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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?

#151

Post by whall6 »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #146
m0llusk wrote: post #88

It is strange that the top known factors for this are not even mentioned in this or other similar news stories. First, closing of schools caused large numbers of women to leave the workforce in order to care for children. Until schools are fully open and day care is available those women will probably not be going back to work. Second, all markets are cultivated things. Employers in the most troubled sectors have rec…

> All of this stuff about workers disappearing and people reconsidering their lives is pretty much a sideshow of projected narrative that is detached from what is really going on. Well said. We’ve been bombarded with news articles and thought pieces about how COVID has forever changed the workforce, how people are refusing to work jobs they don’t like, how people are quitting en masse because their employers won’t al…

Right. Why would I seek a job if the unemployment benefits pay me nearly as much to do nothing?

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

#152

Post by ipaddr »

bombcar wrote: post #104
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…

There can be practical shortages - there can just literally not be enough people in the area to do the jobs. Saying “it’s not a shortage because you could buy the Yankees and pay the players $millions to assemble widgets” isn’t very informative.

It is.. it speaks to wages not raising enough to meet the demand. You wouldn't need the Yankees a lot of people would do it for a million, half a million, 100,000 pounds.

There always seems to be a shortage of people willing to work for little never a shortage of people wanting the CEO's jobs

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

#153

Post by beebeepka »

BlissWaves wrote: post #19
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…

Yup, on top of it ageism in tech can appear as early as late twenties!

That's nuts but I can believe it. My own experience is that if I am being interviewed by a 20 something, I am not getting the job no matter what. Not a single exception in a decade now lol. It's real

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

#154

Post by royallineage »

peakaboo wrote: post #67
paganel wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The worst part, for me, has been the naked contempt and disrespect. If you don’t mind and if it’s not sensitive do you mind to share some examples? I’ve just gone past the 40 year threshold myself and I think I’m starting to see/notice some of the same things you noticed, i.e. less “camaraderie” (for lack of a better word) and more “getting on top of the other”, a feeling I didn’t have when I entered this industry…

I think tech attracts a certain type of person... People with high iq but very low scores in compassion and care.

No, Chris Marshall NY is just nuts. Please dig more and look at this person's experience. Some day he and mz will have a kid and HN will cower in fear.

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

#155

Post by FooBarBizBazz »

peakaboo wrote: post #67
paganel wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The worst part, for me, has been the naked contempt and disrespect. If you don’t mind and if it’s not sensitive do you mind to share some examples? I’ve just gone past the 40 year threshold myself and I think I’m starting to see/notice some of the same things you noticed, i.e. less “camaraderie” (for lack of a better word) and more “getting on top of the other”, a feeling I didn’t have when I entered this industry…

I think tech attracts a certain type of person... People with high iq but very low scores in compassion and care.

I dunno. I get the same vibe from medicine. MDs in particular. Less so the further down the food chain you go. (Part of that is culture. The bottom is composed of immigrants who still act like normal human beings.) I think it's something that's more broadly acculturated among the highly educated and high-achieving. Or just selected for whenever competition is fierce.

I also did not get this feeling from other technology industries that weren't "Tech". Places full of PhDs, but disconnected from the SV culture. And frankly, less motivated by money and more by lifestyle.

Maybe it all boils down to money. There's too much money in Tech. It attracts the worst, and brings out the worst.

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

#156

Post by 127 »

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…

As a (potential) employer, I wouldn't really care about age. It's all about how much you make money for me. What your performance to cost ratio? People can be cats or dogs for all I care.

Young have the advantage that they usually drastically undervalue themselves and thus provide an unbeatable proposition. They're usually more energetic, positive and optimistic, which is more pleasant to be around and thus makes the work environment more productive.

In an ideal system: if employers fail to hire workforce that benefits their company more, they will fall behind the competition. There most definitely are preconceived notions about people on how they look, but that should be a competitive advantage to a company that can leverage it.

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

#157

Post by ipaddr »

nradov wrote: post #139
MattGaiser wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Minimum wage limits is one of the best tools we have to act as a safety net. What would you replace it with 1 dollar an hour workers with a bigger food stamp budget?

If you can't afford to pay someone the minimum prices you can't afford your business. A minimum wage creates a floor. Allowing low wages means pushing the burden to everyone else not that business.. raise your prices or move to a lower cost country.

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

#158

Post by fundad »

minikites wrote: post #121

>Add Brexit into the equation, and the old assumption that companies can just hire extra people from Eastern Europe to fill any gaps can no longer be taken for granted. Wild idea, but maybe companies should pay higher salaries. I bet they would find plenty of workers. If their business relies on paying people sub-standard wages, maybe their business deserves to fail to make room for someone else who is better at maki…

Wasn't this one of the stated motivations for Brexit? Fewer immigrants pressuring owners to raise wages for British citizens.

It was the same here in the States with border wall construction, turning away asylum seekers instead of letting them work while their cases were processed, issuing fewer visas and detaining and deporting more people.

Strange to see who is carrying water for owners instead of taking credit for what they've done for workers.

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

#159

Post by heurisko »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #146
m0llusk wrote: post #88

It is strange that the top known factors for this are not even mentioned in this or other similar news stories. First, closing of schools caused large numbers of women to leave the workforce in order to care for children. Until schools are fully open and day care is available those women will probably not be going back to work. Second, all markets are cultivated things. Employers in the most troubled sectors have rec…

> All of this stuff about workers disappearing and people reconsidering their lives is pretty much a sideshow of projected narrative that is detached from what is really going on. Well said. We’ve been bombarded with news articles and thought pieces about how COVID has forever changed the workforce, how people are refusing to work jobs they don’t like, how people are quitting en masse because their employers won’t al…

One of the stories I often hear, is that people have decided to move house to the countryside, as they are now able to work remotely.

I don't know how true this is: are these people not concerned if their employer decides to reopen offices and require employees to work in the office again when the pandemic inevitably ends?

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

#160

Post by royallineage »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #22
arcturus17 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you tried remote-only positions? I’d assume they tend to care less about age, if that’s the problem. I employ freelancers and pay competitive fees by European standards. I would hire someone with your experience without thinking too much about it (provided you had a modicum of people skills) since I only care about people being courteous and getting the job done, and not about “culture”…

As noted elsewhere, it seems Europe may be a better place for older folks. I know that some nations have some fairly strict laws about discrimination. In the US, we have the same laws. It's flat-out illegal to discriminate by age, as it is by race, religion, gender, pregnancy, marital status, etc. Out of that list, if a company tries anything other than age discrimination, they are pilloried and investigated. However…

> I have an enormous portfolio of exemplary work

Lol

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