If you are in the job market now may be the perfect time to apply, considering the results of a recent statewide survey of hundreds of employers.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas sends out a monthly survey to employers, and in August 66.2 percent of respondents – or two out of every three - answered ‘Yes’ to the question, “Are you having problems finding qualified workers when hiring?”
Then, of those respondents that answered ‘Yes,’ the most common answer to the follow-up question, “If you are having problems finding qualified workers, what are the main reasons?” was “Lack of available applicants/no applicants.” 72.8 percent of the respondents stated that was the case. No other option garnered even a 50 percent ‘Yes’ answer.
The results of that survey are not surprising to the owners of Manda Machine Company, a third-generation, family owned “job shop” that has been in operation in Northwest Dallas since 1950. Manda manufactures custom parts for clients ranging from local school districts to SpaceX.
Manda’s co-owner Richard Ellard made his “Help Wanted” plea known to the man who is third in line to the Presidency last week.
On Monday, September 10, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan was in Dallas to help campaign for Republican Congressman Pete Sessions, who is up against Democrat Colin Allred, and made a stop at Manda to tout the benefit of the 2017 Republican-led tax reform.
During a lull in the conversation, Richard Ellard announced to the crowd, “if any of you guys are interested I’ve got job applications, because we’re looking for more people.”
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Ellard’s brother, Todd, who also is a co-owner of Manda, said during a follow-up conversation this week that their company is looking to add four new positions – they currently employ 10 people – but has not seen the influx of qualified applicants they would expect.
“The job pool is kind of few and far between,” Todd Ellard said. “There are a lot of manufacturers here in Dallas and we are all pulling from the same group.”
Manda does its job postings online and in The Dallas Morning News, according to Todd Ellard.
But according to the owner of the oldest job placement firm in Texas, any failure to secure suitable applicants is the failure of the company and not the candidate.
“When they say, ‘Well, we can’t find very many good people,’ well they haven’t looked very hard,” said Anthony Beshara, Owner and President of Babich & Associates. “They don’t know how to look and they, most of the time, don’t necessarily know what they are looking for.”
Beshara has been placing salespeople in the Dallas area for the past 45 years, and his company has helped to place more than 100,000 people since 1952.
“Eventually companies will catch on that they have to interview faster. They have to find quality candidates in better ways than just running an ad on LinkedIn, CareerBuilder, ZipRecruiter or something like that,” Beshara said.
