By now, we’ve all heard the complaints of “Where are the jobs?”
There’s quite a few jobs in Palm Beach County (Florida), but Americans don’t want them.
According to an opinion article printed in the “Palm Beach Post,” Workaway International President Bill Mayville writes that his staffing agency has often been contracted to find foreign guest workers to fill resort jobs.
Workaway International hires foreign workers for country club jobs.
“If we had a choice, we’d only hire qualified Americans,” Mayville writes. “From an economic viewpoint, foreign guest workers cost employers more than Americans. We pay foreign and domestic workers the same wages, but employers must bear the cost of flying the guest workers to and from Palm Beach, pay visa and airport processing fees, ground transportation expenses and health care.”
So why can’t we find Americans to fill these jobs?
Is it a matter of overcoming snobbery?
Mayville continued, “Unfortunately, many unemployed Americans would prefer not to take seasonal positions as waiters and dishwashers despite the average pay of $10 an hour. In our region, many job-seekers worked in construction or other fields, and they would rather find jobs in their area of expertise than switch to temporary restaurant work.”
I recall job-seeking colleagues of mine who would turn their noses up at retail jobs.
“I worked as a manager,” one told me once. “I’m not stooping to McDonald’s.”
I”m not going to argue that it is humbling to go from a job where you’re high on the totem pole to minimum wage. I’ve done it.
I haven’t been happy about it, but I learned to shut my ego down for the sake of [somewhat] financial stability.
In 2010, Workaway had 846 jobs to fill, Mayville said.
These are the results:
- Only 189 resumes were received.
- 70 individuals actually showed up for interviews.
- 40 were offered positions.
- 15 accepted.
- 5 failed background checks.
- 10 started work.
“Just six finished the season,” Mayville concluded. “This is a problem.”
Agreed.
Are we too good for our own country?
Anti-immigration sentiment is everywhere these days. We complain about foreign workers coming in and taking our jobs, but yet at the same time we’re turning work down because of some sense of entitlement.
I can’t speak for anyone else, but I would rather be employed and earning some sort of income while job hunting, especially when more employers are refusing unemployed applicants.
Mayville figures Palm Beach County’s economy will suffer if clubs can’t find workers on domestic soil. Restaurants will close, he said, and full-time jobs at these places will disappear, too.
My advice to Americans is that old colloquialism, “Beggars can’t be choosers.”
