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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?

#421

Post by rossmohax »

release-object wrote: post #16
bserge wrote: post #3

I literally can't find a job in any kind of engineering. Applied for dozens of cleaning and production positions and couldn't get a job. You know what the media has become? A cesspool of bullshit unworthy of any trust. No wonder so many people mistrust actual experts, it's hard to even tell who they are.

Really sorry to hear that. My personal experience, of hiring software engineers in London, aligns with this article. We have seen a drop in supply this year. If you are looking in the South of England I would recommend finding a specialist tech recruitment agency.

With IR35 reform in full swing, I'd expect quality supply to incease as contractors start to seek full time positions.

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

#422

Post by adaml_623 »

e12e wrote: post #408
Dylan16807 wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of my dream labor reforms would be something like classifying any shifts that aren't scheduled at least two weeks in advance as overtime. It won't guarantee a steady number of hours but it will definitely help smooth things out and allow better planning.

That is essentially the law in Norway - the work schedule need to be posted minimum two weeks in advance - and extra shifts should generally be considered overtime. Unfortunately it's probably one of the regulations that are most frequently broken. Norwegian link: https://www.arbeidstilsynet.no/regelverk/lover/arbeidsmiljol...

So just to be clear if a company is not paying an employee the money they should be it is called wage theft.

So if Norway were having the same issues with employee shortages you could add the reason that maybe the employees are tired of having the company steal from them.

And maybe that's a factor common to other countries

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

#423

Post by bserge »

benou wrote: post #8
bserge wrote: post #3

I literally can't find a job in any kind of engineering. Applied for dozens of cleaning and production positions and couldn't get a job. You know what the media has become? A cesspool of bullshit unworthy of any trust. No wonder so many people mistrust actual experts, it's hard to even tell who they are.

I'm sorry to hear that but keep in mind the job market is very different from one location to another and from one sector to another. The BBC is talking about truck drivers in the UK and it is hardly a surprise: UK used to rely heavily on eastern Europe workers in that area, and they vote (Brexit) to prevent exactly that. They got what they asked for. If anything, we can complain that the BBC article title is too gen…

Yeah, I get it, I just keep reading these "there are no workers" articles and scratching my head. Ironically, I work in delivery now heh

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

#424

Post by adaml_623 »

f0xytr0xy wrote: post #384
dazc wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the UK employers currently moaning about a lack of workers had a policy of only employing people for 16 hours a week since this was the optimum hours a person could work whilst still receiving tax credits and housing benefit. Around 10 years ago I was in the labour market willing to do pretty much anything and these kinds of jobs accounted for most of what was available. Since I wasn't 'on benefits' I was at t…

In some states in the USA a lot of service jobs will cap your work at 31 hours, to get around their own corporate policies of giving benefits to anyone who worked 32 hours or more.

And any company that has done this might see it coming back and biting them even though they would never admit that they brought it on themselves

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

#425

Post by spaetzleesser »

ahartmetz wrote: post #13
oblio wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It will stop, at some point. IT is still growing but we're reaching the point where IT workers are a decent percentage of all workers, so they are starting to become representative of the population at large. Larger and larger cohorts of IT workers are aging and recent graduates will stop being enough even for the top companies. Also, salaries are lower in general but I get the impression Europe is better in this reg…

Yes, being older and working in software doesn't seem to be big problem in Europe. A previous (European) employer of mine with a very geopraphically distributed workforce even employed some older Americans.

It’s not that much of a problem either in the US outside of Silicon Valley and venture backed companies. Plenty of older guys in the not so cool industries.

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

#426

Post by bserge »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #4
bserge wrote: post #3

I literally can't find a job in any kind of engineering. Applied for dozens of cleaning and production positions and couldn't get a job. You know what the media has become? A cesspool of bullshit unworthy of any trust. No wonder so many people mistrust actual experts, it's hard to even tell who they are.

Hey, try being over 50. I just gave up, and retired early. Best decision I ever made. I'm working for free, with NPOs, and it's been a joy. The worst part, for me, has been the naked contempt and disrespect. I don't expect to be worshipped, but raw insults are beyond the pale. It's -literally- like a hazing ritual. With all the news about "frat boy culture," I think I see where it comes from. I don't think it's just…

I've observed this and it's just appalling.

It doesn't matter that 50 year olds can do the same work just as well, no, management seems to want freaking Energizer bunnies on their team.

Nevermind that they don't actually get more work done (and more importantly, better), it's just about being "passionate" about doing the same shit every day. Wtf.

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

#427

Post by adaml_623 »

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…

I think you raise a very good point. It's only logical to minimise long term risk

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

#428

Post by spaetzleesser »

stripline wrote: post #171
info781 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you offer an American a choice between more money or more vacation, they will take the money, for the most part.

That's because American's can't afford vacations without more money.

A lot of Americans I know seem to associate vacation with super luxury trips. They don’t seem to understand the concept of just taking off and relax but instead want to do trips that go to five star hotels and spend 100 dollars on dinners. No wonder they can’t afford vacation. When I compare myself to colleagues I can often do a one week trip for what they are spending per day.

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

#429

Post by lostlogin »

robocat wrote: post #413
DrewRWx wrote: post #379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And the appendix became seemingly useless.

1. If the appendix was both useless and deadly (before procreation), there would be a strong evolutionary pressure against it, so it likely is unobviously useful 2. Western diet possibly causes problems with the appendix - "Appendicitis is uncommon in rural Africa and Asia" 3. Anatomy involved with immune function or microbiome is hard to understand function. From links: The peak incidence occurs in the 15- to 24-yea…

Slightly off topic, the surgeon who had to remove his own appendix.

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32481442

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

#430

Post by mylons »

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’m willing to bet a lot of money school is not in session this fall in many parts of the USA.
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