The current blizzard of stories about a “worker shortage” across the U.S. may seem as though it’s about this peculiar moment, as the pandemic fades. Restaurants in Washington, D.C., contend that they’re suffering from a staffing “crisis.” The hospitality industry in Massachusetts says it’s experiencing the same disaster. The governor of Montana plans to cancel coronavirus-related additional unemployment benefits funded by the federal government, and the cries of business owners are being heard in the White House.
In reality, though, this should be understood as the latest iteration of a question that’s plagued the owning class for centuries: How can they get everyone to do awful jobs for them for awful pay?
Employers’ anxiety about this can be measured by the fact that these stories have erupted when there currently is no shortage of workers. An actual shortage would result in wages rising at the bottom of the income distribution to such a degree that there was notable inflation. That’s not happening, at least not now. Instead, business owners seem to mean that they can’t find people who’ll work for what the owners want to pay them. This is a “shortage” in the same sense that there is a shortage of new Lamborghinis available for $1,000.
To understand what’s truly going on, it’s necessary to look back at how this question has been settled in different ways through the history of capitalism. - The Intercept
Monday, May 10, 2021
Regarding the "worker shortage"
This provides excellent historical context.
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From Washington Post’s Heather Lang and Andrew Van Dam :
ReplyDeletePeople who used to work in restaurants or travel are finding higher-paying jobs in warehouses or real estate, for example. Or they want to a job that is more stable and less likely to be exposed to the coronavirus -- or any other deadly virus down the road.
Let's remember that there were job gains in hospitality industry. In April, employment in leisure and hospitality increased by 331,000 with more than half of the increase
was in food services and drinking places (+187,000).
While there may be a "labor shortage" in the low paying hospitality industry, is that the future that we want for America ?
NO !
I agree with Joe Biden's proposal to make two years of community college tuition-free for hard-working students.
I have a friend who after high school found a job a truck wash ... he then got a job as a parts cleaner in a manufacturing plant ... through on-the-job training became a CNC machine tool operator ... then the ups and downs of business, he saw the uncertainty ... so in his late 30's, he went to Riverland Community College and got trained in Radiography and Patient Care ... and has been continually employed at a local hospital handling too many Covid patients ...until last Friday, when he retired.
The jobs America will need are in healthcare and manufacturing ... something that you can get the training for at community colleges.
The pandemic has changed what we do and how we buy.
I believe I have commented before that bank tellers are a dying profession. Just last week, my bank, Wells Fargo, offered me $5 to make deposits using a cell phone to take a picture of the check rather than going through a teller or ATM. Obviously, as more people use this feature, the bank will not have to employ so many tellers.
Second thing ... how we buy. Case in point ... last Sunday, I was vacuuming the steps when a plastic tab broke off (which kept the roller in place). I gleefully informed my spouse that I couldn't finish the job and the next time we go to town we would have to shop for a new vacuum. She's smarter than me ... before I could grab a cold drink and settle into the couch, she called me to her computer where she had already gone to the various websites and asked : Do you want your next vacuum to be blue or purple? Yep, she found a Bissell that we could go to Wal*Mart and buy ... or, place the order online and it would be delivered at no extra charge. So for $54, our new vacuum arrived on Wednesday. Think about that for $54 we got a new vacuum ... consider all the parts, an electric motor, cord, hose, handle, etc ... delivered by FedEx. Not sure, where this model was made at ... but I believe they have facilities in Mexico and China ... which means the only American jobs were probably only in product design and warehousing.
BTW ... the new vacuum is so much lighter than the old one and is more powerful.
Also ... my bride complained that I was ruining my sneakers when working in the garden ... so she showed me a number of choices of New Balance on the computer ... ordered on Sunday ... and delivered by UPS on Friday.
Banking and retail jobs will not be coming back.
QUERY : What Industry has the most job openings (percent) over one year ago ?
ReplyDeleteANSWER : Mining.
In March 2020, there were 16,000 job openings in mining;
In March 2021, there were 31,000 job openings.
That's almost double the number of job openings !
Maybe the "worker shortage" has more to do with the jobs that people do not want to do.
Would appreciate hearing Pete Stauber's assessment
The areas that do not show major changes are in :
Real Estate actually has less job openings than a year ago (87,000 versus 91,000)
Finance and Insurance show marginal demand changes (267,000 job openings today versus 261,000 last year.)
If the politicians were truly concerned with getting more people hired, why aren't there more "Job Fairs" which was commonly done by Kline, Paulsen and Cravvack ? (Of course those job fairs were populated by many of their donors)