99% of the time, I agree with you. But hypothetically, what would you call a situation where 20 companies would all be willing to pay salaries of $1 million/year to fill 10,000 open positions that required 5 years of training, but there are only 5,000 people who have that training? Would that be a "labor shortage"? It seems your solution works for companies willing to pay more to poach from other companies, but might…
> At some point, the salaries are indeed "high enough" but the skills still just aren't available to hire. But the incentive to develop the skills should sort this out, no?
In a perfectly efficient market, yes, but the market is notably not perfectly efficient. People make decisions about which career(s) to pursue or not pursue based on a huge variety of factors that stretch far beyond money.
There is absolutely no scenario in which you could convince me to train as e.g. an underwater welder, no matter how much cash you’re offering.
Seems like a good time to mention my old stand-by: There is no such thing as a labor shortage. There may very well be a shortage of qualified people willing to work under the conditions and for the compensation a company would like to provide. When stated that way you can see that there are several levers to pull, the most obvious being compensation.
99% of the time, I agree with you. But hypothetically, what would you call a situation where 20 companies would all be willing to pay salaries of $1 million/year to fill 10,000 open positions that required 5 years of training, but there are only 5,000 people who have that training? Would that be a "labor shortage"? It seems your solution works for companies willing to pay more to poach from other companies, but might…
The good news is we will likely get to see this in the software industry over the next many years.
Now imagine if you could make affordable sedans again, Jim. How does Gen Z afford a $50,000 electric SUV?
Unfortunately sedans and hatches are just about completely out for the domestic automakers- they sold poorly and were discontinued. The reasons behind poor sales are surely multi-faceted, but, for Ford in particular, they didn't help matters with quality issues like the "Powershift" dual-clutch automatic, which was flawed from the beginning and left a lot of Focus and Fiesta owners (both now discontinued in the US) w…
domestic sedans and hatches sold poorly and were discontinued.
Quality might have some small piece there, but there's other factors like:
- large trucks & SUVs are more profitable
- there's import restrictions on that category so it has a certain insulation from foreign competition
- US car companies are really just banks that happen to make cars -- "cash is king" was for our dads, now if you want a deal it's "take our corporate 20-year financing on an asset that will be fully depreciated in 8"
It is ridiculous to have American workers and Chinese workers doing essentially the same job, at the same quality, while their salaries differ enormously. American (and European) automotive companies will never be able to compete long term in any market which allows competition between Chinese and American (or European) cars. The labor of an auto worker is not worth that much and only by banning competition can Ameri…
Maybe China is the one that will find their labor compensation unsustainable?
Seems like a good time to mention my old stand-by: There is no such thing as a labor shortage. There may very well be a shortage of qualified people willing to work under the conditions and for the compensation a company would like to provide. When stated that way you can see that there are several levers to pull, the most obvious being compensation.
99% of the time, I agree with you. But hypothetically, what would you call a situation where 20 companies would all be willing to pay salaries of $1 million/year to fill 10,000 open positions that required 5 years of training, but there are only 5,000 people who have that training? Would that be a "labor shortage"? It seems your solution works for companies willing to pay more to poach from other companies, but might…
What you have mentioned is hypothetically true, but not usually relevant. Folks bring up "there is a labor shortage" for vast swaths of lower skill jobs, famously so: e.g. waitstaff, dishwashers, drywallers. These are jobs that huuuuuge portions of your population can do, if you give them the minimal training the job requires. So it is with many of the entry-level factory jobs discussed in the parent article. Folks in hiring positions for entry level factory jobs, or waitstaff, or dishwashers, those folks say things like "there's a labor shortage" when what they typically should be saying is "wages for the positions I am hiring for need to increase to match market rates."
99% of the time, I agree with you. But hypothetically, what would you call a situation where 20 companies would all be willing to pay salaries of $1 million/year to fill 10,000 open positions that required 5 years of training, but there are only 5,000 people who have that training? Would that be a "labor shortage"? It seems your solution works for companies willing to pay more to poach from other companies, but might…
> At some point, the salaries are indeed "high enough" but the skills still just aren't available to hire. But the incentive to develop the skills should sort this out, no?
Sure. But the GP is arguing that "there's no such thing as a labor shortage". I'm trying to determine what their definition of "labor shortage" is. Perhaps the GP believes that the term itself is meaningless, or perhaps they believe that no current real-world situation fits their definition.
So I created a hypothetical situation to illustrate what, to me, is a clear example of a temporary labor shortage. As you say, "the incentive to develop the skills should sort this out" ... and I'd say that's true, but until it gets sorted out, the situation can reasonably be described as a "labor shortage".
99% of the time, I agree with you. But hypothetically, what would you call a situation where 20 companies would all be willing to pay salaries of $1 million/year to fill 10,000 open positions that required 5 years of training, but there are only 5,000 people who have that training? Would that be a "labor shortage"? It seems your solution works for companies willing to pay more to poach from other companies, but might…
> At some point, the salaries are indeed "high enough" but the skills still just aren't available to hire. But the incentive to develop the skills should sort this out, no?
Yes, but the point is this takes time and stability guarantees. A true labor shortage can actually persist for many years.
Because people have to a) take the years to learn/develop those skills, and will only do so if b) they know those jobs are still going to be around for a while after that.
> Ford’s signature element in its new labor agreement was to get full wages to entry-level workers. But beyond that, he began looking at the labor shortage in trade work, starting with technicians.“Old-timers in our plants were saying, ‘It’s no longer a career, Mr. Farley. Working at Ford is no longer a career.’” He warned that millions of well-paid jobs are going unfilled because they require specialized skills. Put…
Pretty crazy improvement, seems like he's putting his money where his mouth is
Once those UAW workers achieve seniority they might be able to afford a very small house.
Seems like a good time to mention my old stand-by: There is no such thing as a labor shortage. There may very well be a shortage of qualified people willing to work under the conditions and for the compensation a company would like to provide. When stated that way you can see that there are several levers to pull, the most obvious being compensation.
99% of the time, I agree with you. But hypothetically, what would you call a situation where 20 companies would all be willing to pay salaries of $1 million/year to fill 10,000 open positions that required 5 years of training, but there are only 5,000 people who have that training? Would that be a "labor shortage"? It seems your solution works for companies willing to pay more to poach from other companies, but might…
Hypothetically, we could look at reality instead of looking at hypotheticals.
Seems like a good time to mention my old stand-by: There is no such thing as a labor shortage. There may very well be a shortage of qualified people willing to work under the conditions and for the compensation a company would like to provide. When stated that way you can see that there are several levers to pull, the most obvious being compensation.
> There is no such thing as a labor shortage. Of course there isn't. This is out of touch employers saying "Nobody wants to work for $1 an hour, so must mean there's a shortage." It's wild, that same in the service industry, restaraunts for example paying 1/2 dollars an hour and then putting the onus onto the customers to pay in tips. https://www.businessinsider.com/what-its-like-to-work-at-waf... It's ridiculous, Ge…
It is not even that. Plenty dont have a choice and participate in rackets. It is not like they were swimming in money and riches
But some places are worst then rackets the town nearby.