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.