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Job vacancies surge past one million in new record

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Job vacancies surge past one million in new record

#231

Post by luckylion »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #212
luckylion wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a neighbor who is quite happy with what the government pays him while he's not working. I'm sure he could be motivated to work by offering larger salaries, but they'd have to be raised by at least 100% to convince him to go from 0 hours/week to 40 hours/week. I'm not sure there are 3.277 million people without work who want it.

He must be particularly frugal then as the government doesn't pay you much to sit on your backside. https://www.gov.uk/jobseekers-allowance

I'm in Germany, but it's a similar amount (+ rent, internet, utilities, health insurance etc). He has the basics like a cell phone, flat screen and playstation and seems to be content with it.

Re: Job vacancies surge past one million in new record

#232

Post by boulos »

Hmm. Am I reading this correctly?

There are 1M openings across the UK (population about 60M) and 10M across the US [1] (population 300M-ish). There are twice as many openings per person in the US. (I also don't assume the demographics are wildly out of step).

[1] https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/job-offers

Re: Job vacancies surge past one million in new record

#233

Post by tomp »

toto444 wrote: post #228
tomp wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love how all the elite arguments that immigration doesn't reduce wages (which the working class always thought were complete bullshit) were proved to be complete bullshit during the pandemic-related border closures. Of course, the discussion about what to do about that remains - open borders & keep wages low, or close borders & raise local wages, or close borders & keep wages low & invest in automation - but it's n…

It is a bit more complicated because if the wages of fruit picker decreases, the farmers may sell their fruits for a lower price. So everyone else's wage actually increases. Not the amount of £ you get at the end of the month but what you can afford with these £ (more fruits).

This same argument could be used to justify slavery. I'm quite unsympathetic to such arguments, especially when talking about the lowest classes of the society (as measured by wealth).

Re: Job vacancies surge past one million in new record

#234

Post by commandlinefan »

mysterydip wrote: post #4

There's a fast food restaurant near my house that is trying to fill vacancies at $20/hr.

... while my son works as a math/reading tutor for $8/hr. He thinks he's being taken advantage of, and I'm not sure I necessarily disagree.

Re: Job vacancies surge past one million in new record

#235

Post by disgruntledphd2 »

moreira wrote: post #203
disgruntledphd2 wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's only a problem when you need to change job (this is why I haven't done this).

Even if your next job requires you to move somewhere else, you’ll still have had 12-24 months (or however long) of cheap living, and you get to save all that money. For me at least, between rent, bills, and not having access to the same expensive habits as in a big city (Uber Eats and ease of going out), means that this year I stand to save about £20K compared to the previous year. Even if it was just rent+council ta…

I guess I was considering from a buying perspective, rather than renting.

I agree that if you're not locked in to a well below market rent, then this would definitely make sense.

Re: Job vacancies surge past one million in new record

#236

Post by postingawayonhn »

Reason077 wrote: post #150
ZeroGravitas wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wage rises without solving the housing issue is only going to raise house prices further. There's a bunch of potential solutions, but no-one directly benefits from them in the short term. Any attempt to fix it will be met with sob stories about old ladies in multi-million dollar homes being "forced out of their homes". So we'll all just sit and watch as things slowly spin out of control.

> "Wage rises without solving the housing issue is only going to raise house prices further." House prices aren't that tightly linked to incomes. House prices are more strongly influenced by interest rates and availability of credit. And, of course, supply/demand fundamentals (ie: population change vs. number of housing units in an area).

Increased income means increased servicing ability and therefore banks granting higher loans.

Re: Job vacancies surge past one million in new record

#237

Post by dazc »

neilwilson wrote: post #130

There are 1.034 million vacancies and 3.277 million people without work that want it. There isn't a shortage of labour. There is a shortage of decent pay and conditions. Firms are going to have to get over their cheap labour obsession or close and leave the market to those firms that can.

Not just base rate pay but, also, the motivation to do a low-skilled job isn't just to earn enough money to survive but also to improve one's life over the long term.

It used to be the case you could do a labouring job where there would be regular overtime, often paid at a premium. I had one such job many years ago and could double my regular pay by working a few extra hours each day. Then employers realised instead of paying premium overtime rates they could just hire another person at basic rate.

Not sure what the situation is now but back then it became normal for jobs to advertised at 16 hours a week. In effect, these employers were employing 3 or 4 people where they would previously employ one and they could do this because 16 hours turned out to be the optimum amount someone receiving benefits could work and receive a top-up to get a survivable amount of money each month.

Re: Job vacancies surge past one million in new record

#238

Post by II2II »

yesOfCourse9 wrote: post #139
bb123 wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is housing available within commuting distance - I bought a 2 bedroom flat walking distance from a station with a 35 minute link to Kings Cross for under 200k. People seem to think they have some sort of God-given right to live in central London. If you want to buy a property you may need to make some sacrifices in that department. Yes the town I live in is pretty shite, and I have to train to work or to see fr…

Yes only the elite, who speculate prices beyond the reach of normies, should be allowed to live where they want. Nice embedded class based bias by the stiff upper lip crowd. Make the minority that hands itself free money subject to the same open market and you have a point.

> Yes only the elite, who speculate prices beyond the reach of normies, should be allowed to live where they want.

It is not even a case of living where you want to, nor is it a case of supporting a particular lifestyle. It is a question of quality of life. If your commute is 30 minutes door-to-door, you are losing an hour a day. That hour could be better put to use to improving your skills, working paid hours, taking care of your personal well-being, or leisure. It is also worth noting that most people measure commute time as time in transit with a private vehicle, this incurs additional costs (meaning working additional hours) and the only way to get around it involves a significant tradeoff for time.

There are many people who do not want to live an elitist lifestyle and would be happy to live somewhere other than where the elites live. What they don't want to endure is a quantitative and qualitative diminishing in their quality of life.

Re: Job vacancies surge past one million in new record

#239

Post by dazc »

culopatin wrote: post #161
neilwilson wrote: post #130

There are 1.034 million vacancies and 3.277 million people without work that want it. There isn't a shortage of labour. There is a shortage of decent pay and conditions. Firms are going to have to get over their cheap labour obsession or close and leave the market to those firms that can.

That and maybe a lack of people with the training needed.

Because you can get away with not training people so long as there is a sizeable pool of people who've already been trained at someone else's expense.

Re: Job vacancies surge past one million in new record

#240

Post by pessimizer »

imtringued wrote: post #197
tomp wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love how all the elite arguments that immigration doesn't reduce wages (which the working class always thought were complete bullshit) were proved to be complete bullshit during the pandemic-related border closures. Of course, the discussion about what to do about that remains - open borders & keep wages low, or close borders & raise local wages, or close borders & keep wages low & invest in automation - but it's n…

I'm pretty sure it is well known that globalization equalizes wages globally. That means they meet in the middle. Poor nations see relative wage growth and wealthy nations see relative wage decline. On average everyone is better off but it also means that those living in wealthy countries now feel extreme pressure to compete globally. For most people that simply means skilling up at college and moving to large cities…

Globalization equalizes wages amongst people who can't lobby for protectionism. So only for the poor. If medical/drug patents and professionals were subjected to the same type of globalization that lower-leveraged workers were, inflation would run in reverse for the next 10 years. Instead, people who spend most of their income on consumption are drowning in what are really hidden tariffs and rent-seekers doing arbitrage.
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