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Employee shortages: Where have all the workers gone?

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Employee shortages: Where have all the workers gone?

#131

Post by dbattaglia »

forz877 wrote: post #99
School-Cotton wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For what it’s worth: I live in NYC. It is not boarded up.

That's the narrative a lot of these people living in the flyover states are fed on repeat 24/7. You'd think NYC , SF, LA were third world countries according to them. You can tell right from his comment why he likely doesn't have a job.

My wife and I have both been hearing this narrative from coworkers outside of where we live (in NYC), asking if we're living in a ghost town or warzone. It feels strange.

By the way I think the term "flyover state" is probably a bit offensive to folks that happen to live outside of coastal cities.

Re: Employee shortages: Where have all the workers gone?

#132

Post by nradov »

jen20 wrote: post #102
bko wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a market economy there is no such thing as a "shortage" of workers. You just don't want to meet the market price of the workers with that skill set. You could imagine a widget factory whose economics rely on paying employees X, it doesn't mean there's a "shortage" of workers, but the workers demand a wage that makes your work unprofitable. The fact is a lot of people are paid not to work through generous covid-rel…

> In a market economy there is no such thing as a "shortage" of workers You need a license to drive a truck in the UK (the actual subject of the article). It takes a minimum of two months acquire [1]. Even paying a thousand dollars an hour does not magic more qualified candidates into existence at short notice as you appear to propose. The reason for the shortage is the trivially foreseeable effects of idiotic hard-l…

There are people with commercial driving licenses who aren't currently working as truck drivers. They could be recruited if employers raised wages.

And a regular truck driver can be trained in a few months. It's not rocket science.

Re: Employee shortages: Where have all the workers gone?

#133

Post by MichaelMoser123 »

BossingAround wrote: post #21
calltrak wrote: post #7

I am an unemployed programmer. I am 50 years old. I have 15 years of C#, 15 years of sql server, two years of golang, two years of node.js, vue.js, svelte, css, html, postgress, rabbitmq, etc etc etc.... My skills list is about 10 times this short list I just threw up. They tell me there is a skills and labor shortage in tech. That's complete bullshit I am UNEMPLOYED for a year. I don't believe one dam word the gover…

Might also be an attitude problem on your side. If you're serious about getting a job, consider coaching. This "nobody is hiring, everything sucks, and I'm the victim here" narrative isn't really helping you. Also, bringing up stuff like "lies about the cough" (which I assume is OP talking about COVID) absolutely undermines your credibility as an individual capable of critical thinking, which is necessary for softwar…

I don't know. I am fifty one years old, last year I was sent packing. I found that it is increasingly more difficult for me to find a new job as a programmer, as the years go by. I am very grateful that I found a job, eventually.

Dear Calltrack, don't get too upset by the reactions in this thread, some people here are, well, not very compassionate, to say the least.

Re: Employee shortages: Where have all the workers gone?

#134

Post by bumby »

bko wrote: post #74
benou wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry to hear that but keep in mind the job market is very different from one location to another and from one sector to another. The BBC is talking about truck drivers in the UK and it is hardly a surprise: UK used to rely heavily on eastern Europe workers in that area, and they vote (Brexit) to prevent exactly that. They got what they asked for. If anything, we can complain that the BBC article title is too gen…

In a market economy there is no such thing as a "shortage" of workers. You just don't want to meet the market price of the workers with that skill set. You could imagine a widget factory whose economics rely on paying employees X, it doesn't mean there's a "shortage" of workers, but the workers demand a wage that makes your work unprofitable. The fact is a lot of people are paid not to work through generous covid-rel…

>In a market economy there is no such thing as a "shortage" of workers.

Certainly there can be a lag effect though. If there is a shortage of doctors that won’t be remedied overnight by simply increasing incentives because of the amount of time to gain the necessary skills, licensing, etc.

Unless you are willing to lower quality substantially, there absolutely can be worker shortages in a real pragmatic sense

Re: Employee shortages: Where have all the workers gone?

#135

Post by jessaustin »

lucb1e wrote: post #93
throw_m239339 wrote: post #46

There is no "employee shortage". I don't know the reason why the main stream press started to roll with that narrative but this is a blatant lie. However unlike before the pandemic, some candidates might refuse a job that only offers a pittance, especially given the high inflation in most of the west.

> unlike before the pandemic, some candidates might refuse a job I don't understand this one, wouldn't a pandemic (entire industries had to cut back on costs) cause more people to be looking for work and thus tip the supply and demand balance towards people being less picky?

The idea is that the disruption has shown workers they have a wider range of options than they considered before. Maybe they have changed to a different field, maybe they have started their own business, maybe they have moved. In any case, they aren't looking to get rehired at their old position and compensation.

Re: Employee shortages: Where have all the workers gone?

#136

Post by jessaustin »

xwdv wrote: post #120
bruce343434 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This massive destabilization/bubble you are describing is not a good thing by the way.

Don’t care, I’m sick and tired of kicking this can down the road. Let the bodies pile up in the streets, in the end they’ll beg us to save them.

You must be pretty sure you're in the "us" camp and not the "them" camp... one hopes it works out for you.

Re: Employee shortages: Where have all the workers gone?

#137

Post by dd36 »

jansommer wrote: post #115
jen20 wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In a market economy there is no such thing as a "shortage" of workers You need a license to drive a truck in the UK (the actual subject of the article). It takes a minimum of two months acquire [1]. Even paying a thousand dollars an hour does not magic more qualified candidates into existence at short notice as you appear to propose. The reason for the shortage is the trivially foreseeable effects of idiotic hard-l…

If the pay is good, demand is high and all you need is to go on a two month course, I'd bet a lot of unemployed people would be eager to do that. The "shortage" is indeed because of Brexit, but paying a thousand dollars an hour will most certainly magically summon workers en mass in a few months.

Unless people see through it as a short term gimmick in an unstable industry.

Re: Employee shortages: Where have all the workers gone?

#139

Post by nradov »

MattGaiser wrote: post #109
bko wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a market economy there is no such thing as a "shortage" of workers. You just don't want to meet the market price of the workers with that skill set. You could imagine a widget factory whose economics rely on paying employees X, it doesn't mean there's a "shortage" of workers, but the workers demand a wage that makes your work unprofitable. The fact is a lot of people are paid not to work through generous covid-rel…

You could say the same thing about unemployment. There is no such thing as an unemployment problem in an economy, just workers who want too much and think too highly of their skills.

That's one of the problems with minimum wage laws: they prevent the labor market from clearing. Some people want to work but due to lack of skills their labor is worth less than the minimum and thus no employer will hire them.

I understand that people can't live on less than the minimum wage. But the solution to that is a proper social safety net, not imposing arbitrary minimum wage limits.

Re: Employee shortages: Where have all the workers gone?

#140

Post by pcthrowaway »

freeone3000 wrote: post #114
lucb1e wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I want to know about the times you lead a team in building a house from start to finish. What if that's not something I can do? If I'm really good at tech, am really good in terms of writing code fast, correct, and readable, but management just isn't for me? Would you not hire me for a software position, also not at a lower salary or with a junior label or something?

We're not interested in hiring "perpetual juniors". The increased oversight of junior employees is an investment in them becoming senior in a 2-3 year timeframe. The skills listed above are for independent action, follow-through, communication, and teamwork, in a tech lead position, which are more important than writing code. If you haven't acquired those skills by now, it's unlikely any amount of mentorship will tea…

> The increased oversight of junior employees is an investment in them becoming senior in a 2-3 year timeframe.

So in your mind, they go straight from junior to senior? I've been developing software for 8 years now, and still call myself intermediate. Senior is for people with incredibly deep knowledge of multiple technologies and how they work together, in my mind.

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