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.

[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.

[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...

[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...)

[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...)

[spacebird.livejournal.com]

Where do you live and where can I sign up?

Pretty much any support type job around here starts you in the 28-35k/yr range.

[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...

[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....

[bitterfun.livejournal.com]

I wish I could work in London. Right now my job is in pretty high demand (according to Monster)... Service Delivery Managers apparently get 40-60kGBP ($80-120k USD).

[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!

[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.

[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.

[mouser.livejournal.com]

How about Northwest Florida where they've just figured out that "computer" DOESN'T start with a "k" and but they don't understand why they can't just hire their nephew cuz he's used AOL for YEARS!

[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".

[mattcaron.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I should have been more clear. All of these are programming and sysadmin jobs. At this point, we simply don't hire general front line support staff. The closest we get is the "sysadmin who knows things about Windows", but otherwise handles the phone system, Samba servers, etc. So, if you have a problem, you talk with one of the two admins, one of the half dozen programmers, or the boss. :-)

[gotica.livejournal.com]

Right now, we've just took on two... Will have to see how long they last. Took 3 months to find them :-\

[gotica.livejournal.com]

:) I like perth, hence I stay.

I have travel benefits with this job so I can go where ever, when ever I like.

[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.

[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

[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.

[taleya.livejournal.com]

Speak for yourself :P AU is pretty good at the moment - I'm currently on 52k p/a with double time on public holidays, paid sick days, leave, blah blah and all the trimmings - and that's actually a pay cut from my last job (but on the other hand, I'm not asked to eat a huge steaming bowl of bullshit every day, so I can take it :D)