[asphaltgambler]

My opinion is that this is not an economic event but an industry 'blip' on the radar. I can tell you the retail auto repair industry continues its' decline with the backwards 'Flat-rate' pay for service workers. To the point that some shops have illegally resorted to hiring them as sub-contractors...........and mechanics / technicians accepting as no other option for employment in the current market.

Most likely any 'vacancy' that is being advertised is because a good tech left for of lack of work, cheated on their pay or over staffing of the dept. Only the value of a producing technician is monetized by management, not when they stand around or take longer to do the job. So, in effect, shops have zero investment in their service workers unlike other traditional blue collar trades where the skilled workers are paid largely by the clock hour.

Remember flat rate / COD hourly time (paid time) is based originally with warranty service times that are dictated by the vehicle manufacturer then multiplied (approx) by a factor of 150%. IE: warranty job "A" pays .5 hr (1/2 hour) dictated by GM. COD time would then be @.75 hr. Problem with that is historically warranty costs are a huge problem to the manufacturers and are always the first thing to be cut further when the accounts review them.

As vehicles have become almost insanely complex in recent years, the warranty times have actually decreased, and along with that COD repair times. The reality is that there are so many hurdles today that cannot be over come, so much stacked against the average-to-good technician is they are setup to fail by the 'system' before he or she ever lays hands on the car.