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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?

#391

Post by wallacoloo »

eropple wrote: post #227
nuker wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> with unemployment benefits that are ending in a few months? I don't think so. Zeta variant is coming.

I hadn't heard of this, but the WHO seems to have indicated that this is no longer a variant of interest, let alone a variant of concern.

I believe it was a joke that, as emergency covid policies are extended a couple months as each new variant arises, and since there will be no end of variants for an endemic virus, that means the policies are actually permanent.

Or maybe I misunderstood.

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

#392

Post by vladvasiliu »

6gvONxR4sf7o wrote: post #363
vladvasiliu wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

> 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.

That seems right on the face of it. But then there's another issue: are you sure that the same number of people would continue eating out? Personally, I wouldn't bet on it.

I don't often eat out, mostly because it's not something I particularly enjoy, but also because I find it expensive for what it is. If the prices were to rise, I would eat out even less. I doubt I'm the only one thinking like this.

It's not clear to me that raising the minimum wage, and therefore the price of a restaurant meal, would not have less people go out. And by less people I mean a drop high enough such that the sum of money spent eating out would drop. Which would mean there would be less restaurants which could afford to stay in business.

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

#394

Post by vladvasiliu »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #389
6gvONxR4sf7o wrote: post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It tells me the upper deciles of wealth have been enjoying life on account of the bottom deciles drawing shitty hand. Less entertainment, vacations, eating out for many who previously enjoyed it will be the result.

You may be right.

But then, the question becomes: what will become of these employees? Less eating out means less restaurant staff. But said staff are people who need to eat. Will they all go on social security?

Maybe, maybe not. But it's a question we should ask, as a society.

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

#396

Post by fakedang »

zikduruqe wrote: post #386
mellavora wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both you and the parent seem to assume that 'evolution' means 'improvement' Humanity has clearly evolved, even in the last 200 years. Doesn't mean we are getting better

Our software has improved since the domestication of animals and crops. Our hardware has not changed and we are still on H. Sapiens 1.0.

Isn't it the other way? Hardware has changed as massive inventions have augmented our living standards. While at the same time, the software (IE human mentality) hasn't over 1000s of years, except for maybe hard disk usage (which is human knowledge).

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

#397

Post by davidgay »

nicoburns wrote: post #385
bobthepanda wrote: post #373

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keep in mind that 11 US states by themselves are larger than the entirety of the UK; Oregon, for example. I don't know if tax is assessed differently for say Scottish rather than English residents, and 32 US states are larger than England. This is going to be an issue if you move anywhere within a country with a federal system of government. For EU residents I imagine this also gets tricky for people who decide to WF…

Yeah, that was kind of my point. There's plenty of room to move within a US state without running into these issues. FWIW I believe the income tax system is the same across the UK. There might be different local taxes in Scotland, but your employer wouldn't need to concern themselves with those.

Scotland has a different legal system than England. It seems unlikely that wouldn’t have an effect on remote work?

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

#398

Post by Off »

cwbrandsma wrote: post #297
atrettel wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a mechanical engineer and I believe I can answer your first question. My take is that many engineering employers value the ability of entry-level employees to learn new things rather than what they know (their expertise). They want blank slates many times, to be honest, to be molded into the kind of employee that they need at the moment. As long as you have the most basic relevant engineering knowledge and a degr…

I've been hiring a lot lately (software development), two senior level positions (5 years or more experience) and one mid, three hires so far, two more roles to fill. These are all remote positions in a full remote team. Just be living the continental USA. For the senior level positions we had maybe 10 applicants. Only two met the requirements (5 years experience with Asp.Net and C#, and be able to legally work in th…

>For the mid level position (2-3 years, had done web development, we prefer .Net but will take Java, Rube, Node, etc) we had 150 applicants. 140 of them were fresh grad school grad with no work experience, all needed visa help. OK, threw those out, now down to 10, found 1 of those with decent web development. Hired.

Mind sharing the reasons why you refuse applicants who need visa help? I live a in third world country (It's been the worst, especially with Covid) and I'm 30 now and I'm planning to grind interviews to land a a job in tech in the US, so i was curious why is it so hard to get a work visa.

Thanks!

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

#399

Post by mynameishere »

cactus2093 wrote: post #112
calltrak wrote: post #7

I am an unemployed programmer. I am 50 years old. I have 15 years of C#, 15 years of sql server, two years of golang, two years of node.js, vue.js, svelte, css, html, postgress, rabbitmq, etc etc etc.... My skills list is about 10 times this short list I just threw up. They tell me there is a skills and labor shortage in tech. That's complete bullshit I am UNEMPLOYED for a year. I don't believe one dam word the gover…

I agree with the other commenters, you sound completely detached from reality and I would never even make it far enough to evaluate your skills before declining to work with you. The best thing you can do is probably to get some therapy. Yes, there are some legitimate scandals and lies in the media and government. Most other people are able to take this in stride and still live happy, productive lives. Standards of l…

You armchair psychiatrists work fast! Why would he need a therapist when he's got you telling him he's a lunatic based upon his venting on the internet?

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

#400

Post by jackson1442 »

infogulch wrote: post #381

The value exchanged by employment is more than just a paycheck, it's a regular paycheck. It's like an implicit insurance of future pay. Once the government and businesses labeled and straight dumped 'non-essential' workers, they send a message that the 'ensured future pay'-value of employment is empty and meaningless. (Don't @ me with an argument about how it's always been this way without acknowledging that recent d…

The position low wage workers are in extends beyond what they make, too. Most part-time hourly jobs, especially those that pay less than $15, have extremely unpredictable schedules and have to deal with aggressive and rude customers day in and day out, while being treated as “less than” by management.

Fortunately, when I worked for near-minimum wage, I was a lifeguard so I had the authority to tell off and kick out bad patrons. I still got treated like shit, with 10-12 hour workdays in 100+deg weather, inconsistent scheduling, and once even being told I had to stay after my shift when I had plans or lose my job (I called their bluff and decided to quit anyways).

I have a software job now and it’s better than food service, retail, and lifeguarding by a WIDE margin. I think a lot of people here take for granted the stability and consistency offered by their (typically) office jobs, as well as the significantly better physical and mental conditions.

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