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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.

Employer Quote Region
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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
"Q: Collision repair, mechanics, technicians...do you have all the supply you need?
A1: No.
A2: No."
Northwest
"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