Why aren’t we being hired?

“Wanted: Literate employees for immediate employment. Needed immediately.”

Daily we see ads in the newspaper for help wanted, but when we go for an interview we are often rejected. Let’s think for a minute why this happens. Many private businesses are willing to hire resident workers and are willing to pay a decent salary above the minimum wage if the employee is capable of performing the required duties. But alas, too often the potential employee brings a minimum level of literacy and motivation to the workplace. Thus the employer is unable to hire and train him.

On-the-job training and literacy training are not the same. If I, an employee, can read, write, speak, and compute at an expected literacy level, I can easily and quickly be trained to master various job skills. However, if I have a low literacy level, it is almost impossible to use me in a responsible capacity. Should I be hired, I will be relegated to the most menial tasks because I am unfit for a job requiring mental astuteness.

Surveys have revealed that a third of adults over 25 have less than a 12th grade education. Every school year dropout rates border between 20 to 25 percent. Seventy-five percent of unemployed adults have reading or writing difficulties. Over 60 percent of front-line workers in the service industry have difficulty applying information from a text to a required task. Could this also be the reason we have so many people on food stamps? But whose fault is it that so many are barely educated?

If anybody is to blame it is the individual involved. We, the individuals, must wake up and start putting our lives in order instead of becoming wards of the state. We may be street-smart but when we are asked to stand up to speak, read, or write, panic sets in.

There are many opportunities to improve ourselves if we have the desire. There are free online courses to improve reading and writing skills. The Northern Marianas Trade Institute is constantly encouraging anyone looking to train himself or herself to come in and see what is offered. The only requirement is the desire and will to improve. After that jobs will be available.

Here is a program that perhaps should be considered. When an employer hires an employee who tests low in reading, writing and speaking ability, the employee should be mandated to go to an evening school to improve his “literacy handicap.” He should be required to attend mandatory courses as offered by the Adult Basic Education Center. Should the employee who is mandated to join a class to improve his literacy stop going to classes, he should be warned and then fired if he still refuses. We should not feel sorry or guilty for individuals who refuse to help themselves when help is readily available. Where there is a will there is a way! Our country needs trained citizens.

When we are trained or have skills, our salary will be much higher than someone without a skill. It’s not just the difference in the amount of money received but the thrill of being respected and the fun of working in a job we like. The higher and better our education, the higher and better our salary and more enjoyable job!

The CNM needs many trained technicians, semi-professional, and skilled employees. Yet when businesses seek them, it cannot find them. As a result it resorts to hiring nonresident workers. Please don’t cry that the minimum wage is too low. Skilled workers can command better wages.

Consider some of the jobs we could do but are not. How many air-conditioning local employees do we have? Where are the carpenters, plumbers, electricians, motorcycle repair technicians, computer graphic artists, professional landscapers, PC repair, interior decorators, child care managers, shop owners, beauty shop operators, small boat mechanics, diesel and small gasoline engine engine mechanics? The list is almost endless. Why aren’t we studying them? Once trained we can command our own prices.

There is a dire need for practical nurses to care for the elderly. Schools need nutritionists. How about forming small home repair companies to paint our homes and do other maintenance work?

The problem is that we need to improve our employment skills. Look at our friends who are earning over the minimum wage. Why? Simply put, they have a skill to offer and the employer is willing to pay the fair market value. Begin now with either a home study course that fits our goal or come and join us at the Northern Marianas Trades Institute. Unheard of opportunities await you upon completion. We better believe it to be true.

Another complaint I have noticed coming from the private sector is the frequent tardiness of many local employees. This act of tardiness is especially prevalent in the public sector. Try to see someone in most government offices before 8:30am. This is a chronic problem that affects us when we go for an interview. Somehow we fail to realize that reporting late to work reflects our poor attitude toward the job and the company we are employed in.

The worst of all is that the employee doesn’t realize that he is cheating and stealing from his employer. If one were to steal a $100 from the company, he would be labeled a thief and fired. But when an employee is repeatedly late or absent then expects to be paid full time, what is the difference? Isn’t he shortchanging his employer by not fulfilling his promise to work as agreed upon?

Another problem my experience has shown is that at times it isn’t our fault at all that we aren’t hired. It is the employers! Too often they refuse to hire us for purely selfish reasons. Even if we are qualified, they refuse to hire us because to them hiring nonresident workers is so much easier. In many cases they can bully the employees with threats that if they aren’t docile and willing to do anything the employers tell them, the employees will be sent home.

A plea to all employers: Though it may take a bit of adjusting to changing from nonresident workers to resident workers, the move will be very positive in a short time in many ways. I speak from experience in doing this. Please let’s consider hiring local residents the next time we need employees. They are great workers.

If our economy is ever to rebound we must be part of the reason. And that is we must create jobs or at least give local residents a chance. None of this is meant to disparage the wonderful work that our nonresident workers have been doing and are still doing. It is just that we must rebuild our economy. And the strongest way is to minimize our unemployment rate among locals.

Times have changed. Our society is not the same as 20 years ago. We live in a new and different competitive world. Jobs given to local residents will greatly reduce the number of them on food stamps. And it will add to the strength of our country as well as allow more money to circulate within the community.

It takes everyone to build a strong community: local residents with a desire to learn skills and to work, employers willing to hire them, and the encouragement and motivation from the government. We all must cooperate. We all succeed or we all fail!

“Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms from those who work with joy.”

This quotation is from The Prophet written by Kahlil Gibran many years ago but is still sound advice.

It is only in the dictionary that the word “success” comes before the word “work.” Keep smiling! Remember a smile is the window into our hearts. It can only get better. Have a nice week!