INSURERS AVERSE TO ALLOWING DRUG POLICIES TO BE RELAXED
JOBS, FROM PAGE 1:
prime-age workers.
The Fed’s regular Beige Book surveys of economic activity across the country in April, May and July all noted the inability of employers to find workers able to pass drug screenings.
“It’s not just a matter of labor participation; there is also a lot of collateral economic damage,” said Alan B. Krueger, a Princeton economist who wrote a paper on the subject last year.
Were it not for the drug issue, said Krueger, who served as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Barack Obama, workers trapped in low-wage jobs might be able to secure better-paying, skilled blue-collar positions.
“This hasn’t gotten as much attention as the participation issue, but we could potentially match perhaps 10 percent of the population in better jobs,” he said. “That could have a positive, cascading effect on wages.”
Plants like Sherwin’s can help provide that ladder. But workplace considerations — not social conservatism or imposition of traditional mores — make employee drug use an issue.
“The lightest product we make is 1,500 pounds, and they go up to 250,000 pounds,” Sherwin said as workers pulled a barrel-shaped steel container from a glowing forge amid a shower of sparks. “If something goes wrong, it won’t hurt our workers. It’ll kill them — and that’s why we can’t take any risks with drugs.”
Even as many states decriminalize recreational marijuana use, or allow access by prescription for medical use, “relaxing drug policies isn’t an option for manufacturers in terms of insurance and liability,” said Edmond C. O’neal of Northeast Indiana Works, which provides education and skills training.
“We are talking to employers every day, and they tell us they are having more and more trouble finding people who can pass a drug test,” he said. “I’ve heard kids say pot isn’t a drug. It may not be, but pot will prevent you from getting a job.”
At Warren Fabricating & Machining in Hubbard, Ohio, where at least four out of 10 applicants test positive for drug use, Regina Mitchell, a co-owner, has a workaround. She set up an apprentice program, enlarging her hiring pool by de-emphasizing experience or existing skills.
“It takes more time and money to train and evaluate someone, but I can have confidence the person is drug-free, comes to work on time and won’t call in sick,” Mitchell said.
The biggest employers face similar challenges in their search for suitable hires, especially with the national unemployment rate now at 4.4 percent, down from 8.2 percent five years ago.
“We’re definitely seeing an increase in the percentage of failures,” said Patrick Bass, chief executive of Thyssenkrupp North America. The company, whose regional headquarters are in Chicago, employs 15,000 people in the United States and makes elevators and construction equipment as well as specialized systems and materials for the automotive industry.
With 120 positions open for more than three months, Bass said, “it puts a strain on the organization.”
To fill jobs, Bass said, his company is relying more on outside placement agencies that prescreen applicants. “We are literally recruiting for production line jobs, which we didn’t have to do in the past,” he said.
Back in Youngstown, Chris Cruciger and his father, Bill, are taking a similar approach at their roofing firm, Roof Rite. But instead of reaching out to recruiters, they are working with a local nonprofit group, Flying High, which provides job training and drug treatment and sends candidates only if they have completed a screening process and four months of skills development.
“We could take on twice as many projects if we had more suitable workers,” Chris Cruciger said. “There are people who can barely read and write, but if they can do a good job as a roofer, they can earn $20 an hour or more and have a career.”
It’s a slow process, Bill Cruciger said, but it beats having to interview dozens of otherwise promising applicants who clam up when a drug test is mentioned.
“You hit that moment of silence, and they just put their head down,” he said. “We leave the door open and tell them they are eligible to come back once they’re clean. But we’ve yet to have anybody return.”