I want a news organisation to look at 10 jobs that cannot be filled and compare them to the broader market. As most of the unfillable jobs in my area seem to be manufacturing/outdoor labour that pay as much as retail (which seems a lot nicer) or jobs seeking experienced people at entry level pay.
It's not a labor shortage – it's a wage and workers rights shortage
11–20 of 427 posts
Re: It's not a labor shortage – it's a wage and workers rights shortage
#12Painfully obvious too. My little local Mexcian place will be closing down because of a lack of cooks. Talking to the owner, he was complaining about government benefits, and how they all want $20 an hour.
I don't understand it, that you'd either
a) be willing to drive your business into the ground serving a limited menu because you won't hire a couple cooks at $20 an hour, or
b) have a business so close to the brink of shutting down that an additional $20-50 an hour will shutter you.
He chose option A I guess...
Re: It's not a labor shortage – it's a wage and workers rights shortage
#13Painfully obvious too. My little local Mexcian place will be closing down because of a lack of cooks. Talking to the owner, he was complaining about government benefits, and how they all want $20 an hour. I don't understand it, that you'd either a) be willing to drive your business into the ground serving a limited menu because you won't hire a couple cooks at $20 an hour, or b) have a business so close to the brink…
Same with a bundle of Great Clips a friend manages for a franchisee. Can’t find staff, doesn’t believe staff are worth what the current effective minimum wage is.
“Have you tried offering more?” “That’s too much for cosmetology work.”
Getting slapped by the invisible hand of the market.
Re: It's not a labor shortage – it's a wage and workers rights shortage
#14After doing absolutely anything and everything possible for the past 18 months to create a dysfunctional economy, it is laughable to contribute the current five-alarm fire in the US labor market to bad pay and shifting worker expectations.
What you call a "five-alarm fire" is people getting nice large raises.
Re: It's not a labor shortage – it's a wage and workers rights shortage
#15It's surprising businesses haven't turned to automation. At the very least, most of a restaurant's and a coffee shop's labor can be replaced with automated ordering, having the customer collect food themselves when it's ready, and using robots to prepare more of the food. they can do lattes with art all by themselves now. A lot of these businesses just can't survive if they meet the wage demands of people who have be…
I'm afraid I can't find the graph, but I saw something showing that food service revenue has fully rebounded since the pandemic while food service employment has not. That would imply that labor saving is already in effect. It would also be unsurprising that not every restaurant would handle it equally well.
Re: It's not a labor shortage – it's a wage and workers rights shortage
#16It's surprising businesses haven't turned to automation. At the very least, most of a restaurant's and a coffee shop's labor can be replaced with automated ordering, having the customer collect food themselves when it's ready, and using robots to prepare more of the food. they can do lattes with art all by themselves now. A lot of these businesses just can't survive if they meet the wage demands of people who have be…
I'm afraid I can't find the graph, but I saw something showing that food service revenue has fully rebounded since the pandemic while food service employment has not. That would imply that labor saving is already in effect. It would also be unsurprising that not every restaurant would handle it equally well.
Or they could just have raised prices.
Re: It's not a labor shortage – it's a wage and workers rights shortage
#17It's amazing how business seems to understand the free market when it's selling to customers, but can't seem figure out the free market when it comes to hiring labor.
Business does understand the free market. It is also strongly incentivised to exhibit perpetual exponential growth. Perpetual exponential growth is impossible even on relatively short duration spans (decades), see the parable of the rice and chessboard. Business tries to maintain the illusion of perpetual exponential growth by making cuts everywhere it can: worker compensation and product quality. https://purposefocu…
Underrated comment. A lot of “growth” is tricks. I have seen so many software companies sacrifice the fundamental health of the product in order to hit certain “growth” numbers, on the assumption that they’ll just be able to keep doing it. But the more realistic outcome is either acquisition (pass the buck and reset the clock) or catastrophic failure.
Re: It's not a labor shortage – it's a wage and workers rights shortage
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm afraid I can't find the graph, but I saw something showing that food service revenue has fully rebounded since the pandemic while food service employment has not. That would imply that labor saving is already in effect. It would also be unsurprising that not every restaurant would handle it equally well.
Or they could just have raised prices.
All of the local restaurants have raised prices. I've overheard a few restaurant owners talking and it seems customers don't like even small price increases. They also indicate the price increases are necessary for supply costs even as they raise wages and can't fill positions.
A lot of restaurants are just cutting menus/services to be able to stay on top of demand. This strikes me as hugely economically inefficient, but whatever they don't have much choice in the matter.
People on HN like to say "just raise wages" but I don't think they like to consider what a world without affordable restaurants looks like. Maybe that is the way to go, but there should be more acknowledgement that "pay every cook like a software engineer" means there will be far fewer restaurants and far fewer people employed as cooks.
Re: It's not a labor shortage – it's a wage and workers rights shortage
#19Because businesses can't print money...
Re: It's not a labor shortage – it's a wage and workers rights shortage
#20I want a news organisation to look at 10 jobs that cannot be filled and compare them to the broader market. As most of the unfillable jobs in my area seem to be manufacturing/outdoor labour that pay as much as retail (which seems a lot nicer) or jobs seeking experienced people at entry level pay.
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