Those labour shortages are happening throught Europe and the developed world though - both general shortages of labour and the specific shortages of, for example, medical staff. The argument I've sometimes seen made is that sure, the EU may have shortages of those staff, but they'll have an easier time dealing with it because they have freedom of movement to allow workers to move to where the jobs are. That makes no sense because no amount of shuffling around workers between countries can change the fact that there's not enough to go around across the entire region and the occupations in shortage are basically the same everywhere too.
Worth noting that these labour shortages are localised to the coastal areas. There are no shortages when you consider all the people in interior regions (according to the article, anyway).
Human ingenuity is amazing when applied to labour shortages.
The Black Death, Brexit, the recent American Immigration Crackdown. All of these events reduced the supply of labour, resulting in increased wages and productivity.
Goes to show that arguments about needing migrants and refugees from poor countries to fill labour shortages in the West do not hold water.
Indeed, but I don't think "difficulty to find low-skill workers" necessarily equals actual shortages.
What I'm suggesting is that high unemployment is a sign that there are people available locally. If there are difficulties filling jobs, especially unskilled jobs, this therefore points towards problems within the employment market and benefits (which are indeed well-known for having systemic problems in France for a very long time) not 'shortages' per se. In such situation the claim that immigration is 'needed' to fill these jobs does not hold water.
So more people learn that trade and another one loses its staff.
Labor shortages aren’t just money. Nauru has tech labor shortages. Singapore has notable farmer shortages. There are teacher shortages in the US even where wages pay well because teachers are sick of regulations or students. Korea has such an inverted population pyramid that its only possible future is half the country devoting their lives to caring for old people at the expense of either industries having no workers, and immigration isn’t a solution because other countries will be hitting similar problems at the same time.
The jobs where there are shortages are not industrial, I guess? It is the same in the uk, lots of shortages in jobs that are not jobs in the way you think of a job.
There’s no “labour” shortage. There’s a “wage” shortage.
Companies aren’t really complaining about a labour shortage. They’re complaining that no one wants to work for their ridiculously low pay while the board and CEOs sail around in their yachts.
At least in my country, there are three types of "labor shortages".
1. Pay and/or working conditions suck so much people aren't interested. Think of nurses, various staff (restaurant, cleaning etc) that are often employed through third-party companies that offer you limited hours on weekly basis.
2. Labor limited through artificial constraints on supply. Doctors are a good example of this here - doctors associations successfully lobby to keep medical school student intake low, which means lower supply and better pay for those who make it.
3. Positions that require just too much experience, knowledge or talent to be obtained simply through right education. Think of top senior software engineers for example.
If there really was a shortage, employers would offer concessions, better working conditions, WFH, more vacation days, etc. Just look at truck drivers or hospitality for example. Just because employers say it's a shortage doesn't always make it true or it doesn't mean it's not their fault for the shortage for refusing to offer better conditions.
Depends on the field of course, but from my experience interviewing in tech, the market is very competitive now in my area in Europe for those without a lot of experience, and employers are not willing to offer any concessions besides the minimums mandated by law. Asking for full WFH is also out of the questions most of the time. This signals to me that there is no shortage, otherwise employers would be more accommodating for this.
In my country there is also a perpetual shortage of doctors and nursing staff in the public sector despite an abundance of them in the private sector. So the shortage is purely because the government is not offering the right financial incentives and working conditions for them to stay in the public sector.
My point is that "shortage" is always relative and we should look at the full story and the complete context to understand where it comes from and why it's happening, because without context I'm also having a perpetual shortage of Ferraris and Lamborghinis, though the full story is that my budget is $5000 and not a cent more, yet that information kind of changes and explains everything.
So, in conclusion, most of the times, "shortage of workers" just means people unwilling to work for the poor conditions and compensation being offered by employers, not that there's a shortage of people capable of doing said work or capable of learning to do it if offered the chance/training.
Good question. You have to understand that "labour shortage" is code for "I cant find workers for the price that I would like".
Clearly there isn't (and can't be) and actual shortage of workers, there can only be increased competition between employers for available workers.
Its worth noting that in recent history, the times when democracies have been closest to actual labour shortages (post WWI and WWII) have in fact been correlated with economic booms.
A minor nitpick, it’s not so much a labour shortage as a wage shortage. Clearly the workers are there, shown clearly by them taking jobs when paid better.
The only true 'labor shortage' is when very high skilled positions are not being filled because there is literally nobody qualified to fill them. That is exceptionally rare, it usually only applies to doctors, surgeons, etc.
In Germany all kinds of industries have been whining about shortages for ages, but in reality they're all looking for unicorns that work for peanuts in combination with an absolute unwillingness to train anyone (let someone else or big gov foot the bill, if that doesn't work cry for immigration reforms).
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