The need for more jobs has been a major issue in America since the great recession. Most Americans believe that more employment opportunities will improve the struggling economy, and every politician has a plan to create new jobs. Regina Mitchell, the co-owner of Warren Fabrication & Machining in Hubbard, Ohio, reveals that she has plenty of open jobs. What her company lacks is enough sober applicants to fill them.
In an interview with The New York Times, Mitchell said that 40% of her applicants can’t pass a drug test. In an attempt to broaden the applicant pool, Mitchell has created an apprentice program to hire and then train less-experienced applicants.
Mitchell says “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.”
Prescription narcotics and marijuana are the drugs of choice for the majority of her applicants who test positive during a drug screening.
War Fab is one of many small blue-collar businesses that has been hit the hardest by the opioid epidemic. The company is proud to completely cover the health insurance for its employees and their family, but they have seen evidence of a growing drug problem. In the last three years Mitchell’s company has spent $250,000 to send dependents of their employees to drug treatment programs. In 2016 the company paid out $300,000 through insurance costs after and employee’s family member gave birth to an infant already addicted to opiates.
“Imagine the money we could save or invest as a company if I were able to hire drug-free workers on the spot,” Mitchell said to the Times. “But that’s just not the environment we are in.”
Mitchell, like most other companies in Ohio, are concerned about the state’s plan to allow medical marijuana use. THC can remain in a marijuana smoker’s system for over a month and still appear in a drug screening. “I don’t know if you smoked it this weekend or this morning,” Mitchell complains. “I can’t take that chance.”
Patrick Bass, chief executive of Thyssenkrupp North America, has seen a similar problem. “We’re definitely seeing an increase in the percentage of failures,” he said about the drug screening process. Thyssenkrupp North America, based out of Chicago, employs 15,000 workers to manufacture elevators and construction equipment. The company has had 120 positions open for over three months. “It puts a strain on the organization,” Bass explained to the Times. A smaller work force results in higher overtime costs and longer production times.
Bill and Chris Cruciger, a father and son business team from Youngstown, Ohio, are seeing similar problems with their roofing company, Roof Rite. “We could take on twice as many projects if we had more suitable workers,” Chris told the Times. “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.”
Bill says the drug test results are a breaking point for too many applicants. “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 anyone return.”
The issue faced by these companies is one of the major failures of America’s war on drugs. It was once assumed that a crack-down on drug abuse would help keep the country clean. Politicians and anti-drug activists believed that given the choice between drug abuse and a career, the US work force would choose a career. Sadly, a shocking number of potential applicants have chosen drug abuse instead.
Watch the video below to learn more about the growing opioid epidemic in Ohio.