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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

#271

Post by dang »

SquishyPanda23 wrote: post #191
pibechorro wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Inflation will make any increase in wages meaningless. It will also further drive investment into housing to escape the free falling cash. The answer is no lockdowns, no bailouts, and no quantitative money printing to oblivion. Let the everything bubble pop and start over with sound first principles. We will get there, but not before politicians make it worse and delay the inevitable defaults.

[flagged]

This sort of comment will get you banned on HN, regardless of how wrong someone else is or you feel they are. If you'd please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules when posting here (all of them—you must have broken at least half a dozen here), we'd appreciate it.

Re: Job vacancies surge past one million in new record

#272

Post by GordonS »

M2Ys4U wrote: post #220
benbojangles wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. Also, High streets don't have to 'die' due to excessive rent either, the government could hike taxes on vacant stores 1000% then make possession orders on unpaid premises after 18 months. Then the gov can nationalise shop rents according to reasonable incomes.

I'd advocate for scrapping council tax and business rates, replacing them with a land value tax payable by the freeholder rather than occupant. I just don't see the current Tory party touching it with a barge pole.

I'd love for council tax to be scrapped, but I'd prefer it to be replaced by a risen in income tax, with money dished out by Central government to local councils.

Re: Job vacancies surge past one million in new record

#273

Post by xyzzyz »

rjsw wrote: post #243
pjc50 wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the government basically gives you free money/tax breaks if you buy a home Such as? MIRAS was abolished 20 years ago. Homes are arguably under-taxed (no US style property tax), but that's not really a "break".

There is Help to Buy [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help_to_Buy

Which is not free money from the government. It’s a loan.

Re: Job vacancies surge past one million in new record

#274

Post by chooseaname »

nly wrote: post #44

Housing is anything from a third to 50% of the average UK earners take home income. Median house price to median income ratios are at historically high levels[0], and rents are now also rising[1] Either wages need to rise or house prices need to fall. [0] If you look at somewhere mundane like Essex the median 'affordability ratio', as measured by the Office of National Statistics ( https://tinyurl.com/x5jatcx8 ), was…

> Either wages need to rise or house prices need to fall.

Raising wages in not in the best interest of share holders.

Re: Job vacancies surge past one million in new record

#275

Post by eptcyka »

nly wrote: post #44

Housing is anything from a third to 50% of the average UK earners take home income. Median house price to median income ratios are at historically high levels[0], and rents are now also rising[1] Either wages need to rise or house prices need to fall. [0] If you look at somewhere mundane like Essex the median 'affordability ratio', as measured by the Office of National Statistics ( https://tinyurl.com/x5jatcx8 ), was…

Access to cheap loans is partly what's driving the prices up. I think a better solution would be to enact legislation that penalizes the use of residential real estate for capital gains or profit in general, including serial landlords and AirBnBs.

Re: Job vacancies surge past one million in new record

#276

Post by GordonS »

s0rce wrote: post #252
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #69

When a few companies or industries can’t find enough labor, the solution is simple: Raise wages to attract a larger percentage of the labor pool. When every company and industry is struggling to hire, raising wages is still necessary but it no longer fixes the bigger problem. Those higher wages aren’t producing more labor, they’re just convincing employees with jobs to switch to other jobs. Switching jobs creates a v…

Many companies don't have sufficient margins to raise wages. Hopefully this isn't confused as me endorsing subpar wages, simply that those business can't be sustained or will just endlessly be looking for someone willing to work for cheap because hiring someone for more will actually cost them money. They may be better of turning away some customers vs. hiring someone for a higher wage to support more demand.

Many of the businesses pleading poverty have execs making millions a year - funny how there is never any issue awarding huge bonuses for the top brass, but the cupboard is always bare for employees.

Re: Job vacancies surge past one million in new record

#277

Post by mmarq »

Levitz wrote: post #178
mmarq wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The proof is in the pudding: "we can't find local workers willing to work for these low wages so we'll import them from abroad". Everywhere in world there are labour shortages, because we just ended lockdowns 3 months ago. In other places they are blaming the shortage on the young being lazy or on unemployment benefits, with the same scientific rigour. So I’m still waiting for a proof (not a pun or an anecdote) tha…

>So I’m still waiting for a proof (not a pun or an anecdote) that immigration reduces salaries. And what would that be? A study linking both while accounting for every other factor? I don't think it's even possible to do such a thing. >Which means that EU nationals living in the UK earn more than the locals, so they can’t be driving salaries down. Unless you hypothesise a fantasy counterfactual where Jack deChav, who…

> And what would that be? A study linking both while accounting for every other factor? I don't think it's even possible to do such a thing.

What’s the point of saying something if you think that it’s impossible to prove?

> There is competition even in software development, it doesn't take anyone to be a bartender for competition to cause a wage drop, moreover the reality is way more stark when you look at jobs that aren't as cushy as software development. A Spanish waiter is probably used to lower salaries and is probably more dependent on his job than an English one that has a support network in his country, his chances to unionize are also lower. We see it all the time with immigrants from low income countries.

The number of software developers in the UK kept going up until the beginning of lockdowns, but salaries went up instead of going down. How’s that possible if more people mean lower wages?

Is there any evidence of Spanish bartenders pushing bartender salaries down?

> I can imagine how immigration can lead to economic growth and salary growth as a result, but I find it impossible that the race to the bottom caused in low-income jobs is worth for them at all, if anything the economic growth is caused by this low-cost labor.

Is there any evidence of this “race to the bottom [..] in low-income jobs”? Is there any evidence of it being caused by immigration?

Re: Job vacancies surge past one million in new record

#278

Post by xxpor »

eptcyka wrote: post #275
nly wrote: post #44

Housing is anything from a third to 50% of the average UK earners take home income. Median house price to median income ratios are at historically high levels[0], and rents are now also rising[1] Either wages need to rise or house prices need to fall. [0] If you look at somewhere mundane like Essex the median 'affordability ratio', as measured by the Office of National Statistics ( https://tinyurl.com/x5jatcx8 ), was…

Access to cheap loans is partly what's driving the prices up. I think a better solution would be to enact legislation that penalizes the use of residential real estate for capital gains or profit in general, including serial landlords and AirBnBs.

The right way to do this is to tax the land in such a way that discourages rent seeking: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgism

The second thing to do are reforms to make it much much easier to build new housing, as demand far outstrips supply.

Re: Job vacancies surge past one million in new record

#279

Post by chooseaname »

prawn wrote: post #64
nly wrote: post #44

Housing is anything from a third to 50% of the average UK earners take home income. Median house price to median income ratios are at historically high levels[0], and rents are now also rising[1] Either wages need to rise or house prices need to fall. [0] If you look at somewhere mundane like Essex the median 'affordability ratio', as measured by the Office of National Statistics ( https://tinyurl.com/x5jatcx8 ), was…

I'd be tackling housing prices. I think wages (in AU, at least) already render many small businesses unviable. Historically in Australia, it's seemed like houses have doubled in price every 10 years. More recently, it's seemed like every 5 years. A house I bought 10 years ago would now be 2.5* that as land value alone. A building I bought has apparently doubled in value in five years.

> I think wages (in AU, at least) already render many small businesses unviable.

Probably an unviable business no matter the wage. People cannot be depended on to subsidize someone's business by accepting crappy wages.

Re: Job vacancies surge past one million in new record

#280

Post by ourlordcaffeine »

yawaworht1978 wrote: post #201

What are these jobs? Human health and hospitality? Then they go on and list fruit pickers? And retail stores hiring staff for the Xmas onset? Are they kidding? These are temporary jobs, probably not previously posted as done underhanded, but now there's no fruit pickers for cheap and they seek more official channels. And drivers, yes obviously drivers to deliver the aforementioned goods. Covid, Brexit, good luck find…

I believe the vacancies are mostly bar staff, carers, farm labour and haulage.

There are a bunch of delusional pub landlords in my city who complain about the lack of staff and claim stuff like "today's youth are entitled and lazy" - but apparently failed to notice local supermarkets literally pay more with fewer hours.

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