All Paul Heinauer wants is a few good auto-glass installers, no experience necessary. The only requirements are mechanical aptitude, a clean driving record, U.S. citizenship or a green card, friendliness, and honesty; pay starts at $12 an hour and goes up to $70,000 a year including overtime and bonuses. So few people are applying that Heinauer, the owner of Glasspro in North Charleston, S.C., went to Blessed Sacrament Church in Charleston on Dec. 11 to make a pitch after the Spanish-language Mass. “I’ve spent the majority of my time trying to recruit within the last year,” he says.
Futurists have been saying for a while that the U.S. is hurtling toward a jobless economy, with driverless long-haul trucks and cashier-free brick-and-mortar Amazon stores. Someday, maybe. Right now the problem isn’t too many workers who can’t find jobs. It’s too many jobs that can’t find workers.