I don’t think shortage means what they think it means. Just because you can’t find people at the price and working conditions you’re willing to offer doesn’t mean there’s a shortage. It might just mean that you’re cheap.
Well there can be a genuine shortage of people able to do a job, but that’s likely companies fault for not investing in training people to do the job in the first place.
If there aren’t enough humans to do work it’s a shortage. In fact every year more people move into retirement than young people enter the workforce. Europe is aging fast, US not that fast. Even China faces the demografic change: Average age of warehouse workers in China is 45 years.
There’s plenty of people to do work. People don’t want to do your work, if the job sucks and the pay matches. Shitty job? Pay a high wage. We don’t have a shortage of sanitation workers because those guys are paid like kings. We DO have a shortage of Burger King employees because not one person in the world wants to deal with that bullshit for less than $10 an hour. People have shown time and time again that they’re willing to work the most soul crushing bullshit jobs in existence if they’re paid well enough to make it worth their time. But no one wants to pay a wage that an employee can survive on, so “nobody wants to work”. No, just nobody wants to work for you.
In addition to that, the reason the population is declining is because the younger generation can’t afford to have kids because nobody wants to pay a livable wage. I can barely support myself and my partner with both of us working and living with another couple as roommates, and we all have pretty good jobs that pay well over minimum wage. If any one of the four of us had a child we would all four enter poverty. This is extremely common, and we’re better off (if only moderately) than most people in a similar situation.
The minimum wage was last raised 14 years ago where it was taken to $7.25 an hour, which already didn’t keep up with the cost of living at the time but since then inflation has continued to grow unchecked and many employers still don’t want to pay out any higher than they are forced to by law.
I bet this will come very soon. Still employers are resistant to recognize the changed landscape. Who isn’t willing to offer a decent pay, won’t get employees. All shitty jobs will fade away. Only needed jobs will stay. With better pay. And everything gets more expensive.
Food delivery? Go, get it yourself. Or pay double the price of today. Supermarket? Only self checkout and a single cashier for the entire wallmart. Hospital? Telemedicine. Craftman for repair? You’d better learn it at YT Diy.
Here in Germany, every then and now are some news about an industry that can’t find enough people. Typically solution: Better working conditions, more flexible work times, and yes, better pay. However it’s everywhere.
If one stands up in a theatre to have a better view. Others will follow. And soon the view is as it was before.
There’s an accountant shortage too, which nobody talks about except us in the industry. It SHOULD be talked about though, because it’s another huge ticking time bomb. Financial statements audits performed by third party external accountants are designed to keep businesses honest and report factual numbers to investors. If they report false information then you get situations like Enron.
The problem is that we are overworked and underpaid like everyone else, the work has gotten vastly more complicated, regulatory compliance requirements are more burdensome than helpful, and tons of other issues. The results are that accounting enrollment has plummeted in schools, experienced professionals are being driven away from the industry in huge numbers, and more and more work is being sent overseas to be done extremely poorly. Corporations pay for their own audits and firm partners don’t want to lose a good client so crappy work gets pushed through no matter what.
I’m convinced the next major financial crisis will be from a bunch of huge household name companies getting caught with their pants down after fudging too many numbers. Just a matter of time.
Not just a shortage of people but also of quality. Look at the kinds of people they employ to teach children for instance. Serious problem with unethical ideological shills in that sphere.
Hmm mium yummy dogwhistle in my tummy
