Remember those Schneider National Inc. television commercials that repeatedly bombarded the airwaves in 2008?
One commercial depicted a guy daydreaming about being on the road, but alas, he was stuck at his desk job, until he one day decides to become a truck driver for Schneider. Another Schneider commercial featured a married couple packing to go on a truck driving adventure.
At the time, the Green Bay transportation company with the ubiquitous orange trucks was in dire need of drivers. The company was continuing to expand into other markets, principally in the South. Schneider was so desperate for truck drivers that it even conducted a job fair to attract new candidates in Memphis, Tenn.
The company went so far as to create Schneider Training Academy Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary, to train new people to obtain commercial driver’s licenses.
Well, times have changed. And they have changed quickly and drastically. Schneider recently notified the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development that it is reassigning 52 of its instructors to become drivers. The company now has a glut of drivers to choose from, as the economy has soured.
"Our financial strength coupled with other motor carriers exiting the business has resulted in a significant increase in the availability of experienced drivers seeking employment with us. As a result, the Schneider organization is focusing on the hiring of experienced drivers and eliminating its training and hiring of inexperienced drivers," the company stated in its filing with the state’s Dislocated Workers Unit.
The Schneider story is another indication that the recession is creating an employer’s job market in many industries. This is a remarkable and historically fast turn of events, since just a year ago, so many employers were competing for top talent and decrying the thin labor pool.
Indeed, Wisconsin lost more than 32,400 jobs in 2008. BizTimes Milwaukee has tracked the loss of more than 3,000 jobs in southeastern Wisconsin since Nov. 1.
One of the most troubling aspects of this recession is that laid off employees seem to have fewer temporary safety net options.
In previous recessions, many factory workers took temporary jobs as waiters, waitresses, bartenders or cashiers. The retail jobs enabled them to at least keep the lights on in their homes until they landed a new permanent job at another factory.
In this recession, fewer of those retail jobs are available. The restaurant business is slowing to a crawl, and many chains are even closing locations. Black Friday sales were not enough to save many retailers, including Circuit City, Linens ‘n Things and Steve & Barry’s. Now that the holiday season is over, more are certain to fail.
I’m afraid we’re going to see a slew of vacant storefronts in 2009.
As cash-strapped and credit-maxed consumers continue to spend less, fewer products are being manufactured or transported. Vacant storefronts are shrinking the value of retail properties tax revenues generated for local governments.
As the saying goes, we really are in this together. "Trickle down" economics has not worked. Consumers cannot create demand if they are not supplied with capital. And if consumers are not supplied with capital, businesses will not see demands for their products and services. The only way we rise out of this malaise is to "trickle up" the economy by restoring the American middle class and doing all we can to help small businesses grow again. Such a stimulus program would pay more of a dividend than paying billions of taxpayer dollars to buy bank stocks.
Steve Jagler is executive editor of BizTimes Milwaukee.
