Good overview of meat cutting employment across the US Coalcracker, thanks for the info. Do you have any reasons why some states increased jobs while others lost some ? Changing populations, weather related, price of meat or other ? I would guess that the job growth in ND and SD would be due to the oil boom while the job loss in TX might be due to the extended drought that forced out many local cutters. In NJ many stores closed due to consolidation, there were too many stores for the amount of people. If a chain store did well, many times a competitor would open a store as close as possible.
Good overview of meat cutting employment across the US Coalcracker, thanks for the info. Do you have any reasons why some states increased jobs while others lost some ? Changing populations, weather related, price of meat or other ? I would guess that the job growth in ND and SD would be due to the oil boom while the job loss in TX might be due to the extended drought that forced out many local cutters. In NJ many stores closed due to consolidation, there were too many stores for the amount of people. If a chain store did well, many times a competitor would open a store as close as possible.
It would be interesting to hear some other members thoughts about the job market + / - in their state. What happened any why ?
Hi Bob, I believe it is what you have said. I guess you can say all of the above. Although demographics remain the same, people and business opportunities move in tandem with one another. There is another factor too. Food store consolidation and businesses like Walmart. When Walmart comes to town and has to hire 100 employees, unfortunately meat cutters are not in the count.
Aggressive companies like Price Chopper in the Northeast is so far removed from the Walmart philosophy. They still operate using meat departments as the "center of the plate" draw as part of their marketing plan using a small army of meat cutters performing all task at store level eliminating the need for the sawmill approach that Walmart and others utilize. When you walk into a Price Choppers meat department it is like a throw-back to yesteryear, with highly skilled and apprentice meat cutters that do the job right offering many of the cuts of beef that are gone from the more progressive food stores.
Price Chopper is only one example, I am sure their are several more within the U.S. that operate in a similar manner. This also ads to the increase or decrease of meat cutting jobs.
You know Bob, one of the interesting things about the meat business in general is that many people believe that it was, or is, the food store that made changes to the meat merchandising marketing plans at store level. Nothing could be further from the truth. The meat packer specifically the beef packer and all associated agencies such as the American Meat Institute, The Beef Industry Council and other organizations in the pork, veal, lamb and poultry really jump started the impact of merchandizing changes.
And as this happened it slowly but consistently impacted meat department labor, thus affecting the increase or decrease of meat cutting jobs world wide.
There is one more thing, "job classification". Many companies have changed the title of meat cutters to other titles that would be more in step with their overall corporate designs. Some call meat cutters associates, others meat clerks further decreasing meat cutter jobs in certain demographics.
