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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

#311

Post by GordonS »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #218
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…

Dig up the fruit trees and sell the land for housing?

They'd never get planning permission, because "but the green belt!".

It really boggles the mind how for decades we haven't allowed enough new housing to be built.

Re: Job vacancies surge past one million in new record

#312

Post by GordonS »

throwthere wrote: post #80

I guess on the one hand businesses aren't paying enough. But I mean, business owners aren't all just evil conspiring anti-labor types. They're in it for the profits and would pay more if they could eek out a reasonable return on investment. On a deeper level, you have all these zombie-businesses now supported by government handouts and terribly low interest rates. The zombie businesses soak up labor for relatively le…

The government should level the playing field and increase minimum wage, IMO.

Re: Job vacancies surge past one million in new record

#313

Post by nostrademons »

tomp wrote: post #39
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 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…

Immigration doesn't reduce the wages of those making the argument, who are usually employed in professional/managerial classes that benefit when there are lots of employees at the bottom.

This also illustrates the economically rational response to immigration, though. Be a turncoat. Move up the value chain into management (or other industries that benefit from a larger population of workers), so that you too can benefit.

Re: Job vacancies surge past one million in new record

#314

Post by carom »

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #293
mateo411 wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do Fannie and Freddie underwrite mortgages in the UK?

No - but the problem is the same. You have 5% downpayments (instead of 3.5% in the US), and mortgage-backed securities. From my understanding, it appears there is NOT a government agency backing them, though. I don't think the 3.5% downpayment market be very big in the US if not for Fannie and Freddie (it basically doesn't exist outside of conventional loans Fannie & Freddie will buy). I don't know how big the market…

I don't think the 3.5% down payment market is very big.

>Between July 2019 and June 2020, the average down payment for a home amounted to 12% of the home value. In the first three months of 2021, 48% of home buyers made a down payment of at least 20% of the home value. 21% of home buyers in that same period made an all-cash purchase. [1]

It sounds like 69% are >= 20% down or all cash. I don't think enabling lower income access to housing is hurting our housing market at all.

1. https://www.fool.com/the-ascent/research/average-down-paymen...

Re: Job vacancies surge past one million in new record

#315

Post by conductr »

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #297
conductr wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've come to believe flipping is a major problem, at least in my locale. A $300K house gets $50K of "improvements", then the investors needs $100K profit after commissions are covered and so we're in the $500K range for the next buyer and very little value was added. It's often the proverbial "lipstick on a pig" house after the renovations. There's little to no regulations on flippers. They can be DIY people that hav…

How is that the flipper's fault? Ultimately, a regular home owner is buying the finished product. If they are willing to pay more for better housing, what's the problem? Of course, they're not willing to "pay more". Interest rates get lowered, and they can keep the same payment and buy more house. The reason flipping is attractive is because Central Banks push up house prices - which flippers capture on leverage. If…

I don’t think it’s anyone’s “fault” but it does contribute to the affordability issue. It’s basically introducing a middle man into the industry that needs his own markup. It’s capitalism in it’s purest form. But also a form that has detrimental consequences to average people wanting to purchase a home. And, that’s where I start to believe it’s a form of malicious compliance to accept it as status quo.

However, the quality of work topic is a major issue and extremely common. It raises the cost of ownership going forward.

Re: Job vacancies surge past one million in new record

#316

Post by UK-Al05 »

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…

When a employee moves jobs, hopefully there moving to a higher productivity job though.

And the low productivity jobs go unfulfilled.

Re: Job vacancies surge past one million in new record

#317

Post by GordonS »

adventured wrote: post #148
ahtihn wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

McDonald's has been paying $20/hour in Switzerland for a long time. Given how rich the US is as a country, I always found it surprising that minimum wage there is so incredibly low.

Keep in mind the minimum wage also varies by state. The state minimum wages overrule the federal minimum wage when eclipsed (so if the federal rate is $7.25, and Maryland state is $12, then you have to pay $12 as a business in Maryland). It's probably ideal that the minimum wage is state based, with a lower baseline provided by the federal, given the extreme variance in prosperity and income levels between the states…

I heard recently that there is a separate, lower minimum wage for people with disabilities, which I was pretty shocked and disgusted to learn.

I also heard that there is a separate minimum wage for tipped jobs - something in the region of a paltry $2.50/h, if I recall correctly?

Re: Job vacancies surge past one million in new record

#318

Post by pyrale »

FredPret wrote: post #298
pyrale wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Oh, I’m sorry that the eye-watering amount of progress isn’t good enough for you, because sometimes it’s faster than other times. Only if every single minute is better than the last by the exact same amount is capitalism working!

Are you the fifth Yorkshireman ? Too bad you left the band before it became famous.

Re: Job vacancies surge past one million in new record

#319

Post by GordonS »

dbetteridge wrote: post #210

Related discussion happening on reddit about this, personally i've already noticed an uptick in wages for Software Engineers in London and an increase in remote roles. https://www.reddit.com/r/unitedkingdom/comments/pivruo/the_1...

I've noticed a big uptick in availability of senior roles (e.g. Architect) recently, but also a big uptick in salary - I've had several recruiters contacting me over the past month for senior roles in the range of £80-95k, and every one was OK with remote work too. Never seen anything like it.

Re: Job vacancies surge past one million in new record

#320

Post by GordonS »

retube wrote: post #40
have_faith wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't looked at the data but I imagine foreign tourists mostly go to London and a few venture out to nearby hotspots. People within the UK seem to be branching out to every half-beauty spot we have in every corner of the Isles.

Clearly you have never been to Oxford, Bath, York, Edinburgh, Lake District, Cornwall etc etc which are teeming with visitors from the US, China, Japan and many other countries during the summer...

Don't forget the Scottish Highlands and Islands!

We did the North Coast 500 this year (we live in NE Scotland, but obviously aren't going to get anywhere further afield for now!), and it was really difficult to find accommodation because so much was fully booked.

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