High-Speed Internet Boom Hits Low-Tech Snag: a Labor Shortage (msn.com) 94
The U.S. laid fiber-optic cables to a record number of homes last year as billions of dollars in federal broadband grants and a surge in data-center construction fueled an enormous buildout, but the industry does not have enough workers to sustain the pace.
A 2024 report by the Fiber Broadband Association and the Power & Communication Contractors Association projects 58,000 new fiber jobs between 2025 and 2032 and estimates 120,000 workers will leave the field in that period, mostly through retirement -- a combined shortage of 178,000. The gap is especially acute among splicers, who fuse hair-thin filaments by hand, and directional drill operators.
Telecommunications line installers and repairers earned annual median wages of $70,500 for the year ended May 2024, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, against a $49,500 national median. Push, a utility-construction firm, raised hourly pay for fiber crews by 5% to 8% in each of the past several years and expects the pace to quicken.
A 2024 report by the Fiber Broadband Association and the Power & Communication Contractors Association projects 58,000 new fiber jobs between 2025 and 2032 and estimates 120,000 workers will leave the field in that period, mostly through retirement -- a combined shortage of 178,000. The gap is especially acute among splicers, who fuse hair-thin filaments by hand, and directional drill operators.
Telecommunications line installers and repairers earned annual median wages of $70,500 for the year ended May 2024, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, against a $49,500 national median. Push, a utility-construction firm, raised hourly pay for fiber crews by 5% to 8% in each of the past several years and expects the pace to quicken.
"Fiber" is good for you. (Score:2)
Sounds like a lot in the gig economy now have a better avenue that the current offerings.
The magical motivator (Score:2)
If only there was some motivator that could be increased to make the job more attractive. If nobody is accepting your offers then it sounds like you're the problem.
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PSA: this is your brain getting cooked on red-pill podcasts
anyone who knows actual women knows that if a man is able to hold a job, be responsible and manage their finances and living situation most women do not care that much about what particular job a man has, you know most of them have their own jobs.
emotional labor means being an actual partner in a relationship and not "im a man and i work so i dont have to do jack shit".
stop listening to podcasts of 4 men talking about women and you might get anythin
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Anyone who knows actual women knows that if a man is able to hold a job, be responsible and manage their finances and living situation most women do not care that much about what particular job a man has, you know most of them have their own jobs.
LOL, the first thing a gal's friends ask her about her new man is "What's he do for a living?". Every man on a date is asked about and judged by his career choices. There's great demand for eligible bachelors in medicine, finance, law, etc. The evening shift manager at Burger King isn't fairing as well on the dating apps, I assure you.
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> Every man on a date is asked about and judged by his career choices.
You are a weird sad monkey, who is ignoring basic human behavior. What female friends say and think is social maneuvering. Any job or lack of job can be characterized a myriad of ways. "oh, he must be good with his hands" "I never have to worry if he has free time to spend with me" etc.
When I was dating, women didn't really care what I said and I was like a 6.5 on a good day.
The most beautiful woman I ever knew, married a plumber.
My wi
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"First three questions women ask: What do you do? Where do you live? What car do you drive?"
-- single, young millionaire on a dating show, circa 2010s
70 years of post-modern feminism still doesn't demand that men talk about feelings, or even listen. Yet, for some reason, they're surprised they don't have a relationship.
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Don't you want to consider a bigger sample set for your theory than "one millionaire said this on a gameshow"
Is that what your mum saw in your dad?
If your number one appeal is how much money you have then the partners you are attracting have a lot in common with hookers, they are after a transaction. If money is your first love, actual hookers are cheaper than divorce and can fake it a lot better.
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Sounds like a problem for men, or for employers. Either men need to get gud (isn't that the conservative mantra?) or employers need to pay a lot more (isn't that the free market mantra?).
Sounds like women have power for the first time in centuries, where they can tell me to fuck off for be less then desirable, as men have done for ages. See our current pedo in chief, who auctioned wives off like it was a game, and turns out he was a pedo auctioneer.
Re: The magical motivator (Score:2)
Well, the conservatives have been informing us for sheâ(TM)d that the invisible hand of the market will magically solve it. Because there arenâ(TM)t people doing those jobs, theyâ(TM)ll end up paid more, and thus become more desirable.
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Labor shortarge in those male jobs is real and massive and has little to do with "corporations" at this point. It has to do with mainly two factors: status granted by the job, and how hard the job is. This has been ongoing for decades. There's even a great show that attempted to raise awareness of this problem called "dirty jobs with Mike Rowe". That thing started in early 2000s, and it showed in no uncertain terms that this is a problem that started decades ago before the show began in US.
Money vs bodily injuries and risk of death (Score:2)
What's happened is that the younger men and teenager boys have learned from their fathers, uncles, grandfathers and other older men that
1) trading your short term health, long term health and physical quality of life after age 40 for higher wages is not a great deal.
2) making the physical injury and life shortening sacrifices still won't get a long-term loyal marriage (50% divorce rate) and family, and that in the case of divorce, all the physical sacrifices result in you having an 18 year term of near pove
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What does gender have to do with this?
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You referenced attractiveness of the job. I explained the mechanism behind the current status of these jobs being highly unattractive to the sole gender that does them at any meaningful rate.
Gender has everything to do with this, because the main reason these jobs are unattractive is because of intersexual dynamics between two sexes in human species.
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Gender has everything to do with this, because the main reason these jobs are unattractive is because of intersexual dynamics between two sexes in human species.
The jobs are unattractive because you're working outdoors in all kinds of weather, in underground tunnels or in a bucket truck, and likely have to travel a lot.
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Except that in most nations, men who do those jobs are attractive because of the status they bring in the eyes of other women.
That means that for women, primary mode of selection of a mate is about seeking approval from their own sex.
And Westernized nations are a massive exception to the norm when it comes to our women in this regard. They have been trained to negatively value work that keeps civilization running. Same does not apply anywhere else in the world. Overwhelming majority of women still massively
The $5,000 purse of $25,000 engagement ring (Score:2)
> because of the status they bring in the eyes of other women.
>for women, primary mode of selection of a mate is about seeking approval from their own sex.
Agree that women always shaming, denigrating or venting about men has a large component of "he does not elevate my social status among other women" negativity.
That social status elevation could come from some of "he's very attractive", "he makes lots of money", or "he has a prestigious job" much like the display of a$5000 purse or $25,000 engagement
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"Normal people are the opposite of what leftist freaks believe them to be" stereotype just keeps being correct.
Lowest floor I ever lived on is 4th.
Comparable jobs without the personal injury risk (Score:2)
$35 an hour for a fiber optic installation crew job is not much better than much less injury prone, less lifespan reducing, less permanently crippled at 55 years old jobs.
Why the jobs don't get filled"
1. Pay is not worth the risk of permanent injury or being crippled by age 55
2. Other jobs, indoors, low risk with similar education/skill training requirements pay nearly the same
3. Lack of any long term incentives given that pensions are a thing of the past and most of this work is done by third-party (poor b
Re: The magical motivator (Score:2)
Right, itâ(TM)s not a labour shortage, itâ(TM)s a wage shortage.
Bullshit. (Score:3, Insightful)
"Labor shortage" is a euphemism for "we don't pay our workers enough". Raise their pay and you will have more workers.
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except that business know better. They know they can do nothing and the government will deliver them some wage slaves. Even the Trump admin is showing them with new H2bs..
Re:Bullshit. (Score:5, Insightful)
It actually isn't. The US has been short on labor for its entire existence, and immigration is one of the only ways to keep up with the demand. The labor shortage is at the macro level, not just in one industry or sector. By increasing wages, it doesn't solve the labor shortage, it just moves it around. There isn't some vast pool of unemployed workers just waiting to be paid more.
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Last I looked, about a third of Americans weren't working. Some are senile Boomers who couldn't do anything much but there are plenty who could do low-end jobs and allow others to move up the food chain.
It's also odd, if America has always had a lack of workers, that they told my generation not to have kids to Save The World.
Lastly, there are plenty of low-end jobs which could either be eliminated because they provide little to no real economic value or be automated away. Do we really need another McDonalds
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>but there are plenty who could do low-end jobs and allow others to move up the food chain.
I love this idea that there are a bunch of people out there that aren't working but would otherwise work at *any job* if it paid the right amount. It's just not the case - unemployment is sitting at 4.5%. That's full employment.
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>but there are plenty who could do low-end jobs and allow others to move up the food chain.
I love this idea that there are a bunch of people out there that aren't working but would otherwise work at *any job* if it paid the right amount. It's just not the case - unemployment is sitting at 4.5%. That's full employment.
One of the problems we have though is that women won't do these kinds of physically demanding and dirty outdoor jobs (how many women do you see paving roads or picking up garbage or working at oil derricks?), so that automatically halves the labor supply for these jobs, and of the able bodied young men, most won't work at these jobs because they were raised to expect a comfortable indoor environment. Everyone wants a desk/cubicle. Most of these infrastructure jobs have solid pay. Or even better pay. Doesn't
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The age old myth that "americans just won't do the work" and somewhere between 1960 and 1980 Americans just gave up trying. You guys need some better myths.
>Raise the pay to 80 grand on these if you like. Won't matter. Most young men won't work a job where they're out digging in hot weather.
How many different stories can we come up with about why men are lazy, or entire generations are lazy, or whatever - with no supporting data - when the simple explanation, and the reality, is that there simply aren't
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... is that there simply aren't enough working bodies.
That explains why employers are laying off workers by the tens of thousands. Oh wait. It doesn't. If America were in a labor shortage, workers would be revered. The truth is that workers are treated like shit because there are a hundred unemployed for every available job.
That we are at full employment is laughable at best.
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You have to consider the risk to each group. Women working outside, often at remote locations, or visiting random people's homes to do installs, is rightly or wrongly perceived as more dangerous than men doing it.
If the pay was better and they had more people on the crews for safety, women would be more interested. That is assuming it's not a boys club, of course, which brings its own risks and often hostility and unhappiness.
Aren't a lot of these jobs contractor roles too? That can be a bigger issue for wo
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The number has more nuance than it htough.
Yes, technically it's full employment. But the vast majority of those laid off are working gig work. You might not realize it, but gig work has changed and disrupted work in general. When you're laid off, a lot of people aren't heading straig
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Do we really need another McDonalds on every street corner?
If we didn't, they wouldn't exist. McDonalds that don't make money go out of business. Have you seen many of those?
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Where did you get that number? It's nowhere near that. Are you included the ~25+% of the country that's retired and wouldn't return to work no matter what the jobs are paying?
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of course increasing wages resolves the labor shortage. At some point the cost of labor becomes high enough the activity is no longer economically justifiable. Its called supply and demand.
This is the trouble with the whole immigration, social safetynet model we have. It depresses wages. So workers can be found for below what they should cost. That costs finds its way into price of goods and delivered services. People buy those services, broadband or anything else at rate below cost. We then use tax dollar
Re:Bullshit. (Score:4, Insightful)
>Its called supply and demand.
I have 5 apples and 10 customers that want to buy an apple. I can price the apple however I want, but I still only have 5 apples. Yes, the price will increase - but I will still only have 5 apples.
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But at $50 at least 5 of the customers will say, I don't want an apple that bad, I am going to go find someone selling pears instead.
That is the point. We are creating allocation inefficiencies. We should convince people they want cheaper pears rather than subsidizing labor until we can grow enough apples, at any price (social or economic)
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You're highlighting my exact point - yes, if you pay people more they will switch jobs. But now the other sector has a shortage. You don't get any more workers that way, you're using the same pool.
Which is exactly why a country like ours needs more immigration, not less.
Re: Bullshit. (Score:2)
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No it isn't making your point. People will switch jobs, or the wages will go up and the cost of those things associated will follow.
Maybe the sector is in elastic and people will pay the higher prices, depressing demand in other more elastic sectors or maybe the sector is elastic and people stop buying or switch to alternatives. Look at it this way if avocado for your toast get expensive that is a signal you should use butter which can obtained with less labor. The economy should reward the dairy farmer f
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America has 25% functional unemployment (Score:3)
That's a quarter of the population. It's actually a Wonder we don't have more social uprisings. But if you're wondering why we keep having Mass protests it's not because George Soros is paying them it's because you have shitlo
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According to the unemployment numbers, 1.9M Americans have been looking for work but can't find it for more than 6 months. So that doesn't exactly jive with your speculation that a quarter of the country is unemployed and would work if they could find a job.
>It's actually a Wonder we don't have more social uprisings
Or maybe your BS number is actually wrong. Why make up an absurd contrivance when the data is publicly available?
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There isn't some vast pool of unemployed workers just waiting to be paid more.
*stare* *blink* *blink*
I see. No further comment.
Exactly how painful is it to run around with scissors blindly? How many scars do you have? When are you going to put down the copium drug?
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That 5-8% increase year over year is nice and all, but real inflation has been somewhere between 6-12% for more than a decade.
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I don't know about that. My son got a job laying and connecting fiber optic cable in his 20's, with no college and no previous training. He was making $25 an hour and more as he gained experience. This is not a minimum wage job, or anything close to it.
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Actually, my son's rent is $1,450, and he's doing just fine. At $25 an hour, that's more than $4,000 a month, putting rent of $1,500 at about 35% of income, which is considered to be appropriate. https://www.cnbc.com/2024/11/1... [cnbc.com] And that's on one income, which is uncommon these days.
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If you think $25 an hour is "just OK" for a high-school graduate with no college and only movie theater box office experience, you've got very, very high expectations. Many high school graduates are thrilled to get $15 an hour.
That's the starting point. As the techs progress in their experience, their pay goes up, just like it does for other kinds of jobs.
Shouldn't robots do these tasks? (Score:2)
Wouldn't this be one of those jobs that can be passed on to robots? Since it involves fusing hair thin filaments, and presumably laying out fiber across various points? We rightly berate AI for being used for simple tasks, but this actually is a task worthy of AI
It would also be a good opportunity to run underground fibers as a part of long term grid-hardening exercises
Re:Shouldn't robots do these tasks? (Score:5, Informative)
the sorts of robots that do this kind of work exist, the sorts that can do it standing in mud on the edge of some lane where the telco has a green plastic box don't exist.
Bullshit (Score:2)
Bullshit. We all know by now that "labor shortage" is code for "we want the government to subsidize low-wage immigrant workers for us to exploit".
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I think you may be projecting your stereotypes onto the situation. My son got a job laying and connecting fiber optic cable in his 20's, with no college and no prior training, and was making $25 an hour, and more as he gained experience. I'd call that decent wages for a 20-something newbie.
There are millions of laid off techies (Score:2)
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Your numbers are a bit inflated. https://www.ciodive.com/news/j... [ciodive.com]
Have you applied for one of these fiber optic cable jobs? Maybe you should. My son did just that in his early 20's. No college, no experience of any kind except a movie theater job. Made $25 an hour, with pay raises since.
If you haven't, why not? And why are you complaining about companies not wanting to employ you? You can't get a job if you don't look where the jobs are.
and you all doubted Trump's infrastructure bill (Score:1)
Trump's 'Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act' proved a big success
I'm waiting for your apologies
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Or the asshole who slapped so many tariffs on anything and everything, that no-one wants to invest in the USA anymore due to market instability?
Or the asshole who pissed off so many of our allies that they are now actively cutting the US out of global trade anywhere they can?
Or the asshole who arrested and sent to concentratio
well, (Score:2)
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, was signed into law on November 15, 2021, and authorizes approximately $1.2 trillion for various infrastructure projects, including transportation, broadband, and clean water initiatives. This act aims to improve public safety and create jobs across the country.
I'm not waiting for any apologies!
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Give Trump credit? hell no!
I thought someone would reply 'Biden, not Trump passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act' and I'd say 'What do you know, it was good old Joe Biden after all!'.
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What do you know, it was good old Joe Biden after all!
It's a crap job (Score:5, Interesting)
AT&T ran cable all through my neighborhood a couple of years ago. I got a good look at the kind of very unpleasant work it is. They use dirty, noisy tunneling machines to burrow under roads, driveways, and sidewalks. They are standing out in the weather (in this case more than 100F in the shade). It was all done by contractors. Probably there is some optical fiber somewhere that needs to be spliced, but in this case they were just pulling what looked like ordinary copper cable.
I'm very skeptical that they were getting paid $35/hr.
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Outside plant fiber cable on the reel looks very much like copper cable, depending upon the respective circuit count. AT&T pulled fiber near here a couple of years ago. I asked about the cable: it contained 240 fibers.
Some cables are "loose tube" with separate individual fibers, and some carry fibers ganged into ribbons of typically 12 fibers.
Sometimes you will see a trailer with small doors on a couple of sides, apart from an entrance door. This is a mobile clean room for fiber cable splicing.
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I'm very skeptical that they were getting paid $35/hr.
There's the problem: I'm not willing to do it for $35 an hour. I'll stay inside as a programmer for much more money and get fat, thanks.
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>> outside, enjoying the outdoors, moving around
You might like it for a few days as a nice change away from the monitor/keyboard, but it is mindless work in good weather and bad. One guy's job was to move a handheld device around on the ground to pinpoint the location of the drill head. Do you really want to devote a major portion of your waking hours to that every day, month after month? And then there are the guys who dig holes out by the curb with shovels (or pickaxe as required) for the junction b
AT&T fiber overbuild to compete with Cox (Score:2)
has been ongoing in my neighborhood since 2022. There is a lot of cable up there just coiled up on the poles doing nothing.
With 5G fixed wireless internet available from 2 providers in my area, the progress of AT&T's overbuild has been nonexistent for almost 4 years.
With 5G fixed wireless internet being available at around $50 to $65 dollars a month, there hasn't been significant price increases from Cox. AT&T may be looking at this and they could decide to abandon all the fiber in place since they
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T-Mobile just completed burying fiber in our neighborhood last Fall. I am excited to move away from CenturyLink/Lumen fiber which is currently delivered via telephone pole. T-Mobile is promising 500Mbps for $10 less than what I currently pay for 100Mbps from Lumen. Competition is good!
Skilled labor (Score:3)
"The gap is especially acute among splicers, who fuse hair-thin filaments by hand"
By hand meaning placing both ends of the cable into the splicer and pushing a button.
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By hand meaning placing both ends of the cable into the splicer and pushing a button.
If it were so simple, then every technician should be able to get close to 100% optical perfection... and yet, they don't. Why is that?
(I am not arguing that it is difficult to learn or requires outrageous skills, just that it is not as simple as placing two ends in a machine and pressing a button)
Because Hi-Speed internet is not that important (Score:2)
For what?
To have advertising delivered faster?
Spend more time growing your lard ass streaming crap?
This is America so part of the story is everyone is gouging every one on the price, capitalism is great if you want everyone working against each other and waste energy on gambling and marketing.
Important things happen, like producing food. I suggest this is going at the speed relative to it's importance. And it's why China is eating your lunch. You don't have a national strategy you are hoping it will emerge
capitol chases labor (Score:2)
you don't pay enough (Score:1)
Maybe all those unemployed Somalians (Score:2)