AT&T can't find enough workers...

[whitewolf3399.livejournal.com]

While not directly relevant to this forum it is somewhat interesting so wth.

AT&T CEO Says hard to find skilled US workers



SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Reuters) - The head of the top U.S. phone company AT&T Inc (T.N) said on Wednesday it was having trouble finding enough skilled workers to fill all the 5,000 customer service jobs it promised to return to the United States from India.

"We're having trouble finding the numbers that we need with the skills that are required to do these jobs," AT&T Chief Executive Randall Stephenson told a business group in San Antonio, where the company's headquarters is located.

So far, only around 1,400 jobs have been returned to the United States of 5,000, a target it set in 2006, the company said, adding that it maintains the target.

Stephenson said he is especially distressed that in some U.S. communities and among certain groups, the high school dropout rate is as high as 50 percent.

"If I had a business that half the product we turned out was defective or you couldn't put into the marketplace, I would shut that business down," he said.

Gone are the days when AT&T and other U.S. companies had to hire locally, he said.

"We're able to do new product engineering in Bangalore as easily as we're able to do it in Austin, Texas," he said, referring to the Indian city where many international companies have "outsourced" technical and customer support workers.

"I know you don't like hearing that, but that's the way it is," he said.

Stephenson said neither he nor most Americans liked the situation, and the solution was a stronger U.S. focus on education and keeping jobs. Business needed to help, such as AT&T's repatriation of service positions and education grants, he added.

Comments

[laptop-mechanic.livejournal.com]

I'm sure one of the missing "required skills" is "must be willing to work for peanuts".

[thebra.livejournal.com]

QFMFT.

[whitewolf3399.livejournal.com]

Pretty much, digging around it seems the average beginning salary is in the 30k range...

[random-c.livejournal.com]

Which even given what the dollar is worth, is still more than I got paid for call center work in greater London...

[mattcaron.livejournal.com]

That's crap.

My first job was at $48k in 2002.

Hell, even part time in college, I cleared $10k/year after taxes.

At my current job, we start fresh out of college newbs at like $50k or so (and I argue that this is low which is why we don't get good help...)

[xforge.livejournal.com]

Until pretty recently that was what we were paying our newbies. But we're in Southeast Florida where a dang loaf of white bread is three bucks, so possibly someplace where things are cheaper, that might actually be a halfway decent salary...

[jokergirl.livejournal.com]

My thoughts exactly.
But I added to it "and not mind about being constantly under supervision, having to code by rules thought up by marketing BAs and therefore spend most of their time doing tasks a monkey with a typewriter could do better".

[ihateemo.livejournal.com]

Reminds of something John McCain said when he was talking to some labour union about how nobody would want to pick lettuces for $50/hr.

Yeah right. You make the salary high enough, you will easily find someone to do the shitty work.

[gotica.livejournal.com]

That, is disturbing.

We find it hard to get decent IT hires before they get snapped up by other companies in Aus. We also have record unemployment rates.

The sad thing is, no matter how much you would like to have zero unemployment there is a certain percentage of the populace who are not employable for various reasons.

[jecook]

IAWTP. Our company has a _hell_ of a time finding IT staff, largely because the talent on the market either finds something before our regulatory agency clears them for a license, or because they are not eligible for one.

(I work in the tribal gaming industry, and there's at least three goverment agencies that watch everything we do: federal, state, and tribal...)

[mouser.livejournal.com]

Ah, tribal games! Where it's all *REALLY* a lottery and not a game of chance....


Except lotteries are games of chance. Weird rules.

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

Well now... what kind of rates is your place offering? *predatory grin*

Hmm, you're in Perth? Even more interesting!

[bitterfun.livejournal.com]

Well no offense to the OP, but Perth is the backwoods of Oz. Many of my friends over there would rather work/live on the east coast of Oz than deal with Perth.

[greeklady.livejournal.com]

Hell I'd ship my happy but to Perth before my husband knew what happened. Sadly though, I don't have enough "points" to get there.

[taleya.livejournal.com]

Quite a few companies are starting to find out that the "IT Shortage" seems only to be applying to shit jobs with low pay and high abuse levels....

[brothersterno.livejournal.com]

funny how that works. I guess trucking companies are having a difficult time hiring drivers because they don't want to pay them competitive wages.

[greeklady.livejournal.com]

Well I think the low pay is across the board. My company outsourced just about everything. I only stuck around because I am now in a different department and was paid more money. But low pay is universal in the IT world now. That is why americans aren't taking the jobs. I wouldn't take a job where I needed to know 2 programing languages for the pay they are giving either.

[azleaneo.livejournal.com]

Well, it seems the workers AT&T *are* finding are idiots. I posted over in bad_service how bad they've messed up my company's move. All that stuff is still not resolved.

[abstrak-tokatl.livejournal.com]

bull+shit

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

"We're able to do new product engineering in Bangalore as easily as we're able to do it in Austin, Texas,"

Except that there will be 5x the communication problems before, during and after the product creation process, resulting in twice the work on the American end and a range of products which are, shall we say, not subject to local QA or cultural interface tests.

What He Said != What He Meant

[ptstech.livejournal.com]

What he said:

"We're having trouble finding the numbers that we need with the skills that are required to do these jobs,"

What he meant:

"Greedy bastards! How dare they want to have a job and earn actual MONEY! Why, those inconsiderate sonsofbitches!"

What he said:

Stephenson said he is especially distressed that in some U.S. communities and among certain groups, the high school dropout rate is as high as 50 percent.

"If I had a business that half the product we turned out was defective or you couldn't put into the marketplace, I would shut that business down," he said.

What he meant:

"I hope that by spouting this unadulterated bullshit, they won't notice that MY product is almost as bad, and that I'm running a monopoly to boot. HA HA!"

What he said:

Gone are the days when AT&T and other U.S. companies had to hire locally, he said.

"We're able to do new product engineering in Bangalore as easily as we're able to do it in Austin, Texas,"

What he meant:

"Hell, Bangalore might as well be in Elbonia for what we're sav- I mean putting in my pocket at the end of the year. Sucks to be you guys..."

What he said:

"I know you don't like hearing that, but that's the way it is," he said.

What he meant:

"I DRINK YOUR MILKSHAKE. I DRINK IT UP!"

What he said:

Stephenson said neither he nor most Americans liked the situation, and the solution was a stronger U.S. focus on education and keeping jobs.

What he meant:

"I like things just the way they are so long as MY check doesn't shrink or disappear. I'll even make a show of suggesting a 'solution', make a grant here and there. Hell, I'll even hire Americans again - got plenty o' swag to offer in lieu of money. Either way, I'M GETTING PAID!"

You get what you pay for.

[tecie.livejournal.com]

I was watching the news segment on this tonight from the gym and the first thing that came to my mind was "They're not paying enough."

WHen I was starting at the helpdesk for a large, well known tech company for whom I shall not name, they were having a hell of a time finding and keeping workers on their commercial level 1 helpdesk call center. It certainly didn't have anything to do with the fact that they were paying below market rates and treating people like crap. I found myself working 70+ hours per week just to make ends meet. Eventually they forced matters into such a way that they simply *had* to relocate the jobs to India, Brazil, the MidWest and Canada. To this day I wonder if it was all part of an elaborate, long range plan to jump from place to place getting sweet heart tax breaks.

I actually had one recruiter tell me flatly "[The Client] isn't willing to pay for the best and brightest." It said everything I needed to know about that potential employer and promptly ended the conversation.

Re: You get what you pay for.

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

I actually had one recruiter tell me flatly "[The Client] isn't willing to pay for the best and brightest."

Isn't it partly the recruiter's job to find you someone who is? The better recruiters tend to pay at least lip service to the concept of matching the the applicant to the position and, reversing that, the employer/position to the applicant. In an intelligent market, this is because they get paid according to how good a match they are - sometimes a recruiter won't see dollar one unless the company is willing to take on the applicant, and will often get paid a bonus or higher rate if the company retains the applicant past an initial evaluation period.

[glitteringlynx.livejournal.com]

Having worked in call centres for 4 years.. never again. $10/hour was great at the time, but it's NOT worth it. I'd rather have a McJob than work for a call centre again.

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

$35/hr is OK when you can roll right over the top of management.

"This isn't the violation of dress code you're looking for."