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Employer Quotes
The quotes below are from employers in this industry: Transportation
They are talking about this topic: Workforce Trends & Challenges
The quotes below are about this issue:
Many employers feel that there is an undersupply of qualified workers, particularly automotive technicians. This is apparent from a lack of overall applicants and qualified applicants in particular.
| "We're in the automotive supply end. We really didn't see the lull or the dip it seemed like that maybe the car dealers did. But we've also struggled through that and now with applicants. We were getting applicants, they're just not qualified, and it's statewide and in other states." | Central |
| "I kind of had a little bit of the opposite of that. I had people applying but I think they're just putting applications out to get anything." | Central |
| "We just posted an ad for an outside position and we got three applicants." | Central |
| "There are not even applicants. They are not even filling out applications..." | Central |
| "We're finding kind of the same thing, not enough qualified applicants, especially in between your two groups of automotive, one-ton trucks or cars with diesels. That type of technology is our biggest demand, and there's just nobody out there for those positions. So we've been looking for a year and a half to two years, and we can't get either someone that's trained from a school that can go right into that, or somebody that's qualified that can go right into that." | Central |
| "Right now what we find is we have to recruit our class D drivers and train them up to the class A, because I don't have the class A drivers walking in. It's very competitive between the over-the-road jobs. That's one of the problems I find, is that when I look at an application it has 15 trucking companies in the last three years. That's not somebody I want to invest my time and money into. So trying to get the younger generation to say that trucking is going to be around and it's going to be a career for the future is probably the biggest challenge right now." | Central |
| "I think it's harder to find a young, skilled, technician now than it has been in the past, and technology has made it so they need to have more skills. So I'm having trouble finding mechanics and machinists." | Metro |
| "We can't even get people to apply. There are not enough people for the jobs we have open. Q: What kind of jobs do you have open? A1: Technicians. Second shift technicians. A2: Yes...second, third, and fourth shift technicians are hard to... A1: You put an ad in the paper and you don't even get a single response. There's no supply. A1: Then it's hard to hire the students for those shifts... A2: Yes, it is, because they don't have anyone to mentor with or to learn from. A: And they're going to school, also. We usually try to bring in one or two every year to work part time. So that it helps the student out and it helps us out." |
Northwest |
| "Q: Collision repair, mechanics, technicians...do you have all the supply you need? A1: No. A2: No." |
Northwest |
| "To find somebody experienced, you've almost got to try to mine your competition. Try to steal an employee from somebody else. I recently ran an ad, had two weeks—fairly expensive because it was Internet and print—and got one qualified applicant from Brainerd." | Northwest |
| "I think it's kind of an isolated area, if you will. Whenever we have an ad in the paper or we're looking for an experienced technician, we've almost had no luck at all getting one really. And even if we were to get one, the odds of them having any kind of Honda or Chrysler experience or a certified Ford technician go into their door right from the area is pretty low." | Northwest |
| "It's hard for us to find qualified people, knowledgeable people that are willing to do this job. So it's a struggle every time we have somebody leave or retire to find somebody...even somebody with mechanics training, has the knowledge to come into the parts industry too. There's a little gap there with experience people in the younger people." | Northwest |
| "People we hire, basically we take a little bit of time in training to do what we do. It's kind of tough to find people right now." | Northwest |
| "So we're actually trying to find people who are going to be good right out of the start. Q: Are you having enough people coming in to you to choose from? A: I would say one out of ten." |
Northwest |
| "Experience. You place your ad saying that you're looking for an experienced person with automotive knowledge, you'll probably get...I got maybe 15 applicants. I was surprised at the low number of applicants and then, like I say, the qualified one. But it just seems to be getting tougher." | Northwest |
| "We pull locally. But it's interesting, because we just had an ad in the local paper for somebody and I had two applicants, which really surprised me because it was just [for] skilled mechanics, computer things like that. And like I said, we hired from the [tech school], and the student was still involved in school." | Northwest |
| "I've heard from our sources and our top managers that there have been some transparencies where some managers have been going back and forth. There is a shortage of good quality technicians who just, it seems like they just hire back and forth. But, you know, there are a lot of jobs?" | Southwest |