Staff shortages are now a national crisis

[Confusedofbritain]

Staff shortages across many sectors is now a national crisis surely? I’ve given up expecting anything of this government, but why isn’t Labour beating them with a stick over this?

Some examples which affect me personally….

• Can’t go on holiday due to cancelled flight, cause by lack of ground staff.
• I work for NHS trust and we have closed a ward due to c 50% vacancies. We have plenty of money but can’t spend it. Now competing with other trusts paying increasingly high golden handshakes.
• Tried to book restaurant for Tuesday birthday. Not possible as all places shut Monday and Tuesday due to short staff (esp chefs).
• Poor service when we do go out. Staff look frazzled.
• Can’t get a builder to do an extension. Often not bothering to quote. Builder friend can’t keep labourers and brickies. Paying increasingly high wages but getting poached.
• Window fitter quoted me 2x higher than 2019 (for a much smaller window!) probably because they’re so busy and can’t increase capacity due to lack of staff. So prices have gone up by 100%.
• Long delay in discharge for father from hospital, due to long waits for care package (caused by staff shortages). He was in hospital a lot longer than necessary and declined hugely as result.

It’s largely caused by Brexit, partly people retiring or changing livelihood during Covid…:.but why wasn’t this anticipated and what are we doing about it?

I want to see posters EVERYWHERE encouraging people to consider NHS careers. It’s a rewarding career, but impossible to cope and keep going with so few staff. We are escalating to NHS England constantly, saying we need a national solution. It’s beyond critical, but I’m not confident that there is a national drive to sort this out.

The economic and social consequences of ignoring this massive structural issue will be disastrous!

Why describe it as “early retirement” for the over 50s?

The legal retirement age was abolished a number of years ago and since the ‘pension freedoms’ of 2015 (?), you can draw down on your private pension from aged 55.

why wouldn’t you (if you can afford it and assuming you don’t have a job you love more than life itself)?

A lot of EU workers have gone back to the EU.

To sum up the replies on the thread so far….

Staff shortages are now a reality in many industries and it’s unprecedented. Shortages range from highly skilled to unskilled workers.

Causation is complex but includes:

• Brexit - workers have gone home and it has reduced the pipeline of workers


• Covid - has both changed workers’ outlook so lots of career change and early retirement


• Increased rates of illness eg. long covid


• Transfer of workforce to Gig economy


• Lack of affordable childcare/ or childcare that fits around shift work


• Long term unemployed - but many won’t be employable without intensive support to overcome barriers


• Industries hit by lockdown have permanently lost staff to other sectors


• Growth in jobs that are not very productive, taking away workforce from more productive / essential roles

That’s quite a list! Let’s hope the government are developing policies to respond to these urgent issues (but I won’t hold my breath!).

@RidingMyBike I wonder whether the realization that people can work effectively from home as shown during the pandemic, will help your relative employment-wise in the long run, as employers are now more willing to consider WFH as an option?

One of my DH’s colleagues is having treatment for cancer so his immune system is compromised. They’re technically back in the office two days a week now, but it’s completely accepted that this colleague will continue to work remotely, a huge change compared to pre-pandemic times. It’s allowing him to continue to work full-time, which he wants to do. A win/win all round. I hope things improve for your relative.

@Confusedofbritain Think you’ve missed employers treating employees as humans not robots, as a cause for shortages!

Ah yes @Alphabet1spaghetti2 I have. Add that to the list. Basically it’s an employee’s market, so people can vote with their feet - away from employers who take the piss

Delayering of the economy due to excessive financialisation papering over the cracks caused by the ending of cheap energy.

There you go. Covers everything from the ‘70s economic shocks and Reagan/Thatcher neoliberalisation trend of the ‘80s to the GFC. The writing was on the wall before COVID hit, we’d have been in economic doo doo even if the pandemic didn’t happen. The stimulus and reduction in consumption ironically helped us kick the can down the road a bit longer.

As for contingencies, degrowth of the economy is really the only route. Or Mad Max. Buyer’s choice.

Thank you @Cameleongirl I really hope so, for him and for others in a similar boat. It would open up many more opportunities for people who are disabled and/or with fluctuating conditions. There's a huge difference in being able to WFH much of the week and reduce exposure to germs, as well as avoid the stress and expense of a commute.

A problem for employees moving to the WFH model long term is that it dilutes worker leverage in the market. Now, instead of competing with local workers for previously office based roles, you have opened up the field to anyone with a decent Internet connection.

My place of work has already cut back on local sourced IT and supervisory roles that became more decentralised and had WFH mandates during 2020/2021. They've hired people from Bangalore and parts of Eastern Europe or just used US departments that now take on a bigger role (to the detriment of work efficiency).

You would think this although it doesn’t seem to be reflected in practise. If jobs were going off shore they’d be less jobs available for the number of workers we have in the uk but it seems to be the other way round where there are positions that can’t be filled

This would depend on the positions. Most of the roles not being filled are in areas where you can't WFH, e.g. service staff at hospitality venues or fruit pickers or baggage handlers. Can't virtually entertain those roles, just as HGV drivers have been a smaller and smaller force for literally years until it started to get media traction (world runs on diesel haulage, so kinda important instead of more PMC roles that add nothing but cream off from industry profits).

We also have people either priced out of areas they would move to to get work, or unwilling to move into such roles because of shit conditions or pay (or both, see HGV driving again).

The roles I personally interact with that can do WFH made everything so much less productive because not physically being on site to deal with issues is actually kind of a big deal. Technically, yes, you can manage a project online. But it sucks to have new staff try and learn on the job from someone at home who has never even met them.

@liebig. I work in accountancy and we are massively struggling to recruit

@Morph22010 Did you have a sudden exodus in the industry or has this been an endemic problem for a while?

We basically can't recruit or retain staff now. Had no issues two years ago when we had a massive staff turnover, but now there's an issue in even getting interviewees let alone hiring and keeping them. And now we have a hiring freeze even for replacing people we lose in the interim. I guess the higher ups think we can just make do with having one person do the jobs of two. And then they wonder why we can't retain people.

Related to employers taking the piss. Employers expecting part-time employees to be available 24/7. So many adverts in hospitality and retail are 8 or 16 hours a week but they say you must work more hours when it's busy and you need complete flexibility.

DS had an interview in a chain coffee shop last week. He told them he's at college 3 days a week but he is flexible all other days. They said they needed someone more flexible. But who are these completely flexible people? Surely most people looking for a job that is only guaranteed 1 shift a week also have other commitments like studying or childcare.

I had an interview some years ago for something that stated 'some Saturday' working required. At the interview it emerged this actually meant every other Saturday. So wasn't the job I was looking for!

Dd has a 4 hour contract but is expected to do more - why not advertise 10/3 jobs that suit parents or weekend jobs that suit students - can these people not organize shift pattens and rota’s?

we take on trainees each year who study and do exams whilst working and tend to move up through the ranks. Historically there’s always been a number that move on when they qualify as there wouldn’t be enough senior jobs for them within our firm. However it’s been very rare in last 20 years we’ve had to recruit from outside as people tend to get internally promoted. Not sure exactly what it is, we’ve had a few bad intakes of people who haven’t been great and still aren’t up to doing a senior role despite their lengths of service, the pandemic and working from home hasn’t helped with their training although these particular staff were great even before the pandemic. However that’s an internal issue but externally there just seems to be a shortage of qualified experienced accountants, lots of firms are recruiting including the big boys so we are completing with them to attract staff. We’ve had a few people retire early due to health reasons and reassessing life after the pandemic. Our firm is quite anti wfh so I don’t think that helps as some have left to go to a roll where they can wfh.

were not great even before the pandemic that should say

@Threetulips you would think so wouldn’t you. When I was in retail (80s), I could work out the staffing needs a year in advance. I went back into retail, for a short spell 5 years ago - they couldn’t do rotas more than 48 hours in advance, it was frankly pathetic. Low pay and never knowing when you are meant to be working combined with abuse from customers and management - it’s not surprising people leave or never apply.

I've been helping my 15yo son to look for casual summer work this morning..Unfortunately not many employers are desperate enough to employ a responsible nearly-16 year old. I'm sure I had my first Saturday job in a book shop at age 15.

@definitiv i think that is down to the employment law regarding under 18s. It’s much more restrictive than it was even 20 year ago.

The law limits the number of hours a 15yo can work to 8 in one day and 35 a week in the school holidays. And they can't serve alcohol. But that's all. There are many jobs they could do if given the chance.

They also have to have a work permit from the council if they are under 16.