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‘Automotive technician’ among the toughest job vacancies to fill: global report
Manpower Group puts “skilled trade workers” like mechanics, chefs, butchers, and electricians, at the top of the list of hard-to-fill jobs.
Mechanics and automotive technicians are among the hardest employees to find, according to the Manpower Group, a global outsourcing and workplace consulting firm.
The firm’s 2015 Talent Shortage Survey put “skilled trade workers” like mechanics, chefs, butchers, and electricians, at the top of the list of hard-to-fill jobs.
It is the fourth year in a row that skilled trade workers topped the list. The annual survey draws its conclusions from interviews with 41,700 hiring managers in 42 countries.
Following skilled trade workers on the list are sales representatives, engineers, technicians, and drivers.
We want to hear your thoughts on the skills shortage. There’s a new thread on the CARS FORUM. Click HERE to leave your thoughts on how you find the workers you need!
According to the Talent Shortage Survey, the biggest reasons for the difficulty in hiring skilled trade workers is a lack of available applicants (according to 35% of respondents), lack of technical competencies (34%), and lack of experience (22%).
More telling, perhaps, is employee response to the problem. More than 20% of hiring managers are not pursuing any special strategy to fill job vacancies. Fewer than 10% have adopted new recruitment strategies designed specially for their workplaces.
The full report can be found HERE.
In Canada, about a third (32%) of Canadian employers surveyed say they’re encountering difficulties in hiring the workers they need.
“Talent shortages are real and are not going away,” said Kip Wright, senior vice president, Manpower North America. “As the struggle to find the right talent continues, and candidates with in-demand skills get the upper hand, employers will be under pressure to position themselves as ‘talent destinations’ to attract the best workers that will drive their business forward.”
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There are still stop owners, new car dealers, and auto recyclers using new employees who are not signed up as apprentices in the trade. I was told if they are working in your shop, they have to be signed up, after a trial period.
Better compensation for auto mechanics should make a difference.
Instead of marking up labor an ethical 100% or less,they raised shop rates and now you see them charging $158 shop rate and paying the tech $20 an hour or an 800% labor cost mark up.Nobody does this!Most skilled trades are marked up only a few percent and always less than 100%.MSRP’s on parts are always less than double the cost and factory parts,engines and trans units hardly get 10-20%.They never changed parts margins,probably because other businesses might complain.I seen a survey and customers think the techs are being paid 35-50% since this is what they are paying for and what justifies the shop rate.They will set the shop rate at whatever they feel the market will bear they shop for the lowest wage techs they can find without regard for the mark ups rather than shopping for the best techs they can find.It was a standard 50% acrossed the board when I started and the working shop foreman got an extra 10%.It’s insane now!
Most places treat auto mechanics like dirt, with bad working conditions and low pay. Wise up bean counters before you run off all the good people. I tugged on wrenches for 40 years and made it to the point that people would ask me to come and work for them (never did fill out any job applications). If I did not like the job, all it took was a phone call, and 10 min. later I was hired, or a job would call me. The last 13 years of my working on cars was in a shop that was almost as clean as an operating room, well lit, air conditioned, they bought all the tools (Snap On) that I asked for, and I had my own office, private phone and computer. I think that I was a rare case, because very few people will ever make it as far as I did. There is light at the end of the tunnel, but it is hard work getting there, like the next to the last place I worked. When I started working there, it was a crew of 5 people, then 4,3,2, and then just me doing the same amount of work that 5 people used to do. Did that for 6 years, but I had the whole shop to myself, and I was so glad that the people at my last job called for me by name. If you are willing to work your butt off, people will notice, and you can make it, otherwise, go do something else.
Instead of marking up labor an ethical 100% or less,they raised shop rates and now you see them charging $158 shop rate and paying the tech $20 an hour or an 800% labor cost mark up.Nobody does this!Most skilled trades are marked up only a few percent and always less than 100%.MSRP’s on parts are always less than double the cost and factory parts,engines and trans units hardly get 10-20%.They never changed parts margins,probably because other businesses might complain.I seen a survey and customers think the techs are being paid 35-50% since this is what they are paying for and what justifies the shop rate.They will set the shop rate at whatever they feel the market will bear they shop for the lowest wage techs they can find without regard for the mark ups rather than shopping for the best techs they can find.It was a standard 50% acrossed the board when I started and the working shop foreman got an extra 10%.It’s insane now!
There is probably not as much shortage of techs as much as a shortage of pay.My first day of auto school we were taught to expect a minimum of 40% of the shop rate as a journeyman and 50% with specialty training such as transmissions or emissions.I started out at age 19 making 50% of the $27 an hour shop rate.These standards were set because it absolved the employer of overtime,the requirement of providing your own tools and rework.It’s completely insane now and I am seeing shops charge $158 an hour and pay only $20.This is a very unethical labor cost markup of 800% instead of a 100% cost markup at the 50% pay standard.The markup on factory parts is only up to about 30% and the difference between wholesale and retail on aftermarket parts is only up to about 100%.Factory warranty times are basically thug thievery now too.I have been paid 5.4 hours warranty for a job that pays 21.3 hours customer pay time or 25%!They will also try not pay anything for successfully completed work for inconsequential technicalities such not typing the letter “D” or 12 cents of used brass washers being lost from the warranty parts return bin by the parts guy a month after the job was done.I don’t know of a single dealership out there now not looking for someone to work over.Everybody that has gotten out is much happier and is having a more stable income.