
Luttrell Staffing Group Celebrates 30 Years
KINGSPORT, Tenn., April 3, 2023 – April 2023 marks 30 years of business operations for Luttrell Staffing Group, an award-winning staffing agency headquartered in Kingsport,
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KINGSPORT, Tenn., April 3, 2023 – April 2023 marks 30 years of business operations for Luttrell Staffing Group, an award-winning staffing agency headquartered in Kingsport,
KINGSPORT, Tenn., Feb. 21, 2022 – Luttrell Staffing Group announced today that they have won the Best of Staffing Client, Employee, and Talent Awards for
KINGSPORT, Tenn., Jan. 25, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Luttrell Staffing Group, a leading staffing agency with more than 40 locations across seven states, announced today that
“I am a college student – Luttrell Staffing has been able to work with my schedule, which has allowed me to attend school full time as well as work a full time job. I graduate in May and I really appreciate how the staff have helped me out. They are a great bunch of people […]
“The team of professionals we work with on a daily basis at Luttrell Staffing are competent, professional and genuinely care about their customer and the caliber of employee they provide. No problem is too small and is always addressed with a friendly voice and smiling face. I heartily recommend these folks to anyone searching for […]
“We have used the services of Luttrell Staffing for a lot of years. We started our business, Techni-Glass, Inc. in 1997 and have had occasion to use temporary workers numerous times. Everyone associated with Luttrell Staffing is professional, courteous, easily accessible, well prepared for questions and answers, polite and knowledgeable. I would have to say, […]
“Luttrell Staffing is helpful in finding employment, very understanding of my needs and very responsive to questions or concerns.”
“Luttrell Staffing has been very good to work with me. They have helped me get work when I need it. They treat me good as an employee.”
“We here at Rogers Foam Corp. are very pleased with the service and staff at Luttrell Staffing. I feel that they handle every situation we have to the best of their professional ability. Great bunch of people you have working for you.”
“I have worked for Luttrell Staffing for 2 years and they have always treated me well and found work for me. The people here are great and I have got to know them well. This is a good company to work for.”
“Mullican Flooring and Luttrell Staffing Group Services have been working together for many years. Their staff is always friendly, positive and quick to respond. They always communicate with us to make sure we are getting the people we need and the service we expect. It has always been a pleasure working with the staff at […]
“Luttrell Staffing has a friendly, helpful staff who are a pleasure to work with that provides us with an efficient and excellent employee recruiting service. I highly recommend using them for your hiring needs.”
“I began using Luttrell Staffing when I worked at Portola Packaging. We used you primarily for temporary labor pool/production employees. I have found Luttrell Staffing to always be responsive, professional and providers of well-screened potential employees.”
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Free Trade, Trump, And The Decline of American Manufacturing
In 1999, when I first started in the staffing industry, our branch’s largest client was a local bathing suit manufacturer and processing center. They had two plants in the area – one to sew the product and another to tag and package it for distribution to various retail outlets. Although there were definitely busy times where simply getting the numbers they needed was difficult, overall we didn’t have a lot of trouble recruiting for them because it was fairly light work that didn’t require specific skills. As long as you could stand up for eight hours or so and were willing to learn, you were in.
The work was seasonal. We’d work over a hundred there during the winters, but once summer began and the bathing suits reached the shelves they dropped down to a skeleton crew. It was a great gig for a staffing agency, a perfect fit for both us and them. Its hard to imagine even the most ardent staffing agency critic, even our friend “Temp Employees,” having a problem with this arrangement.
The pay was low and I suppose there wasn’t much opportunity, per se, for the temps, yet we placed many of the same folks there year after year for well over a decade. And we didn’t have to hit them over the head to come either – they were begging to go – Moms who wanted to work while their kids were in school and take summers off, grandmothers who enjoyed the work and being with their friends but liked a rest every now and then, even the occasional kid looking for warehouse or shipping experience or just something to do before taking the plunge into a real career – we helped them all and it was great
Great that is, until the company closed their United States facilities and shifted all their work to Mexico.
They weren’t alone, of course. Outsourcing has been a major contributor to the decades-long decline of the American manufacturing base. What used to employ a third of American workers in the 50’s now employs less than 10%. Less people working in one sector than a previous era isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Some of it is for the same reason fewer people work in agriculture than did in the 1800’s – technological advances in production and efficiency – and some of it is also because other nations are simply better at manufacturing certain things. After all, the principle of comparative advantage, the motto of free traders, when applied correctly isn’t wrong. If a person, a company, and even a nation has the ability to produce something at a greater efficiency and a lower cost, they should do that and trade with others who are producing what THEY are great at. Everybody wins!
I’d certainly rather get my coffee from Colombia than try to grow it in my backyard, right? And it’s really nice to be able to get fruits and vegetables that aren’t in season in my neck of the woods year round, even if they don’t taste nearly as good as the tomatoes grown in my own garden. If Mexicans want to specialize in bathing suits, that frees Americans up to innovate and get good at something else, like making robots to replace us all eventually. Trade is a good thing, and occasionally good people will lose out in the short-term, like our bathing suit taggers (and us!).
So why do protectionists like Pat Buchanan and Donald Trump rail about job losses? What’s their deal? Isn’t it just pointless, pandering populism meant to appeal to working-class folks who aren’t sophisticated enough to grasp the nuances of Adam Smith and David Ricardo?
Well, not exactly. The thing is, other countries, those that are interested in furthering their national self-interests, slap import tariffs on items coming from abroad, including the United States. We, on the other hand, often allow those same countries to bring in whatever they want and sell to our folks tariff-free or nearly so. While that may be great for the consumer, its a raw deal for Americans who lose their livelihoods because of it.
In short, it’s just not a level playing field, and that’s a problem. It’s one thing to lose an industry because of technological advances or because another country does it significantly better than we could, it’s quite another to have it happen because our leaders are betraying us. Sadly, that’s whats been going on, and that’s what lies at the heart of the blue-collar support for Trump. Truly, is it worth losing the pay Americans make from producing products here, the raw materials purchased, the taxes paid, just so Americans can buy cheaper products?
Low prices may be great, but at this rate, when the government imposes layer after layer of roadblocks, regulations, and taxes on American businesses while, with a wink and a nod, telling those same businesses they could do business with much less hassle and expense overseas, we’re going to continue to lose our manufacturing base. When that happens, where will Americans get the money to buy all those cheap products? And I hope your answer isn’t working in restaurants, because what happens when people can no longer afford to eat in them?
This article originally appeared on Staffing Talk.
Scott Morefield