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I remember in the years from 2008-2011 when the Great Recession was at its worst, and getting almost any job was difficult enough, that there were many highly overqualified people working in entry level mainly service industry jobs. People who had a Bachelor's or Master's degree in prospective fields who had once been comfortably middle class, were now stuck working jobs that barely paid minimum wage.
Fast forward to 2018 where the unemployment rate is at its lowest in over 15 years (unsure of the exact statistic on this), wages for skilled labor have increased, sometimes beating out inflation, tons of employers are begging for help and offering to pay far above what their normal wages would have been even 5 years ago. Every retail store or restaurant I go to, I see a "Help Wanted" sign posted in the window, or a desk with applications near the door. Some of the restaurants I frequent seem to have high turnover, I sometimes don't see the same faces at places that I frequent on a weekly basis.
My question is this:
Has the quality of service industry employees greatly deteriorated with the increase and abundance of skilled jobs with better wages/benefits? Are there more people in service industry jobs who 5-8 years ago may not have been selected for those jobs? I ask because many of the food service employees at a few restaurants I have been to lately have tattoos in highly visible places, like their neck, arms, hands, and fingers.
With more overqualified workers working at service industry jobs during the Great Recession, and job turnover being much lower during those years, as jobs in general were harder to come by, was the service industry quality of service higher?
Has anyone else noticed these things? Anyone else interested in chiming in on their perspective on these issues?
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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The employee’s appearance has nothing to do with their ability to do the job well. What I have noticed is that everyone is hiring and short handed, so service is slow. Even at the tire store where the manager and a tech had to come in on Sunday to catch up on the work (including my car).
I think a lot of people view a job, any job, as the end of that annoying insecurity suffered when we aren't working. Most of the so called service sector jobs are not the kind many people would do if it was strictly voluntary, and the one's who are working fast food or a retail kiosk are always looking to move on. Low paying work can sometimes be the hardest work for many folks, but the myth persists that these jobs are essentially for the brain dead, the lazy, and shiftless. I've even read of people who want to have one of "those jobs" so they don't have to think much..Of course we can only hope they get their wish. I don't care about tats, or strange hair, but be clean and presentable. And no, the level of service for me has remained the same, but then agin, I don't have high expectations of low paid work..
When the job market blew up, and a lot of higher qualified people had to take service jobs, etc. to eat. Now that the job market is opening up again, a lot of these people that had taken service jobs are leaving and taking jobs they are opening up jobs they are qualified for.
So those service jobs have to be filled and they are doing it from a much more limited pool of potential employees.
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"It's WARY, or LEERY (weary means tired)"
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Location: A Yankee in northeast TN
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We currently have a help wanted sign up (figuratively), but we want one or two people who have completely open availability, willing to work between 10 and 30 hours a week as needed, bonus points if they say they can be available as a last minute call in, and all for the lovely wage of less than $10 an hour with no insurance benefits. We run short handed quite a bit because for some reason we don't get a lot of qualified applicants and can't fill the open position.
We currently have a help wanted sign up (figuratively), but we want one or two people who have completely open availability, willing to work between 10 and 30 hours a week as needed, bonus points if they say they can be available as a last minute call in, and all for the lovely wage of less than $10 an hour with no insurance benefits. We run short handed quite a bit because for some reason we don't get a lot of qualified applicants and can't fill the open position.
I'm sure this is a very valid reason. I wonder if service workers in other countries are as poorly paid? Probably.
We currently have a help wanted sign up (figuratively), but we want one or two people who have completely open availability, willing to work between 10 and 30 hours a week as needed, bonus points if they say they can be available as a last minute call in, and all for the lovely wage of less than $10 an hour with no insurance benefits. We run short handed quite a bit because for some reason we don't get a lot of qualified applicants and can't fill the open position.
This is so common and probably the number one reason why low wage employers have a hard time filling and keeping spots filled, they aren't willing to work with their employees on their schedule.
Low pay, part time, but you better be available to work any and all shifts at a moments notice at my beck and call or else you are fired.
These employers really need to change their attitude towards scheduling. Do that and they would have a much easier time keeping and finding people to work.
For lousy crap wages, don't expect to acquire any real talent and don't expect most to stick around long whether the economy is good or not.
Employers are still playing under the "2008 mindset" where they can offer peanut wages. Not vey bright. You're only going to end up with bottom of the barrel employees for that.
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