Segregated Employment Opportunity in Wisconsin: Framed as Worker Shortage in Wisconsin
by Alice Belcher on 01/15/18
Segregated Employment Opportunity in Wisconsin: Framed as Worker Shortage in Wisconsin
When I read articles and reports about the "worker shortage" to fill jobs in Wisconsin, I scratch my head and I am mystified by this statement because I see and communicate, with people in need of work almost every day.
Living in Milwaukee County, there is a huge jobs shortage in the City of Milwaukee, and particularly for people of color who want jobs. I also witness a large brain-drain, of some of our brightest, highly educated and skilled leaving the State of Wisconsin for lack in finding employment in Wisconsin. The question is, how do we get the people who can and want to work in Wisconsin, to where these reported jobs in Wisconsin exist and where employers are seeking workers? All the jobs this article mentions in “Where will Wisconsin find enough workers”, and in other reports that I have read regarding employment in Wisconsin, who report that companies in Wisconsin have jobs but no workers, are companies located in counties in Wisconsin that are so far away from the people I see who need jobs the most. People who don't live in these outline counties in Wisconsin.
The people who need these jobs and who could fill these jobs, don't live where these jobs are located in the State of Wisconsin. There is segregation in available jobs location in Wisconsin. The State of Wisconsin through its legislature and Governor Scott Walker during his first term, made the decision to not provide for adequate transportation, high-speed rail or otherwise, that could have reached some of these areas making employment outside of Milwaukee for example, more accessible for individuals. Transportation would have made it easier for these would-be employees to reach these would-be employers in other counties across the State of Wisconsin.
Filling these jobs requires two things: transportation and employers actually reaching out to the areas in the State where unemployment is actually highest in the State of Wisconsin for employees. Transportation would make it easier for people to get to where the jobs are and to apply and interview for these jobs, and/or to move closer to where these jobs are located. Alternatively, employers could bring their recruitment efforts directly to depressed and high unemployment areas in the State and actively recruit people to fill their jobs from these areas and assist with relocation. Employers who need employees need to figure it out, how to be proactive in getting people from other parts of Wisconsin who want to work for their companies, physically to their companies to fill these vacant jobs located in their outline communities.
The fundamental question for employers in Wisconsin who say they have jobs to fill is: are you looking for a particular employee to work in your companies who only live in your communities? For example: I have seen employers in counties outside Milwaukee county not hire the most qualified individual to work for their company and cite their reason for not hiring the candidate, as the candidate was from the Milwaukee area and they wanted to hire someone who lived in their community. One specific employer gave this reasoning for not hiring the most qualified candidate, after the employer did a state-wide recruitment, but found the most qualified candidate came from the Milwaukee area. Even with the candidate being clear with the employer their reason for applying for the job was because they were qualified to do the job and specifically because they wanted to move to this other community in this county in upper Wisconsin. True story.
Employers who seriously want to hire to fill their jobs openings across the State of Wisconsin, need to be willing to recruit and to hire individuals across the State of Wisconsin who want to fill these jobs. So I don’t necessarily buy it when I read reports that Wisconsin has an “employee shortage” to fill jobs in Wisconsin. Wisconsin has a shortage of employers willing to hire employees outside their communities or counties close to them. While this requires more research, it appears on the surface that the problem of “reported” shortage of employees across Wisconsin is not true. Rather, Wisconsin employers are not willing to recruit and to hire individuals in Wisconsin who live in areas of Wisconsin outside their specific region or in areas of Wisconsin that have the highest unemployment rates.
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