Oddbean

@34b3698a As for youngsters living with parents, my son lives with me for several reasons: 1. This is his chance to build up a savings account 2. He can take time to find the job he wants instead of jumping at the first paycheck that comes near. Once he gets his own place, he loses a lot of flexibility.

@2b45dad0 That's what I'm talking about though. Used to be your son could hire on some shit job to gain experience and leave when something better comes along, no harm no foul. Today employers want loyalty because it is so hard to hire. Employers have to do a ton of training (that won't transfer), have to provide expensive benefits and have very little control over prices they can charge. Once they get someone in the system they don't want them to leave.

@34b3698a He has the opposite problem - very few employers want to train new people. It took a year to find his first job. Interviewers kept telling him to come back when he had experience. Now he's had a year's experience, we're hoping it goes more quickly, but he's still hearing that employers want experience on their exact equipment, not something similar.

@34b3698a He's a machinist, and would like a non-factory job. Beyond that, he's really flexible. He wants to work a few different types of machinist jobs so he can get a good feel for the industry and figure out what appeals to him most. "Appeal" could mean he really enjoys it, or it could mean he makes a lot of money for little effort and can spend his days off doing fun things.

@34b3698a And because employers are worried about people leaving, they aren't properly training the people they already have. For example, I need a state inspection for my car. Everywhere I've been has one guy certified to do it, and he's not here right now. A company could completely wrap up all the local inspection business by getting all their techs certified, but then one might leave.

@2b45dad0 I guess I am taking an industry specific view... my skills are highly specialized and OSHA requires employers train safety stuff, so in-house training is expected. But I understand that there are plenty of industries where there is no "entry level" anymore because everything is so narrowly defined.