We’ve been hearing lately that simply ending the extra $300 a week COVID-19 unemployment benefit will end our labor shortage while at the same time a $20-30 an hour starting wage isn’t attracting many to apply for those jobs. So what is the solution for the modular housing industry?
Looking at the locations of modular factories on a national scale finds most are located in far suburban and rural locations simply because of ease of transportation using Interstate and major highways. Building a modular factory in the heart of a city just doesn’t make any sense until maybe now.
The fact of the matter is most of the people asked to work from home in the modular housing industry were non-production line employees. How can a production line function if the skilled labor needed to keep it moving is working from home?
Simply putting a sign at the factory gate announcing “Help Wanted” will not work! The reason is not the $300 extra unemployment or the starting wage. It’s simply logistics.
The highest unemployment is found in the inner cities where people wanting to work for the new wages being offered can’t get to the job. Most inner-city people use public transportation and finding a way to get to your factory is out of the question for them, even if the factory is located just 10 miles away from their home.
I live in an area of Maryland that seen two new Amazon facilities, 5 distribution centers over 1,000,000 sq ft each, 2 new housing developments started each with more than 1,000 new homes, and the expansion of many existing manufacturers in just the past 12 months. All are competing for the same pool of unemployed people, most of whom live just 5-10 miles from those opportunities but can’t drive there to even put in an application.
Several times a month my wife and I work at one of the largest food banks in our city. I do the intake information and many of them are unemployed but would love to find a good job but very few drive and not one of them can relocate to be closer to the available jobs.
The real advantage goes to people that already have a job and are looking at those higher wages to improve their lives that have reliable transportation and could relocate if needed.
We hear a lot about women entering the workforce in the fall after school starts. That could happen but how many want to work on your production line? I would place my bet on “none.” The women with school-age children that were employed before the schools closed weren’t production line workers in the first place.
Here again, most of the women that would love to get those higher-paying jobs have no way of getting to your factory simply because they live too far away or have no transportation.
Our industry could not only survive but grow bigger every year if only we could find production line workers. Paying more to lure line workers from another factory isn’t the answer. We have to find a solution to bringing those that really want to work to you and that is and always has been the problem.
Gary Fleisher is the Managing Director and contributor for Modcoach News and Modular Home Coach.
Email at [email protected]
