How is it that we have 8 billion people on Earth, and yet it seems like almost all businesses and services are short-staffed?
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Businesses do not want to pay a living wage, they want to pay barely minimum wage… and people seeing the wealth inequality of the last 40 years of so called trickle down economics combined with climate emergency only results in billionaires continuing to fuck everyone over and more and more people saying “fuck that, we are sick of working two+ jobs to make ends meet”… Many are giving up any aspirations to move out from their parents places because it is simply unobtainable. I can’t blame them.
This is the currently polite part of end stage capitalism… The not so polite part may be an uprising like the French revolution.
Businesses do not want to pay a living wage, they want to pay barely minimum wage… and people seeing the wealth inequality of the last 40 years of so called trickle down economics combined with climate emergency only results in billionaires continuing to fuck everyone over and more and more people saying “fuck that, we are sick of working two+ jobs to make ends meet”… Many are giving up any aspirations to move out from their parents places because it is simply unobtainable. I can’t blame them.
This is the currently polite part of end stage capitalism… The not so polite part may be an uprising like the French revolution.
Lot of “anti-work” type of responses to this question so far. While “greed” and “corporate tyranny” contribute to the problem a little, that is not one of the big problems.
Step 1: People’s perspectives changed.
Covid was a shock to many people’s lives. For some it was simply a protracted period where their routine was drastically different; for others it was a highly traumatic time. Both of those led to a similar outcome: people reevaluated their lives, their choices, their values. After that, a large portion of working people changed what they wanted for an occupation. Some decided their labor was worth more, and now have a higher “take” price when accepting employment offers. Some decided to go to work in a different field. Some simply left the work force.
Step 2: Labor market friction
With all these changes in what people _want_, it is now harder to balance employment and needed labor across the entire economy. Need data entrists, but a bunch of people who used to do that job want to go into landscaping now. Landscapers are overrun with newbie employees but don’t have enough experienced managers, because all the shift managers want to go back to grad school and the procurement specialists all want to become union welders.
This is a silly example, but it should demonstrate how there can be ENOUGH workers, but still too much _friction_ in finding the RIGHT workers.
A more boring but realistic example:
Visuallize a services supply chain. Customer reps, managers, IT department, janitors, everything is set up to work as one giant machine. Now suddenly a huge portion of your workforce quits, silent quits, or won’t return to work until you pay them enough to afford a decent, healthy life. How do you afford to increase benefits? Can you take a short-term profit loss? Can you cut costs elsewhere? Will your service-receiving clients tolerate a price hike? Maybe you try completely re-vamping your business model or even try doing the same work with less people?
You can imagine how a wide spread change in perspective leads to rippling effects on employment markets.
People running business don’t give a rats ass about staffing as much as they do about growth. “Did we top last years earnings? If not who’s to blame? Certainly not me!”
To be employed, a person has to be:
1) Physically/mentally capable of performing the duties
2) Have the necessary training/skillset/knowledge
3) If not telecommute, has to be willing to possibly move to another town / country, with all the head & heartache that brings
4) The company has to be willing to pay a liveable wage
Imo it’s normally some combination are the above
Have you been doing a lot of worldwide traveling to observe the staffing levels of businesses throughout the entire world? Or are you broadening a general local claim to encompass the entire world?
🤣🤣🤣Go read the “anti-work” subreddit! Those young adults want food and shelter provided to them for FREE and they believe they shouldn’t have to work!!! THAT’s one reason!!!
A lot of those billions don’t live near those short-staffed businesses. You’re not suggesting we import people to this country so that rich business owners can exploit their labor, are you? 🙄
How is it that the Earth is covered 70% in water yet almost everyone is dry? One thing has nothing to do with the other.
Shortages are not universal globally, but there are various shortages due to a number of factors:
– COVID has caused millions of deaths, many of working age
– COVID has caused tens of millions of long COVID cases creating disabilities that make workers have to stop working or work reduced schedules
– COVID risks/health factors have caused some workers to leave workforce temporarily (my wife, for example, was a physical therapist but was laid off in Apr ’20 and then was hit with health issues that would be exacerbated by COVID, so hasn’t looked for new job)
– Demographics of post WW2 “baby boomers” rapidly hitting retirement age and leaving workforce
– Reduced immigration due to COVID making it harder for countries to fill labor shortages by letting more foreign workers
– Many low paid jobs have seen large pay increases due to shortages and ability to get more hours, so workers who had 2-3 jobs can now get by with 1 job
– Shifts in demand have caused workers to shift to new jobs, but not returning to old jobs as demand returns there, too…. the retail or fast food workers who went to work in a warehouse or as delivery driver stayed with new job.
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