This is not a short term solution. I had good luck with taking co-op students from high school in my shop. They came with not much shop experience but I was able to teach them what to do quickly and it was a positive experience for all but one or two.
It is relatively risk free for the employer because the schools generally cover the insurance and there is no salary. The benefit to you might be you get a student who will work out and will work summers or part time leading to full time.

One of my guys is retiring out this week, and I've no clue how to replace him and he's the lowest skilled in the shop.

We do have a couple of trade schools that have a two year cabinet program. I was kicking around contacting them, and seeing about doing some sort of tuition reimbursement. Make it 3 years at my shop and I'll pay for all of your schooling.
I don't offer insurance, but my lowest paid guy makes $27/hr. Top is making $34/hr. I think he started this year with 120hrs of PTO and we're off all the usual holidays paid.

I don't think this is a hard job. It does require some skill and knowledge, but it isn't rocket science or back breaking. But man is it hard to find people that want to pursue this kind of work.

I'm not even sure where to post for jobs. If tomorrow I wanted a job in a cabinet shop, I'd just Google Cabinet shops in my area and go visit them. I'd want to see the facility, see the faces on the shop floor to get a feel for things before filling out an application. I've only had one person wander in doing that and it surprises me.

$13-$20/hour? How do they get to work? They must ride bicycles because $4/gal gas and car insurance would cut a big hole in their salary! What is your salary?

Tom,
I tried that too. I went to our local highschool, they have shop classes there. But no one was really interested in pursuing a woodworking career.
I will try it again after the summer brake.

Karl,
In what are are you in? We are in the North Georgia mountains.
I think it's a very technical job and you need to be able to think critical and be able to imagine what we build. You are right it's not rocket science but I really feel with the applicants who come in it feels like rocket science. I am not using really a nail gun in the shop or pocket screws. Everything is joint proper together and this is already too complicated for everyone.

I offer everyone to come in and talk to me in person and I can explain what we do but our if 10 people 1 looked at our website to know what we do. Everyone is unprepared and just want a job.

Rich,
Gas here was in February 2.55 and now 3.60

Tom,
I tried that too. I went to our local highschool, they have shop classes there. But no one was really interested in pursuing a woodworking career.
I will try it again after the summer brake.

Karl,
In what are are you in? We are in the North Georgia mountains.
I think it's a very technical job and you need to be able to think critical and be able to imagine what we build. You are right it's not rocket science but I really feel with the applicants who come in it feels like rocket science. I am not using really a nail gun in the shop or pocket screws. Everything is joint proper together and this is already too complicated for everyone.

I offer everyone to come in and talk to me in person and I can explain what we do but our if 10 people 1 looked at our website to know what we do. Everyone is unprepared and just want a job.

Rich,
In what area are you?
Gas here was in February $2.55 and now $3.60. I understand that people have to get to work but it's not my responsibility to pay for there new car and expensive insurance. Every employee I had had a new car and one guy is laying 400 dollars a month on car insurance. I am sorry but this is a poor excuse to want to be paid a lot. If you feel comfortable to pay someone 20 dollar and they never even had a jigsaw in there hand you can I just can't.
I started my apprenticeship and got paid between the first year and 3 year 2.50-4 dollar an hour. That's called an apprenticeship in Germany. After that you have your title as geselle. Then you are actually a woodworker.

Please tell me what people do in your shop who have no clue? Please explain how long it takes you to teach them to safely us joiner, sliding table saw and how you teach them all the knowledge needed to be able to build something?
I am alone in the shop. I do everything from shop drawings to building, finishing and installation. I build my own drawers, fronts. We do veneer work building stairs and complex build ins.
Rich it looks like you figured it out so please share your inside.

I make about 50k a year and also still reinvest into the shop. I moved 20 months ago into a new shop and still need to build out the shop space.
So it is not that I make a lot of money either. I am ok to pay someone the same what I make but I expect that they can produce something in the shop.

I am not a great business person am a craftsman first unfortunately so please share what you can.

Mathias,
Do you have a CNC router? If you don't, then that's your answer. Buy a CNC and hire a low skill guy to operate it and move as many operations to that machine as possible. When he's not running the machine, he can clean up, do other low skill tasks, and be your install helper. When he quits, you hire another low skill guy to do the same.

You have a lot of reasons for paying low salaries, but yet you are asking why no one wants to apply for a job with you. Don’t you see the correlation? I’m in Central IL. My comment about basic transportation is because the employees need to make enough money to be able to afford transportation. I suggest your posted salary range will not attract anyone. I don’t have an apprenticeship, so I have no interest in hiring workers with zero experience. I got this advice decades ago; Hire one good employee and they will make more than you. Hire a second good employee and everyone makes a good salary. Hire a third and you actually earn a nice profit plus your salary.

RichC, that's some really idealized reasoning that just doesn't pan out in the real world. You can't just post a higher hourly rate and expect a good worker to accept your offer. The good employees don't just hop around from one employer to another for small raises. They stay put for decades. That's what makes it super hard for guys like Mathias to find a good employee. They don't exist for him. He's in the market for a unicorn. If he were a bigger shop, then he could just hire tons of dudes, burn through them and keep the gems. But that's super expensive for a one man shop. Which is why he's better off focusing on finding a solution with low skilled guys, because that's likely all he's going to find.

Matthew, You know how all the employee mentally for everywhere? In my area, the only way some employees can get a raise is to jump around as you say. Some business owners get complacent with their best people, and the raises are smaller of stopped. And they leave.

My adult son hops around about every two years as a licensed civil engineer. He’s raised his salary by over $50,000 in the last 8 years.

Younger people do not have the career mentality and have zero loyalty and don’t remain in the same company for decades.

Your son is a terrible analogy. Of course that's how it works with professional degrees. Climbing the corporate ladder is not some new trend you just discovered. That doesn't apply to bench guys in small to medium sized shops. Yes, occasionally a gem of a bench guy will get underpaid or disgruntled with his work situation and make a move. But the odds of one of them moving to a one man shop like Mathias has is slim to none. I'm guessing Mathias is a really good woodworker and probably a good person. But finding a really good bench guy to come join a one man shop is unrealistic. 60 hour weeks followed by 20 hour weeks. Who's going to want that? His odds are better building his operational model around low skill labor and if just consider it luck if he does find a unicorn.

My shop was based upon real joinery and process - no nailers, staplers or screw jigs. As it grew, I would bring in some help from a Furniture degree program at a local university. Part time - they get real world experience, and a college credit, and I get a motivated, intelligent worker.
I always had my eye out for talented carpenters that seemed like they would like to transition to shop work of a higher level than site carpentry.
I also hired a few that had a little experience but knew the basics, and were capable of learning. I realized I had to make a good employee since I could not always find one. Labor was a limiting factor in my experience. Money, space, work were all in abundance.
You are sharp enough to not fall for the "buy a CNC" trap. You end up working for the machine, and competing with all the shops that also bought into that supposed solution.
Find good basic labor, train up from there. I first taught basic breakdown of rough lumber for a week. Then basic S4S for a week. Then let them run parts after I make setups. Then sand, or assemble. You will know after a week if you have a keeper. Work alongside them so they know you are also expecting similar work ethic, but keep it light.

Every business owner around me and even my lumber sales rep told me to never hire anyone, because of everything stated here. So, I haven't. I have no desire to scale my business though. If you want to scale then you have no choice but to join the race. If your goal is to make your employee as rich as you, then you will figure out how to get them. We all want to be prosperous, but I want everyone around me to be prosperous, even employees.

All the home builders around me don't have employees, they "hire contractors". So, their "employees" are actually their own businesses. Then they can reap all the rewards of that also. This world is built for business owners to win and w2 employees to pay for it, so maybe offer a scenario like that. There is no way I would ever go back to a w2 job again, the gov owns you. Have empathy for them in those regards and you may build a great team.

I agree with David, let's spin this 180deg to who could benefit? I looked at you website to see where you are and I would reach out to Georgia Tech Industrial Design Dept and ask if you could set up a 1yr apprentice program or just post on a job board for Freshman and Sophmores or at other like schools; Chattanooga Interior Architecture, Auburn Industrial Design, SCAD ID, Kennesaw St College of Architecture and Construction Management? You will get turn over and have to retrain every year but you might find a your unicorn. Plus, if your good at teaching then they will line up to learn year after year. I know I was eager to learn during my college training and if your paying a entry level living wage everyone beneifits. I was also scared of my first panelsaw encounter, so patience w/ newbies the size alone can scare a pup. Plus, they could help you with your website and social media and if you don't know CAD they could benifit you, not everyone starts sweeping floors? In the first 20yrs out of school I wanted to learn hands-on about materials used in furniture but was always guided in to managing as well as fabricating. In those 20yrs there were 5 people I would have hired out about 100. Only two were without an advance degrees, but they had worked their entire lifetime in wookworking and the most talented craftsmen I have ever known. Another was an artist / painting grad working construction hanging doors in commercial work, another an architecture student who loved the shop stuff and at one ornamental iron firm they hired Art Institute of Chicago students. My gist is they were thinking people wanting to learn, but on the downside they also had bigger aspirations and why you will most likely have turnover. One place a contract furniture manufacturing they hired off the street for production assembly and that drove me to self employment for the last 15yrs. Even my own son I wouldn't hire because he's too smart to work so hard which is needed in this line of work - kind of the Rich story. Best of luck!

Sad situation. I guess we're all going through the same thing, from Georgia to California. Over here, just showing up to work is 90% of the job. Or after they show up for a week, they're missing the next week. I'm also a 1 man shop.