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Employee shortages: Where have all the workers gone?

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Employee shortages: Where have all the workers gone?

#361

Post by treis »

RustyConsul wrote: post #321
okareaman wrote: post #178

When these articles are about the US they never mention the brutal policies of ICE (Immigration Control and Enforcement) which discourage seasonal workers from Mexico, who are already hesitant due to the pandemic. I mean, if you're going to deport Mexicans who served honorably in the military it's a big FU to Mexicans. I wouldn't come here either.

When i was in the Air Force, people got citizenship for serving... How are they being deported?

Generally speaking they commit serious crimes before they complete the naturalization process.

Re: Employee shortages: Where have all the workers gone?

#362

Post by bumby »

nradov wrote: post #302
bumby wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or it traps them in a cycle of poverty where there’s never enough time or money to make the skills necessary to advance. When I worked as a dishwasher or landscaper, I wasn’t building valuable skills to progress my career. Maybe your point holds for some careers, but I’m doubtful it’s relevant to most low-wage (especially non-skilled) labor. I think the point is also diluted when considering there’s almost always mor…

For some people the skills they need to develop first are really basic, like showing up on time and sober, and following basic instructions. We're talking about the lowest tier of the workforce here where the concept of a "career" is kind of alien. Many of them have never been formally employed before and need an opportunity to learn really simple things that most of us take for granted. I think most HN users are dis…

This comes across as one of those talking points where an employer exploits a worker under the guise they are almost doing them a favor. (See: NCAA athletes or unpaid interns).

I think this take is a caricature of low wage employees. It’s kinda similar to the talk I occasionally hear about the enlisted ranks in the military. “That’s just for losers and dropouts” or to that effect.

My experience is that those low wage jobs can just as easily be filled with every segment of the spectrum from incredibly smart and competent to those who struggle with basic life tasks. The commonality seems to be they were all disadvantaged in some way. Maybe it was a strained family life or disability or sick relative but the necessity of them taking the job couldn’t be boiled down to something as simple as they couldn’t get their shit together

Re: Employee shortages: Where have all the workers gone?

#363

Post by 6gvONxR4sf7o »

vladvasiliu wrote: post #215
effingwewt wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here in California every restaurant/fast food place is hiring. They all list the things they offer (PTO, 401k-no matching what you put in, and that's it). What they don't put on the signs is what they pay (minimum wage every single time), or the hours (always part time, always weekends, mostly if not always nights. But obviously it's just that no one wants to work, it couldn't possibly be because no one wants part-ti…

> I keep hearing owners whine and bemoan their lack of workers. What I have never heard of, not once, is an owner making less profit to pay their workers better to get the loyalty and hard work they want but refuse to pay for. I agree with you, but do those places actually make a lot of profit? Over here they seem to be pretty fragile operations, so I don't think there's that much they can shave off their profit and…

It tells me we need a higher minimum wage. No individual can raise prices without losing competitiveness, but clearly higher prices would fix some of these serious issues. A higher minimum wage would prevent the “they’ll just go next door” issue.

Re: Employee shortages: Where have all the workers gone?

#364

Post by nate_meurer »

TheAdamAndChe wrote: post #50
BossingAround wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Might also be an attitude problem on your side. If you're serious about getting a job, consider coaching. This "nobody is hiring, everything sucks, and I'm the victim here" narrative isn't really helping you. Also, bringing up stuff like "lies about the cough" (which I assume is OP talking about COVID) absolutely undermines your credibility as an individual capable of critical thinking, which is necessary for softwar…

You've got cause and effect flipped here. It's not the bitterness that causes one to be not hired, its not being hired that causes bitterness. I experienced the same when trying to get in the field. The narrative at the time was that there was a labor shortage, and they were trying to push for more H1B visa holders. Yet there were very very few entry level positions, nobody was training, and the company that hired me…

> It's not the bitterness that causes one to be not hired, its not being hired that causes bitterness.

That's a pretty absolutist statement. Is it not possible that both are sometimes present, and lead to a downward spiral of poor attitude and unemployablility?

Re: Employee shortages: Where have all the workers gone?

#365

Post by willyt »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #146
m0llusk wrote: post #88

It is strange that the top known factors for this are not even mentioned in this or other similar news stories. First, closing of schools caused large numbers of women to leave the workforce in order to care for children. Until schools are fully open and day care is available those women will probably not be going back to work. Second, all markets are cultivated things. Employers in the most troubled sectors have rec…

> All of this stuff about workers disappearing and people reconsidering their lives is pretty much a sideshow of projected narrative that is detached from what is really going on. Well said. We’ve been bombarded with news articles and thought pieces about how COVID has forever changed the workforce, how people are refusing to work jobs they don’t like, how people are quitting en masse because their employers won’t al…

I walked down through the financial district of London on a Tuesday morning recently and I did not see one single office worker sat at a desk in any office I passed. Just empty buildings with lights on and bored receptionists sat at front desks.

Re: Employee shortages: Where have all the workers gone?

#366

Post by ipaddr »

sokoloff wrote: post #183
ipaddr wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Minimum wage limits is one of the best tools we have to act as a safety net. What would you replace it with 1 dollar an hour workers with a bigger food stamp budget? If you can't afford to pay someone the minimum prices you can't afford your business. A minimum wage creates a floor. Allowing low wages means pushing the burden to everyone else not that business.. raise your prices or move to a lower cost country.

Our local pizza places have raised prices dramatically in the last 6 months (16” pizza went from ~$10 to ~$15). Based on observation during the far fewer times I visit them, they appear dramatically less busy than they used to be. It’s not clear that “just raise your prices and pay workers more” is going to work out for them.

Covid has shifted demand. Covid in some areas means limited seating and increased prep costs. Pizza is more popular in the winter. 10 to 15 sounds like a Covid related increase. This is the summer of the gauge where everyone is making back the profits they lost.

If think it's because minimum wage workers are making $50.00 more a week then this would only apply if the shop was selling less than 10 pizzas a day and had about 10 employees which sounds overstaffed and in an area with no demand.

A pizza shop with 1 - 3 employees working making 80 pizzas a day would only need to raise prices by pennies.

Re: Employee shortages: Where have all the workers gone?

#367

Post by antoniuschan99 »

rantwasp wrote: post #289
kktkti9 wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Turns out a “services based” economy is a euphemism for austerity based economy. Adam Smith claimed that “…landlords' role in the economic process is passive. Their ability to reap a revenue solely from ownership of land tends to make them indolent and inept, and so they tend to be unable to even look after their own economic interests". Look at dollar rich rent seekers destabilizing their value store. Dead guys alre…

> Humans haven’t literally evolved that much in 200 years. You’re being generous. I would say we haven’t evolved in thousands of years. I mean sure, the tech is better but we’re the same self absorbed, careless bipeds we’ve always been.

I took a course on Plato’s republic back in school. Our class conclusion was that nothing has changed in the last 2000 years in terms of society/issues since that book was written!

Re: Employee shortages: Where have all the workers gone?

#368

Post by okareaman »

treis wrote: post #361
RustyConsul wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When i was in the Air Force, people got citizenship for serving... How are they being deported?

Generally speaking they commit serious crimes before they complete the naturalization process.

> Under the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigration Responsibility Act, “aggravated felonies” are a basis for automatic deportation. Struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder and substance abuse put veterans at greater risk of incarceration than the general population. In 2017, nearly 28% of minority veterans – that’s 1,315,989 people – reported a service-connected disability, principally PTSD.

I worked with citizen veterans who ended up in jail for crimes committed while distressed from PTSD. The VA treats these veterans. It's inhuman to deport them imho

https://theconversation.com/deported-veterans-stranded-far-f...

Re: Employee shortages: Where have all the workers gone?

#369

Post by [deleted] »

WalterBright wrote: post #323
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> All of this stuff about workers disappearing and people reconsidering their lives is pretty much a sideshow of projected narrative that is detached from what is really going on. Well said. We’ve been bombarded with news articles and thought pieces about how COVID has forever changed the workforce, how people are refusing to work jobs they don’t like, how people are quitting en masse because their employers won’t al…

> companies are abandoning office spaces in favor of full remote for months now On the other hand, traffic during rush hour seems to have returned to as bad as it ever was.

[deleted]

Re: Employee shortages: Where have all the workers gone?

#370

Post by antoniuschan99 »

kktkti9 wrote: post #300
rantwasp wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Humans haven’t literally evolved that much in 200 years. You’re being generous. I would say we haven’t evolved in thousands of years. I mean sure, the tech is better but we’re the same self absorbed, careless bipeds we’ve always been.

I still believe our social evolution is possible. We have to talk about those things and take a break on economics. We’ve seen the value of modern technology. There’s no need to continue to obsessively speculate about the advantages they provide to daily life. Having beers with a grey haired VC yesterday, I couldn’t help but think this guy really just wants to feel relevant. These guys are the real energy vampire; IM…

I just watched the documentary on John Delorean on Netlfix. It’s very interesting and reminds me of this. Check it out if you have a chance!
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