So we live in one of the shittiest economies, yet the manufacturing plants are all running 10-12 hour shifts 6-7 days a week. Two places I've worked at are like this, and others I've noticed are often open on the weekends as well.
What's going on?
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Labor shortage.
From my point of view, productivity is in the crapper. Alot of activity but not much meaningful output.
Comparatively there are few manufacturing plants actually open domestically.
Which funnels all the domestic work/contracts into the comparative handful of plants. Creating a false impression of economic health. Not to mention some plants only deal exclusively in overseas contracts.
I worked one place that dealt exclusively in processing high grade aluminum for specialized parts manufacturing for Taiwanese and European companies.
Plant was humming 24/7 330 days with 2 12hr shifts a day per year. With the other 35 days being a mix of holidays. And mandatory maintenance days. Where the only people present were industrial maintenance.
I also worked at a place that just found it was cheaper to them long term to operate like that. Because automation to cut down on labor would cost too much and take to long. And they had a ready supply of cheap temp help from nearby slums to feed into the grinder.
Temp services- modern indentured servitude.
Because nobody can find qualified help so they work everyone like dogs thats why..either that or upper management is so clueless the scheduling is in the toilet............
It's cheaper to pay the people they got more then find new workers. Mistakes really cost you in manufacturing.
I am involved in farming and we love if our normal workers will do Saturday. There is hourly minimum wage help available but the quality of work sucks. We end up redoing stuff they did. I would much rather pay time and a half of the regular workers pay to get it done right. I used to do manufacturing it was worse. We would hire staff and output would go down for a while.
And the S&P keeps climbing.
I don't get it either. Either the economy is great or it's not. Inflation is ridiculous and housing prices are outrageous, these I know for sure.
Seems strange to me. Something isn't adding up.
Maybe they (whoever they may be) are quietly instituting the gold standard and that’s why nothing adds up. Institute true currency quietly and slowly to avoid social disruption. I don’t know.
That right there is a fine question.
I passed by an Amazon warehouse this past Sunday and noticed the parking lot was only about 1/4 full. Maybe it was the weekend workers and there was no need for a full workforce. But it felt odd seeing how Amazon is cranking out packages left and right and UPS is delivering them. I'm wondering now if Amazon is gearing down because people don't have the money to purchase non-essential items, thus Amazon is cutting back on its workforce. I will say that was the first and only time I've passed by that warehouse so I cannot say what the regular work week parking lot looks like.