Staff shortages - why?

[Buttalapasta]

I've just read the thread on pharmacist shortages. My mum's GP practice has cut its opening hours due to shortages and the local pub now closes at 9 for the same reason! Why? I know Brexit had some impact but surely not this much? Is it down to poor wages? Early retirement? It seems strange that so many places can't seem to get staff yet they aren't offering higher wages? Any economists know?

Childcare? Ours has just cut its hours they are oversubscribed but cannot afford to open due to the high food/fuel prices that has a knock on effect in the local community

The reality is its going to be a combination of everything

There are a million people missing from the labour market now. Yes, it's Brexit, but it's also the NHS crisis, which means more people are suffering from chronic illness and treatment is slower, Covid/long Covid/mental health issues post lockdown. It's all connected. Better and faster treatment would mean many more people able to work.

In relation to the GP one, I have a few friends who have just finished Gp training. Every practice locally is offering partnerships straight away, because the older GPs want to retire. None of the younger docs want to take on the liabilities of possible redundancies etc if it all goes to shite with the NHS, so lots of smaller (or rural) practices will close.

Personally I think the limited university places are a problem. It stops a lot of people who would like to train as a pharmacist and would be clever enough but cannot get a place due to the intense competition. Providing such courses is expensive for the university and they need to team up with a teaching hospital. I think when the government introduced tuition fees they should have looked at the barriers to training healthcare professionals in more detail because we're now paying the price of a national shortage for all kinds of services.

There are over a million job vacancies advertised in the UK at the moment.

There are also a million people unemployed but they don't match up in terms of:
skills & qualifications
location
physical abilities

Lots of skilled, able bodied Europeans went home after Brexit
Lots of Brits are off sick, waiting for treatment on the NHS
Lots of skilled older Brits retired after being made redundant during covid.
Other Brits found a different way of life & quit the rat race during Covid
More 16 & 17yos stay on for college and join the workforce later.

Society is adapting though. In the 70s & 80s, most students had part time jobs, worked in bars, shops, cleaning etc. That stopped in the 00s. Now that's back. Part time work is easier to find. More people will employ 16 & 17yos.

there was a thing on radio 4 the other day saying hundreds of thousands of people over fifty took early retirement after Covid. The government are starting a campaign to try to bring them back to the workforce.
.

Its mostly Brexit

And it has been pointed out many times that businesses will not employ older people because of institutional ageism, fear that older people are less healthy and therefore more likely to take time off sick, and less likely to put up with shit pay and conditions.
This is going to add considerably to the problems in the NHS over the next few years as it has a very “old” workforce - a huge percentage of nurses are 50 or older for example.

There has always been a fire if people who are essentially unemployable. Then there are those with disabilities/illness/lack of skills.

The benefit system does not encourage work, needs to be changed.

Childcare an issue but is it also that people don't want to work unsociable hours?

Over 50's left the workforce after covid. Personally I think people are sick of being treated badly by employers and would rather make do.

Always been a 'core' of people

I agree about the lack of young people training. University is expensive unless you have wealthy parents willing to support you.
I know several people who have recently left the NHS to work in other areas, all non medical.
I also see lots of people who don’t work, they get by on benefits. Many have children. It is absolutely true that in a lot of cases it’s financially worth not working.
Also agree about the huge numbers of people waiting for or needing treatment since covid. The population is far more aged now, people living longer and needing health care puts a strain on services.
I think more people who are able to have retired. I know many women in their early 50s who have retired, not one of them regrets it. They want to enjoy their life. Covid put things into prospective they could die any time and so want to enjoy life and spend their cash.

All this, also fewer graduates over the last few years. Many A level/18+/Highers students decided not to go to uni after the first lockdown. This summer coming is the year that 3 year courses should have graduated, or the year that many sandwhich courses would be on their year out. The cohort of students that should be graduating now is smaller than usual.

We've had two GP's and an ANP retire early last year. A practice nurse left yesterday and another goes in two weeks.
Barely any applicants.

• 500,000 people over the age of 50 left the workforce during the last 2 years
• Brexit caused people to leave the country
• The lockdowns taught people how little money they need, and I'm sure it's led some people to drop days, or choose to be a stay at home parent and so on
• The 'side gig' has grown in popularity over the last few years and perhaps people are leaving to pursue them full time

Brexit - two of my GP’s left to go to other EU countries, as did a load of EU academics and healthcare professionals. But hey, we voted for that. I’m sure it’ll all be resolved in 5 years with all the homegrown doctors and nurses we’re training up right now 🤔

The main reason is: Tory government. Please stop voting for the anti-growth Tory party.

-Brexit
-NHS underfunding causing higher sickness absence/retirement
-Underfunding training especially removal of NHS nurseries
-Escalating childcare costs as subsidies cut
-Transport budget cuts resulting in 1 in 10 bus routes being shut making it harder for people to get to work
-General dissatisfaction with the workplace pushing experienced people to early retirement

*removal of NHS nurseries should be 'bursaries' bloody autocorrect!

I thought this a few weeks ago. There is a coffee shop right by my local swimming pool. It was always packed on Saturday morning as loads of kids in swimming lessons. A few months ago it switched to just one member of staff, now it only opens at 9.30 (swimming starts at 7.30). And it's so slow no one is going in anymore. I'm expecting this business to close.
But years ago this is the sort of business would have had 2/3 sixteen or seventeen year working a Saturday shift. So teenagers not work any more or will noone employ them. In the late 90s when I was a teen all my friends working part time

Staff shortages are in unskilled areas, often poorly paid and with no chance for promotion. If only job is a bit more skilled, giving some more perspective for future, is taken immediately. There’s vacancy vacancy for finance assistant in my organisation, salary 23k, 14 candidates. They could earn more stocking shelves in Tesco, but experience they will gain and better working hours are very attractive.

I've just read the thread on pharmacist shortages. My mum's GP practice has cut its opening hours due to shortages and the local pub now closes at 9 for the same reason!

there is a cap on doctors training numbers in U.K., there are mass gp leaving practice & retiring earlier than SPA so there is a shortage of doctors

pharmacists I haven’t done research

pub staff, hospitality is a result of brexit as foreign born employees returned to their homelands in droves through brexit and Covid19

All this, also fewer graduates over the last few years. Many A level/18+/Highers students decided not to go to uni after the first lockdown. This summer coming is the year that 3 year courses should have graduated, or the year that many sandwhich courses would be on their year out. The cohort of students that should be graduating now is smaller than usual.

Sorry but this isn't true. The numbers in 20/21 (after lockdown) were an increase on the year before, and a higher increase than we'd seen in recent years. As a proportion of all 18 year olds it was a significant increase.

There was a small dip the year after (21/22) which might be what you mean? Where numbers of undergrads fell about 2% but that cohort won't graduate until July next summer so can't be blamed for shortages! Especially not in medicine/pharmacy where they won't be part of the workforce until later in the 2020s.

There was a job recently they advertised flexible hours work from home as needed office in a local area then they said no we need you in from 7am some mornings work till 8pm sometimes plus weekend work I can't do that single parent limited childcare plus it was all in an office nowhere near me they are not prepared to flex to accommodate staff staff CANNOT flex to accommodate them the job is still available thing is if they stuck to what they advertised they would have staff this is happening loads employers basically saying fuck you then moaning they can't get staff

Caps back at 7500

foriegn students pay more - so as a business it’s more profitable

Of course the benefit system encourages work. I've been on top up benefits for 15 years and I work full time, I am £600 better off a month working than I would be on unemployment benefits!

The thing that discourages work is low wages and high childcare costs, for single parents in particular. It's why many people (women usually) don't go back to work until their children are at school. Also lack of flexibility in the workplace.

If you’re on a low wage, UC will pick up most of your childcare bill.

It’s the working conditions in the public sector. The salaries aren’t bad, especially outside of the South East, but the amount of shit you have to put up with (thinking just of teachers and healthcare) is ridiculous. This is the direct result of nearly 2 decades of Tory austerity. It’s soul destroying and actively dangerous.