#labour shortage

[vergess]

I'm fascinated by the insistence of even fairly progressive people over a certain age (around 20 years my senior) insistently believe the myth that "no one wants to work."

Meanwhile, again, myself and everyone I know are blasting applications as aggressively as possible for a less than 1% chance of an interview for glamourous positions such as "grocery store janitor" and "gas station cashier"

Meanwhile, study after study shows definitively that the labour "shortage" is caused by companies claiming they are hiring when they are not.

Meanwhile, the basic reality of looking around yourself at how many young people as dying in poverty while scrabbling for nonexistent jobs continues to occur.

Meanwhile, more people are striking than have in decades because working conditions are continuing to deteriorate.

"No one wants to work" is a LIE, and an insulting one at that.

(Links to studies will be provided in the reblogs)

[dispatchesfromtheclasswar]

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"All Soldiers Now At Harvest Work," Regina Leader-Post. September 8, 1943. Page 3. ---- Final group of soldiers from the west coast, detailed for farm duty in Saskatchewan, arrived in the province Wednesday and are now working on farms, according to W. W. Dawson, secretary of the Central Harvest Labor committee.

Sixty-two soldiers made up the last contingent of the 450 who have been distributed throughout the province to farmers who made application for soldier help.

Help is also arriving steadily from Ontario. There are now more than 1,300 farmers and farm workers from eastern Canada on Saskatchewan farms. An additional 1,000 harvest helpers from Ontario have been provided with special harvest excursion train fares in the east to make the trip west. Their arrival in Saskatchewan will almost meet the harvest help needs of the farmers in this province, said Mr. Dawson.

With regard to soldier help Mr. Dawson stressed that when a soldier was detailed for farm duty, the farmer should not pay any wages to the soldier. The contract signed, provided that payment would be made at the rate of $4 per day or a portion thereof, but --dement for the amount of ages due, must be made to the office of the Central Harvest Labor committee, Regina.

Payment should be made to the harvest office in the form of a bank draft or money order payment made to the receiver general of Canada and should be accompanied by completed pay sheets which are provided to each soldier. The pay sheets must be signed by the farmer, the soldier. and the secretary of the local harvest labor committee.

[head-post]

Germany considers introducing 4-day workweek due to labour shortages

45 German companies and organisations are testing the benefits of a four-day working week for six months, with employees still getting paid in full, according to Bild.

The initiative is led by consulting firm Intraprenör in cooperation with the non-profit organisation 4 Day Week Global (4DWG). Its supporters argue that a four-day working week would increase productivity and, as a result, help alleviate the country’s shortage of skilled labour.

Germany is considered a hard-working and efficient country, but labour productivity has fallen in recent years.

Read more HERE

[shumailach-blog]

Understanding America’s Labor Shortage

We hear every day from our member companies—of every size and industry, across nearly every state—they’re facing unprecedented challenges trying to find enough workers to fill open jobs. Right now, the latest data shows that we have over 10 million job openings in the U.S.—but only 5.7 million unemployed workers.

How Did We Get Here? Rail Labor Dispute Threatens the National Economy We have a lot of jobs, but not enough workers to fill them. If every unemployed person in the country found a job, we would still have 4 million open jobs.

The U.S. Chamber is capturing the trends on job openings, labor force participation, quit rates, and more, for a quick understanding of the state of the workforce in ourAmerica Works Data Center.

Read on for an analysis of the state of the workforce on the national level. An interactive map tracking the worker shortage across the state is here. An in-depth look at how the worker shortage is impacting different industries is here.

How Did This Happen?

At the height of the pandemic, more than 120,000 businesses temporarily closed, and more than 30 million U.S. workers were unemployed. Since then, job openings have steadily increased since January 2020, while unemployment has slowly declined.

Overall, in 2022, employers ended up adding an unprecedented 4.5 million jobs. But at the same time, millions of Americans have been leaving the labor force since before the pandemic. In fact, we have nearly three million fewer Americans participating in the labor force today compared to February of 2020.

Understanding The Gap

Right now, the labor force participation rate is 62.6%, down from 63.3% in February 2020. It’s clear that able workers are being overlooked or sitting on the sidelines. But there’s not just one reason that workers are sitting out, but several factors have come together to cause the ongoing shortage.

The U.S. Chamber surveyed unemployed workers who lost their jobs during the pandemic on what is keeping them from returning to work. Twenty-seven percent indicated that the need to be home and care for children or other family members has made the return to work difficult or impossible. More than a quarter (28%) indicated that they have been ill and their health has taken priority over looking for work.

In addition to the factors outlined below, the survey also revealed some are still concerned about COVID-19 at work, indicate that pay is too low, or are more focused on acquiring new skills and education before re-entering the job market.

Factors Contributing To The Labor Shortage

An increase in savings

Enhanced unemployment benefits, stimulus checks, and not being able to go out and spend money during the Lockdown all contributed to Americans collectively adding $4 trillion to their savings accounts since early 2020. The extra few hundred dollars a week from enhanced unemployment benefits (which ended in Sept. 2021), specifically, led to 68% of claimants earning more on unemployment than they did while working.

In the Chamber's Nov. 2022 survey, 23% of women cited others in the family making enough money that working full-time is not as critical as the reason they have not re-entered the workforce. Higher income and savings bolstered people’s economic stability—allowing them to continue sitting out of the labor force.

Early retirements

As of October 2021, the pandemic drove more than 3 million adults into early retirement. In all, the number of adults 55 and older being detached from the labor force due to retirement grew from 48.1% in Q3 of 2019 to 50.3% in Q3 2021.

Lack of access to childcare

Even before the pandemic, a lack of access to high quality, affordable childcare was an issue. Research from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation found that due to breakdowns in the childcare system, the states surveyed (Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona, Missouri, and Texas) missed an estimated average of $2.7 billion annually for their economies.

A recent report from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation and The Education Trust shows that the pandemic created a vicious cycle for the industry; to return to work, workers need reliable childcare, but providers are facing immense challenges themselves. The pandemic forced many childcare providers to close or scale down: between February and April 2020, the industry lost 370,600 jobs — 95% of which were held by women. Unfortunately, the recovery has not been swift; as late as September 2021, childcare industry employment remained 10 percent lower than pre-pandemic levels.

Additionally, women are participating in the labor force the lowest rates since the 1970s. In the spring of 2020, 3.5 million mothers left their job, driving the labor force participation rate for working moms from around 70% to 55%. This number is improving – but it has not fully rebounded.

New business starts

In the spirit of entrepreneurship, some employees either left work or stayed unemployed to open their own businesses. Over the last two years, nearly 10 million new business applications were filed and in 2020 alone more than 4 million new business were started.

The Great Reshuffle Meanwhile, there has been a "Great Reshuffle" among workers. ‘The Great Resignation’ worked its way into our vocabulary as the shift of our labor force started to become apparent—and the hashtag #quittok even went viral as social media users posted about quitting their jobs in search for more free time or better opportunities.

A full 4.2 million people quit their jobs in November 2022, but hiring has outpaced quits since November 2020 (hovering around 4%).

Source: https://www.uschamber.com/workforce/understanding-americas-labor-shortage

[ladyragana]

[idealsteps]

Recognising the significance of hiring and recruitment is insufficient  in today’s competitive talent market. It must become established in the corporate culture, a way of life, to attract and hire the greatest individuals. Fact-based, measurable, objective, and repeatable decision criteria and processes are required. Only individuals with relevant expertise and training in an organised, clearly defined process should conduct interviews.

[jaythelay]

Can we dismiss this idea of a worker/labor shortage to it's core? The accuser?

Because every fast food place around me has exactly one (1) worker most days of the week. You can't tell me you're still unwilling to pay more than state/federal minimum wage when you're already paying minimum wage for someone to do the work of 14 until it became standard to be short staffed so unrealistically 8.

You're shortstaffed? Honey, you're not looking for workers in the first place, this is a dream come true as far as they're concerned. Who's gonna complain about uncooked burgers and missing items when there's one (1) dude handling a line?

I'm fucking serious. My roommate and me have asked. It's one person. Not a manager either. Everything. Everything.

These places aren't hiring, and if they are, they're hiring at the lowest legal wages they can to purposefully drive off any real applicants. Not one soul young or old, experienced or not, is going to do that shit for 7.25-13.50/hr

Sincerely ask yourself after going to a Mcdonalds with one (1) worker inside handling a line of 12, if you'd ever consider putting an application in, when the stated wage outside is the bare minimum still?

Then realize there's no way they don't/didn't have applications coming in, they just don't need to. They're surviving on literally 1/X of their staff. For minimum wage, an entire store.

It's actually true, people don't want to work, there, they don't want to work, there, your shithole you purposefully made a shithole.

We need to hit this at the heart, because it will backfire when we make it known:

There is a hiring shortage, not a worker shortage.

[voxpeople]

In Short: Deceased Should Be Encouraged to Re-Enter the Workforce

The government should consider plans to coax deceased people back into jobs to boost the economy, as part of what is being dubbed "life MoT", which would assess finances and opportunities for work for those who have died and those close to death.

It follows a recent House of Lords committee finding that deaths among the population is a chief cause of labour shortages.

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"Girls may be needed as Sparks," Toronto Star. June 21, 1943. ---- Just to be ready if needed in a line of endeaver not often entered by girls ---- Mrs. A. Gillespie (ABOVE) has been studying commercial radio operating for the last four months at the Radio College of Canada. Thee are a half dozen girls in Toronto taking radio courses along with men at private schools. Ottawa says girls may be used on merchant ships if there is a shortage of men.

[inc-immigrationnewscanada]

Canada Still Dealing With Labour Shortage! Here Is Why!

🇨🇦 April 2022 unemployment rate at record low of 5.2%! 🇨🇦 Canada still dealing with labour shortage, despite record immigration (>401,000 newcomers) in 2021! 🇨🇦 Get full details here!👇

Canada is dealing with labour shortage despite lowest unemployment rate ever and record immigration in 2021. Recently, Canada reported 5.2% unemployment rate for April 2022. This is the record low as compared to available oldest historical data of 1976. Furthermore, Canada welcomed record 401,000 new immigrants in 2021 which was the highest number of newcomers in Canada’s history. However, it…

[radkindoffeminist]

It really annoys me when misogynists bring up the whole ‘why wouldn’t everyone just hire women if they can get away with paying everyone less’ because this is such a simplistic take on a complicated issue and doesn’t factor in the following

1) Places already do this anyway. And then they enforce pay secrecy so women are unable to talk about their wages

2) It’s not always about who is cheapest to hire - it is also about who is going to produce the better quality of work and who is going to fit into the team better. In a team dominated by men, who did they think is going to fit into the team better? Another man. In a team full of misogynists who devalue women’s work, who did they believe will do better quality work? A man. Yesterday, I was watching a video where a woman said that she met another woman who was in charge of a team and openly admitted that she would not hire a woman to be part of this team because it would cause too many issues because of sexual harassment claims. These are things people will consider when hiring.

3) It’s simplifying the issue down to ‘all women are paid less than all men in all fields across all levels’ which isn’t true. Some of the pay differences are as a result of women in the same fields doing the same jobs as men but paid less (point 1), but a lot of it comes down the the following two things:

Women are less likely to be promoted than their male colleagues which is the result of many factors including inherent misogyny (thinking women shouldn’t be in leadership, thinking their work is lower quality, etc), women being ‘less dedicated’ due to family commitments, and taking longer to have similar experience to male colleagues due to time off on maternity/raising children

Fields that are dominated by women are lower paid overall, even when comparing to jobs with a similar educational requirement. Teaching and nursing are both jobs which require degrees yet are some of the lowest paid public sector jobs. Female dominated cleaning jobs (eg: housekeeping) are lower paid than similar male-dominated jobs (eg: janitor). Labour seen as ‘women’s work’ is devalued and therefore paid less

4) Whenever we discuss these other factors, like mat leave and taking care of the children, it’s always seen as an ‘explanation’ for why women are paid less, rather than part of larger socio-economic issues leading to women being paid less. Literally saw so many things when I was younger about how it’s only like 2p/£1 rather than 23p/£1 or whatever because once you factored in all of these things above you’d find men and women in similar roles in similar fields are actually paid pretty evenly, without recognising how those reasons themselves are part of the problem. Women are pushed towards lower paid fields from a young age (teaching, nursing, care work, etc). Women are the ones who take months off on maternity leave while men might take two weeks. Women are the ones taking career breaks to look after the kids. Women are the ones working part time or flexible hours so they can look after their children. All of these things have negative impact on women’s income and they stem from misogyny. They shouldn’t be ignored in gender pay gays discussions or used to explain why the gender pay gays isn’t ‘real’.

[rotzaprachim]

the thing about Hawai’i politics is that. You absolutely need to criticize the local government. But you also need to stand the economic and political politics of living in a place where the local government doesn’t have an iota of the power of the mega corporations like Hilton and Sheraton that run mega resorts here, nor the billionaires like mark Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison, or Jeff bezos that run second homes here or have quasi-feudal estates or exert far far more power than the relatively progressive county and state governments

like. You have to clock what it is that a man worth over 100 billion dollars purchased 98% of an island. What that’s like. What power does a city councilman who represents that island in a council have over a man worth over 100 billion who both owns the land people live on AND the hotels they work at

[shinhati]

it's always nice when someone with authority says something your demographic has been saying for actual years but jesus christ

[curly-fried]

Class cannot be left out in discussions about islamphobia in Europe. Most islamphobia thats spoken about on Tumblr is in the context of Britain, France, Belgium the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Denmark, sweden and Norway. The history of these communities is found in the aftermath of the second world war. This is a period where much of these countries needed to be rebuild because of the air raids that took place during the second world war. The large amount of work needed and the civilian casualties during this war meant that there was a big labor shortage. In the end a lot of countries solved this problem by importing workers from their colonies and southern Europe. A lot of workers from Turkey went to Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Scandinavia. And a lot of North African workers went to France and through France to the rest of Europe. Here the migrant workers worked long hours and faced abuse. The south European worked assimilated into the dominant cultures of their host countries because their whiteness allowed them to, while the Turkish and North African workers went on the be trapped into the cycle of poverty, many of them living in impoverished ethnic enclaves where they to this day are targeted by the police sent the bourgeois state while many of their children are forced into a life of crime by the poverty they have to endure. And this is why islamphobia in Europe is deeply intertwined with class