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UK employers struggle with worst labour shortage since 1997

I live in a tourist town and there are signs all over asking for staff and some places which cannot open as they cannot get people to work there. I'm assuming that a combination of us pulling out of the EEC and Covid has meant that many of the foreign workers who propped up the tourist economy have gone back to their home countries.
 
Boudicca said:
I live in a tourist town and there are signs all over asking for staff and some places which cannot open as they cannot get people to work there. I'm assuming that a combination of us pulling out of the EEC and Covid has meant that many of the foreign workers who propped up the tourist economy have gone back to their home countries.
Click to expand...

I heard something on Radio 4 the other day about how in many places, rents that are already expensive, are being pushed through the roof as landlords choose to move over to Air B&B, as the demand for UK holidays is through the roof.
 
Boudicca said:
I live in a tourist town and there are signs all over asking for staff and some places which cannot open as they cannot get people to work there. I'm assuming that a combination of us pulling out of the EEC and Covid has meant that many of the foreign workers who propped up the tourist economy have gone back to their home countries.
Click to expand...

There is also nowhere affordable to live for working people in many places. At one point this year the whole of Cornwall had 10,000 airbnb's but only 62 properties listed for rent. I recently had to turn down a job in Cornwall for this reason, and it wasn't minimum wage seasonal work either it was a full time teaching post. But the entire town had no homes available for rent to real people. Hard to see how such places will survive if this madness continues.
 
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Also alongside the already marginal nature of seasonal, minimum wage work in the tourism sector you're now adding in the expectation of being in a public-facing job with god knows how many thousands of people from everywhere else with a pandemic on. I don't blame anyone for looking at risk vs reward and saying 'fuck that'.
 
A combination fo Brexit and CoVID has created a bit of a perfect storm, there has always been a shortage of skilled workers in this country but it's getting worse and there now there appears to be a shortage of unskilled ones as well. Can't blame people for making the most of it.
There were plenty of employers willing to take advantage of conditions when there was a glut of labour, they've no room to complain when the shoe is on the other foot.
Those who Live by The Free Market should be prepared to Die by The Free Market
 
MickiQ said:
A combination fo Brexit and CoVID has created a bit of a perfect storm, there has always been a shortage of skilled workers in this country but it's getting worse and there now there appears to be a shortage of unskilled ones as well. Can't blame people for making the most of it.
There were plenty of employers willing to take advantage of conditions when there was a glut of labour, they've no room to complain when the shoe is on the other foot.
Those who Live by The Free Market should be prepared to Die by The Free Market
Click to expand...

Yeah but I don't see wages increasing as a result of all this. Even if they did, an extra 50p an hour isn't going to make a dent in the structural issues around cost of living.
 
SpookyFrank said:
There is also nowhere affordable to live for working people in many places. At one point this year the whole of Cornwall had 10,000 airbnb's but only 62 properties listed for rent. I recently had to turn down a job in Cornwall for this reason, and it wasn't minimum wage seasonal work either it was a full time teaching post. But the entire town had no homes available for rent to real people. Hard to see how such places will survive if this madness continues.
Click to expand...
Yep. Social care having difficulties recruiting here in Penzance now. People accepting jobs then turning them down once they start trying to find somewhere to live.
 
Voley said:
Yep. Social care having difficulties recruiting here in Penzance now. People accepting jobs then turning them down once they start trying to find somewhere to live.
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Yes I looked at houses before I even accepted an interview. And even if there was somewhere to rent we'd have pretty much have had to go for it, sight unseen, before I even got the job.
 
Bosses wanting to use prison labour rather than attract workers by improving wages and conditions:
www.theguardian.com

UK food firms beg ministers to let them use prisoners to ease labour shortages

Meat processors and others say they must have more day release workers as they cannot find enough staff
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com

I suppose this isn't really the same thing as the big scandals about unpaid prison labour in the US, but it seems like a form of undercutting all the same. Apart from anything else, I imagine that if you're on day release and your chance to be outside of prison depends on your continued employment, you are not going to be that likely to rock the boat with anything union-related or the like?
 
There's an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone here - just make being poor a criminal offence and we'll both eliminate poverty in the UK and have a large pool of eager workers keen to earn their way in to a better-paying job all whilst satisfying the demands of the UK agriculture, retail and hospitality industries and reaping the efficiencies of the private sector.

I'll tentatively call it the Marshallsea Plan and suggest it to some of my chums.
 
I've been hearing for a while that there's going to be a crisis of unemployment, but this appears to be the case now. I don't really get it. Though I suspect many of these jobs are crap or have crap conditions and terms.

MickiQ said:
A combination fo Brexit and CoVID has created a bit of a perfect storm, there has always been a shortage of skilled workers in this country but it's getting worse and there now there appears to be a shortage of unskilled ones as well. Can't blame people for making the most of it.
There were plenty of employers willing to take advantage of conditions when there was a glut of labour, they've no room to complain when the shoe is on the other foot.
Those who Live by The Free Market should be prepared to Die by The Free Market
Click to expand...
But they won't die, we will. IE: it'll be us that pay the price.
 
hitmouse said:
Bosses wanting to use prison labour rather than attract workers by improving wages and conditions:
www.theguardian.com

UK food firms beg ministers to let them use prisoners to ease labour shortages

Meat processors and others say they must have more day release workers as they cannot find enough staff
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com

I suppose this isn't really the same thing as the big scandals about unpaid prison labour in the US, but it seems like a form of undercutting all the same. Apart from anything else, I imagine that if you're on day release and your chance to be outside of prison depends on your continued employment, you are not going to be that likely to rock the boat with anything union-related or the like?
Click to expand...
What's wrong with this? It's better they're working than staring at their cell walls and they are actually learning a skill that is short supply outside prison (otherwise they wouldn't be doing it). One would hope when they are released (and day release prisoners are near the end of their sentence) that they will be taken on by where they have been working and thus reduce the odds of them just ending up in prison again.
There's nothing to stop them joining a union once they're free men.
glitch hiker said:
I've been hearing for a while that there's going to be a crisis of unemployment, but this appears to be the case now. I don't really get it. Though I suspect many of these jobs are crap or have crap conditions and terms.


But they won't die, we will. IE: it'll be us that pay the price.
Click to expand...
Sorry but I really have no idea what you're on about.
 
MickiQ said:
What's wrong with this? It's better they're working than staring at their cell walls and they are actually learning a skill that is short supply outside prison (otherwise they wouldn't be doing it). One would hope when they are released (and day release prisoners are near the end of their sentence) that they will be taken on by where they have been working and thus reduce the odds of them just ending up in prison again.
There's nothing to stop them joining a union once they're free men.
Click to expand...
what, what's wrong with forcing people to work for a fucking pittance to boost bosses' profits? oh and it doesn't reduce the odds of them ending up in prison (A money-making cycle of incarceration: The private sector and UK prison labour). i don't think wilkos have taken on a single one of the thousands of inmates who've made that business what it is
 
Pickman's model said:
what, what's wrong with forcing people to work for a fucking pittance to boost bosses' profits? oh and it doesn't reduce the odds of them ending up in prison (A money-making cycle of incarceration: The private sector and UK prison labour). i don't think wilkos have taken on a single one of the thousands of inmates who've made that business what it is
Click to expand...
They could pay the prisoners a descent wage that is put into a trust for when they are released, so they have some money to restart they lives and help reduce recidivism.

BTW I didn't think about this for long so probably has a fuck-ton of problems. But still better the paying nothing.
 
Storm Fox said:
They could pay the prisoners a descent wage that is put into a trust for when they are released, so they have some money to restart they lives and help reduce recidivism.

BTW I didn't think about this for long so probably has a fuck-ton of problems. But still better the paying nothing.
Click to expand...
they could pay prisoners a decent wage. but why would they? they should pay nurses and other public sector workers a decent wage but they don't. and people like nurses, while so few people stand up for prisoners' rights.
 
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