCs are such a mystery to those fresh out of school.
Everywhere I have worked I get called the “PLC Guru” because of my skills.
It’s not that complicated IMHO, but people treat it like it’s black magic voodoo.
I think logic & automation is commensurate with the way my brain is wired.
Any machine or device I’ve come across I always first consider how I would control it via inputs & outputs, analog/discrete.
As for old I/O, I used to sell tons of leftover hardware from ABB, AB, Siemens, Schneider-Modicon, GE-Fanuc, B&R, Phoenix Contact, Mitsubishi, etc on ebay.
It’s still a source many use today, even though I hate ebay.
Used to rob me blind with fees!