Why are there so many job vacancies??

[Manyanaish]

Where we live businesses are sending fb messages to say that they are having to reduce opening hours due to lack of staff .. they are paying well above minimum wage ( £ 16 ph) , and are doing this to protect staff they have as they are pushed all the time.
the businesses that are sating this locally to us did not rely on pre brexit conditions . So .. what is going on ?

Due to the state if the NHS at the moment lots of people are too sick to work. People in their 50's who bought their homes years ago feel financially secure enough to retire or go part time. Lots of jobs either don't pay well enough or lack the flexibility to fit around family life. There's a lack of affordable childcare which is probably a barrier to some going to work.
My kids school has been advertising for a cleaner for this entire school year and not found anyone. It's for 2 hours a day at minimum wage so really undesirable. I saw another on my way home today for a bakery advertising job that would have you working at various times between 6am and 6pm in a rotating shift pattern. Again, very undesirable, especially if you have young children.

Where?

I’m desperate for a job.

Hey Brexit 👋

£16 an hour not enough to live on. You need £30k a year to live comfortably.

Or else why bother? If all you're gonna do is work and struggle you may as well just not work.

Sorry meant to say £16 an hour not enough to live on if they are only doing reduced hours. 37 hours a week at £16 would be ok though.

I'm on £13+ per hour. What jon is paying £16 per hour?

Benefkts are obviously too high?

£16 an hour full time is over 30K

In my area everyone who worked in services like restaurants and bars went home after Brexit and of course you can get better pay at Lidl for better hours. Same with builders

For most jobs, lack of skills, lack of childcare, lack of qualifications or hours that will clash with UC and make it not worth working by the time they've paid for clothes, fares, tax etc.

More young people going to university, older people retiring early through ill health due to NHS waiting lists. Or just retiring at 60 after 45 years work.

And the cost of housing in places where there are jobs. £16/hr won't pay for a city centre room, and once commuting is taken into account, it's not worth it.

Those on benefits won't be applying for these kinds of jobs, ie, zero hours contracts, mixed shifts, because of reasons outlined, upthread.

We need to look at the benefits system for the able to work.
I would rather see free transport and childcare to allow people to work rather than giving them a generic sum for not working.

Minimum wage has gone up but wages have stagnated (or in real terms declined) in more skilled roles, so work doesn't pay anymore.

Homes are over valued so people approaching retirement falsely believe they are financially secure enough to take early retirement, or some are genuinely well off with property and other assets and a gold plated pension so can retire early.

Childcare is extortionate, so stops some people working.

Long term sickness due to a failing health care system.

Falling birthrate and large generation of boomers dying out while the other large generation are stuck with high childcare abd high rent, so are better iff one parent not working due to having children.

employers taking the piss with wages and job conditions that nobody in their right mind would accept.

Lots of job positions are fake online.

Oh and brexit, and the fact that it is actually quite shit for families in the UK, so international workers go home to raise kids, which is what has happened with lots of my friends.

It's not millions of people on benefits, but I don't blame people for staying on benefits if working is not benefiting the worker financially.

In my town there are constant posts on the local FB group asking for jobs/work, yet every third window on the High St has a Wanted advert in the window. Constant adverts for people to work in hospitality - at least one venue is currently advertising for three chefs and half-a-dozen front-of-house, I have no idea how they're coping at the moment.

All along the coast road there are dozens of similar adverts for hospitality and holiday let cleaning. The mismatch there is between hourly-paid wages, available hours, guaranteed hours, and the cost of accommodation.

Brexit and Covid caused a mass exodus from service industries. Some EU workers went home and never returned either finding things were better in their home country or because they no longer have the rights to live and work here. Others went to work in supermarkets or other jobs with better pay and more regular hours when things shut down for Covid and never returned to their previous jobs. We are an aging and sicker population so this problem isn't going away any time soon.

Lack of eu workers

I’ve just done the benefits calculator for working my current hours vs not working at all. The amount is around the same (as obvs I pay childcare whilst working which otherwise I wouldn’t).

so no, no one is better off not working. Why is there still this assumption that people are desperate to get council houses and benefits and pretend to be sick so they can roll around like Scrooge McDuck in all their ill gotten gains off the government.

There’s no money or council houses or NHS left.

A fruit farmer near us has ploughed in a couple of acres of strawberries. Pre Brexit it was easy to get seasonal staff (and he was known for treating them well and providing good quality accommodation). Now he can't get anyone to do the work.

1. BREXIT
2. GEN X/young Boomer quitters who decided they’d had enough after the Covid years and have removed themselves from FT work or from working entirely.
3. Ageing demographics mean there are far fewer young people to do the work to support all the older people who aren’t working.
4. Low pay/cost of childcare means it’s not worth many parents going to work in the short term.

Brexit bonus. Seasonal workers and those from the EU aren't there to plug the gap hence the vacancies

I was looking for a second job to fit around my current part time job , and every single part time vacancy wants you to be “ fully flexible “.
I can do most evenings and set weekdays but I can’t be “ fully flexible “ , it’s so frustrating.
These are vacancies 8–16 hours I’m looking at.
There is a local shop that I could walk to that has ads in window / on indeed etc for months now and still hadn’t filled the vacancy because they want full flexibility for the vacancy.
It doesn’t help also that 95% of job adverts don’t even disclose the shifts it just says 8 hours.
So I don’t even apply as I don’t know the actual shifts or days.

Sadly not true. If you have been watching tv lately you will see the huge issue with housing benefit not being enough to cover the average private rent prices. People are really struggling if they are are on low pay and need a top up from benefits. Many people are homeless, especially single employed people who just can’t cover rent costs.

I hate threads like this.

I really struggled to get my first job, I remember there was a stage where I was applying for 100 jobs in one week. The problem was employers wanting someone with experience and of course no one was willing to give me a chance to get that experience. (I had relevant qualifications for positions applied for and was keen to learn). Employers are no longer willing to train people up, while usually paying minimum wage… I was unemployed for a year before eventually getting desperate enough to do a care job (I didn’t initially want to do that as a job, although I have since grown to love it). The only jobs that will pretty much hire anyone and give people a chance are care jobs. In fact most people I have met that work in care roles, it wasn’t their first choice, and a lot of people really are not suited for the role.

Without experience you generally have to know someone within that organisation to give you a foot in the door to get any job. Very often without needing relevant qualifications or experience. It’s just not a fair game.

And some people genuinely are better off on benefits, especially when they have to factor in childcare which costs a fortune.

You can’t judge people OP you don’t know their circumstances.

Brexit - workers leaving the Uk.
Covid- I think this led to a rethink of priorities . I know people who decided to retire early, and could afford to do so.

ds(19) is at uni and he and his friends find it ridiculously easy to change PT jobs just now. He recently decided he had enough of pizza delivery and within two weeks had found a vacancy, done a 8 hr (paid) trial shift for bar staff, worked weeks notice and started the new job.