A Look in the Mirror
By Albert B. Kelly
Talk to fifty people on the street and ask if we need to
bring more jobs into the community and every one of them will tell you we need
more jobs locally. You won’t get an argument from me, which is why I was pleased
after the last job fair we held.
The event was successful with over 120 applicants and 20
companies participating from the greater Bridgeton area. Six companies held
interviews on the spot and a few job offers were made- it was successful. We’ll
be doing another job fair soon and we hope to double the numbers.
But here’s the thing; for all those I could line up who would
go along with the mantra of “we need more jobs”, a sizable number wouldn’t
stand a chance of getting hired because they can’t pass a drug test.
And even though this last job fair saw 120 job seekers take
part, there were probably another 100 souls who didn’t show up because they
knew they would come back dirty if and when a drug test was administered.
This is not a Bridgeton problem or even a Cumberland County
problem. Journalist Jackie Calmes did a deeper dive on this issue in a recent
Times piece entitled “One Step Short of Hired” and the upshot is that this
whole issue of being unemployable because of drugs is growing.
According to the piece there are no numbers nationally that
can be cited, the closest they get to “hard data” comes from Quest Diagnostics and
according to those records, the number of workers around the country testing
positive went from 4.3% in 2013 to 4.7% in 2014- the first increase in a decade.
That there are no hard numbers is not surprising, after all
how would you collect data on those who don’t bother showing up or applying for
a job because they know they’ll come back dirty for drugs? You don’t, so what’s
left is anecdotal evidence and what I’m hearing is not good.
Speaking with local business owners, one of the first things
they’ll tell me is that they can’t fill positions easily because applicant
after applicant can’t pass a drug test. If that’s the case, and I certainly
believe it is- then the issue is not only a lack of jobs, it’s partly a lack of
drug-free applicants.
Some employers don’t do drug testing, but many do and how
can you blame them? Who wants a stoned or doped-up employee driving their
delivery truck, handling their equipment, dealing with their customers or doing
any one of a hundred things required of any job?
Some might say that the weed they smoke or cocaine they
snort is only recreational- something done on their own time. That doesn’t cut
it, because even being slightly impaired clouds judgment and slows recreation
time. No employer wants to risk the liability and cost, not to mention the
call-outs and mistakes of a semi-stoned employee.
So that’s really the other side of the jobs issue; the
growing number of stoners who fill the ranks of the unemployable. These aren’t
necessarily junkies and hardcore addicts- that’s another thing altogether. The
folks I’m talking about are generally functional and might otherwise make good
employees but for their idea of a good time.
On this score, I can’t say I have much sympathy. It all
comes down to how much you want a job and what you’re actually willing to do to
get it? And that’s part of what’s so frustrating, listening to business owners,
CEOs, and the Human Resources people telling me they struggle to fill their
open positions because half the population has a taste for illegal drugs.
That frustration is even greater because we also know how important
it is to have a trained workforce on the ground to attract companies into our
area at a time when everything is getting more technical, automated, and
digital. So even if we train more people, how many will pass a drug test?
The next time some fellow stops me on the street or corrals
me in a store and mumbles something along the lines of “when we gonna get some
more jobs in Bridgeton- we need more jobs”; maybe I’ll ask them if they can
pass a drug a test to get the ones we actually have.
It’s a fair question and one worth asking because that’s the
other side of the “jobs issue”, the side that starts with a look in the mirror.