Job vacancies surge past one million in new record • Hacker News Board

Re: Job vacancies surge past one million in new record

#281

Post by xyzzyz » Tue, Sep 14, 2021, 4:54 PM UTC

lovich wrote: post #258

M2Ys4U wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

How does that tax not just passed onto the occupant? When I was renting I was basically paying all my landlords costs for the property + profit on top. If there’s not enough units available or if the landlord class acts as a cartel in pricing then every cost is going to the occupant

The tax incidence depends on the elasticities of demand and supply. Since the supply of land is, for practical purposes, perfectly inelastic, land value tax cannot be effectively passed onto the tenant.

See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_value_tax#Tax_incidence

Re: Job vacancies surge past one million in new record

#282

Post by notauser » Tue, Sep 14, 2021, 4:55 PM UTC

FartyMcFarter wrote: post #181

Reason077 wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "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).

> House prices aren't that tightly linked to incomes. House prices are more strongly influenced by interest rates and availability of credit. I believe banks in the UK don't lend you more than 4.5x - 5.5x of your income, regardless of interest rates.

In the UK, lenders are resticted by the regulator - only 15% of their loans can be at greater than 4.5x income.

As a result 5x and 6x income mortgages tend to be easier to get the more you earn.

Re: Job vacancies surge past one million in new record

#283

Post by softwaredoug » Tue, Sep 14, 2021, 4:55 PM UTC

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #100

softwaredoug wrote: post #83

If only there were people willing to move to your country from their current bad situation, so eager for citizenship they’d take on any job.. it’s almost an arrangement too good to be true

That's not what people voted for in 2016.

They may not have voted for it, but its still a valid policy position to advocate for :)

Re: Job vacancies surge past one million in new record

#284

Post by mateo411 » Tue, Sep 14, 2021, 4:56 PM UTC

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #266

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.

Old ladies in multi-million dollar homes is largely a myth. Sure, there are some of them. But it's absurd to think this is anywhere near the majority. Short Term rentals make up These are just excuses. These aren't real problems. The real problem is artificially low interest rates, artificial scarcity caused by NIMBYism, low downpayments (backed by Fannie & Freddie), tax breaks for home owners but not for renters, hi…

Do Fannie and Freddie underwrite mortgages in the UK?

Re: Job vacancies surge past one million in new record

#285

Post by onlyrealcuzzo » Tue, Sep 14, 2021, 4:57 PM UTC

pibechorro wrote: post #56

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…

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.

How can you be confident we will get there?

Central Banks can easily knock interest rates down a few points and take away all gains in labor wages (plus more).

Why would Central Bankers (who answers to no one) stop giving themselves (and other asset owners) more and more pie when it's so easy to take it?

What's the incentive to stop? The West is on a 20-year trend to lower interest rates. Japan's on a 30-year trend.

Have you stopped to consider how hard it is to maintain a life a leisure in a low-growth environment without slave labor? /s

Re: Job vacancies surge past one million in new record

#286

Post by dv_dt » Tue, Sep 14, 2021, 4:57 PM UTC

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.

It’s also a unwillingness to train or risk anything but a perfect fit resume. Imho it might take a little investment but employees you train into what you want are usually a win win for the employee and the business on multiple counts.

Re: Job vacancies surge past one million in new record

#287

Post by epicureanideal » Tue, Sep 14, 2021, 4:57 PM UTC

anonymousDan wrote: post #109

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 disagree. The value of the pound plummeted as a result of Brexit. So relative wages might increase in future, but there is no guarantee that it will make workers any wealthier overall. Of course you might argue you only care about relative wealth, but then you have to worry about inflation due to rising cost of imports etc. I think it's more complicated than the simplistic picture you paint above. For me the things…

Plummeted? Adjusted slightly you mean…

Re: Job vacancies surge past one million in new record

#288

Post by pyrale » Tue, Sep 14, 2021, 4:58 PM UTC

FredPret wrote: post #118

tclancy wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds a lot like if we just do what we have been doing for the last couple hundred years it will all work out. But we have a couple hundred years of evidence of who it works out for and who it does not.

What are you talking about? Standards of living have increased the most at the bottom of society. - Labourers used to work seven days a week (12 hour days), then six, now five times eight is standard, with some exceptions. - Workplace safety have gone from a laughable concept to the first priority. - 100% of Western populations can read and write. This used to be a rich-person thing - How many poor kids have you seen…

> Standards of living have increased the most at the bottom of society.

Ah yes, conflating 150 years of history like the 60's and the 2010's were comparable in a stable stream of progress.

Remember even further, when we were forced to dress in animal furs and sleep in grottos? How amazing progress we made since then... I wonder why the serfs are complaining.

Re: Job vacancies surge past one million in new record

#289

Post by GordonS » Tue, Sep 14, 2021, 4:59 PM UTC

ndr wrote: post #11

"We advertised locally for 70 fruit-pickers and we had nine applications. On follow-up, only one was still available... in terms of recruiting locally, we failed completely," says Ali Capper, the owner of Stocks Farm in Suckley and chair of British Apples and Pears. At her orchard, harvest has just started. It must be done quickly and requires many pairs of hands. Ali had to turn to specialist recruitment firms and h…

I noticed the article never mentioned anything about pay and conditions for the advertised fruit picking jobs.

My prediction is that the government will make it easier for people to come to Britain for seasonal work. And then they'll make it easier for companies that claim they have "labour shortages", regardless of whether those companies actually tried meaningfully improving pay and conditions first.

Re: Job vacancies surge past one million in new record

#290

Post by chooseaname » Tue, Sep 14, 2021, 5:00 PM UTC

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…

> Housing is anything from a third to 50%

This is way too much. We just finished paying off our current house and our payment was around 14% of our net. We are high earners in a low CoL area so the house is really nice, but wasn't very expensive. I can't imagine being "house poor" after this.