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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?

#521

Post by sativallday »

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…

Only display the last 10 years of work history on your resume.

Apply for Senior/Staff+ positions.

Do not display your graduation date.

Do not display age.

Dye your hair or shave your head, etc.

Get more hip eye glasses and just wear black t-shirts.

Fake a more hip accent/voice during your interview.

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

#522

Post by Chyzwar »

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…

In the context of this article, the main reason is Brexit. In fact UK, government was helping a lot with Covid situation including paying to furloughed employees.

UK no longer can attract workers from EU. Eastern Europeans are moving back because after the Brexit vote they no longer feel welcomed and theirs home countries improved a lot in last 10 years. UK created perfect storm in last 10 years:

  1. Add tuition fees for higher education.  
  2. Build negative perception on immigration.
  3. Reduce council housing, keep house prices artificially high.
  4. Vote Brexit and fail in process, destroying currency value. 
  5. Fail to provide opportunities for upward mobility for most immigrants.

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

#523

Post by School-Cotton »

pb7 wrote: post #512
fallenspec wrote: post #462

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact was that I wasn't right. They were doing decent work and their beliefs didn't affect their work. A lot of non-believers (in the past I would have include myself in that list) seem to believe because they don't believe in a higher being that they are somehow more "rational". Nothing could be further from the truth. It took me a long time to realise that I wasn't being more rational than the faithful and I dog…

Believing in something that lacks any evidence is textbook irrationality. It is also at odds with science.

Indeed, but I think that was the point. It's entirely possible to hold irrational beliefs in one area without them affecting your work in another area.

Whether you think it's at odds or not, in practice many great scientists have been devoutly religious. For example Newton.

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

#524

Post by bumby »

jessaustin wrote: post #518
bumby wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know the commenter you’re referring to may come across as venting but I’ll try to be generous to their take: In my laymans understanding of game theory, one of the things that becomes apparent is that the best outcomes come from cooperation but only when freeloading can be kept below some threshold. Once freeloading reaches some tipping point, the system destabilizes and collapses.

Once freeloading reaches some tipping point, the system destabilizes and collapses. We're well past the tipping point of freeloading: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27432326

Can you elaborate how you reached that conclusion?

It’s obvious there is anecdotal evidence of freeloading across all classes (as has always been). What’s not clear to me is what constitutes a real tipping point where we can claim a destabilizing effect that makes the system unsustainable

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

#525

Post by JohnClark1337 »

mgkimsal wrote: post #387
throwawayboise wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IDK about everywhere but I'm not seeing anyone still paying minimum wage. McDonalds is paying $12.50/hr for day, $15/hr for night work. That's $30k/year FTE for a job that you can learn in a week and that requires zero prior experience or education. And they are still begging.

there's still an issue of consistency. if you can get "regular" hours... say, 6am-11am, M-T-W-Th, for example, you can schedule your life around it. 30 years ago, I managed a Burger King, and even then, they had us send people home if it got really slow, or.. call up people and cancel their shift an hour before, because of bad weather, etc. Someone's already arranged childcare or transportation for their shift, then…

Yup. I worked for a company that was contracted out to spectrum for cable installs. You never knew what you were doing the next day, you were essentially on-call 24/7 (I told them upfront I wasn't working on Sundays and even then they would try to throw me jobs, but I left my work phone off). I couldn't plan for anything or have any kind of life outside of work. That company went under and I'm much better off now.

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

#526

Post by jessaustin »

commandlinefan wrote: post #165
xwdv wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don’t care, I’m sick and tired of kicking this can down the road. Let the bodies pile up in the streets, in the end they’ll beg us to save them.

They won’t beg. They’ll vote.

Some might hope they will limit their actions to voting.

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

#527

Post by jason0597 »

fallenspec wrote: post #460
TheAdamAndChe wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

When I got out of university I was doing a web dev job that paid me less than a full time super market job in the UK. However after a year of working there I quickly moved on and got a big pay rise in doing so.

I think this is something that every university graduate needs to understand so as to not be bitter.

Your first years of your career will be shit, there is just no beating around the bush around this fact. You will be treated like a kid, you will be paid like shit (borderline minimum wage a lot of the times), and you will have to work ridiculous amounts to be seen on the same level as other people in the field.

Once you break the 1-2 year experience mark then you can begin to expect entry level benefits for entry level positions. After you break the 5 year experience mark, then really the world is your oyster. 10 years or more and you can demand blank checks.

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

#528

Post by jason0597 »

goodpoint wrote: post #48
phenkdo wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It stretches credulity that you have that many skills and still unemployed. Employers are hiring just about anyone in tech these days. Where are you located? You can kvetch about the media all you want, but the job market is the best it has ever been, and unlikely to get any better. Sorry to be harsh here, but if you can't find a job in this market, you ought to reconsider your professional choices.

In may English-speaking countries ageism is the norm. You don't get any offer after 45 unless you are famous.

Only in tech

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

#529

Post by jason0597 »

BlissWaves wrote: post #28
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As noted elsewhere, it seems Europe may be a better place for older folks. I know that some nations have some fairly strict laws about discrimination. In the US, we have the same laws. It's flat-out illegal to discriminate by age, as it is by race, religion, gender, pregnancy, marital status, etc. Out of that list, if a company tries anything other than age discrimination, they are pilloried and investigated. However…

I don't see any evidence Europe being better for older folks. On top of that salaries are really really low in Europe. Unless you are in the US and are going to graduate university at 22-23 best to forget about a career in STEM. Not worth the effort and time. Milk has a longer expiry date than a STEM worker who's perceived over the hill late-twenties or early thirties.

> salaries are really really low in Europe.

...by American standards. Ask anyone in Northern Europe if they are happy with their salary and they will almost say yes. It's America that is distorting everything with their ridiculous salaries.

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

#530

Post by imbnwa »

rantwasp wrote: post #514
imbnwa wrote: post #475

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't say this kinda stuff on HN since too many people associate their job with creating said progress. Michel Foucault spent his whole life making this exact argument - things simply change.

you can say it. they just did

For context, grandparent was in the grey at the time of my posting and I was responding with my dismay that such a perspective was striking whoever as not only controversial but also not worthy of a proper reply given that ostensible dismay.
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