The sad fact is that only cyclical unemployment is honed in on. What is scary is the fact that “discouraged” workers are not factored into our economic figures. What truly defines a “discouraged” worker after all? Is it simply a person that has exhausted their unemployment benefits, yet still is looking for work? If so, our unemployment numbers would be higher than currently recorded. Is our economy really improving or are more unemployed people falling off the radar since they are no longer considered to be within the cyclical unemployed and now considered to be “discouraged” and not part of the numbers? Keeping this in mind, what is holding back our local businesses from hiring?
Overhead costs, trimming the fat and trying to do more with less has been the way of Lansing businesses over the past several years. Downsizing and layoffs have become a normal business practice. Major cuts are typically made within the Human Resources Departments and result in reduced or elimination of training and development programs. While we are seeing an improvement within our economy, businesses are still functioning within the survival mode and waiting for more signs of the economic recovery before they start hiring.
Often times, businesses want to ensure that they are hiring candidates that are not going to require training. They desire people who have their college degrees and at least three to five years of experience within their respective field. In theory, this will prove beneficial to the company because they don’t have to worry about teaching a new candidate their job duties. This helps to “preserve” training dollars and the overall bottom line for the company while in survival mode.
On the other end of the spectrum, you have more experienced workers with years of experience on top of their degrees. I would welcome anyone within the Lansing Community to attend one of the Lansing Go Getters networking meetings on any given Friday afternoon at 1:00 PM within Capital Area Michigan Works! These talented professionals have been networking, taking classes, participating in Shifting Gears through the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), networking and more. Yet, because of their many years of experience and partly because of their age, these folks are finding it extremely challenging to find a career here within the Lansing community. Perhaps its due to the fact that these companies do not want to spend out more for such highly skilled employees, thereby preserving their bottom line while still operating in survival mode.
The survival mode is not helping the sluggish economy and it’s time for companies to step outside of their comfort zone. It is time to move from beyond talking about creating jobs and actually stepping up to do something about it. While many jobs are being posted and there are several qualified applicants, the business community needs to lower the bar for hiring. I’m not suggesting that they decide not to hire a college graduate, but start being more flexible on the experience end. If you truly desire a person with more than seven years of experience, don’t dismiss a person that has fifteen or more.
Lansing can rebound into a thriving, competitive market. We as a community need to band together and start making things happen rather than just sitting on our hands waiting for the economy to rebound. It will never rebound if there is no action taken by our business community. I would like to challenge that every single business in Lansing hire one college graduate, one veteran and one older unemployed professional. That’s three jobs – one entry-level, one mid to senior level and another senior level. Imagine how many of our unemployed people we could get back into careers if every business in Lansing hired three people.
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