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 ?

The jobs you are quoting at £16/hr is not my experience of job vacancies. The majority of vacancies I see advertised locally (East Midlands) are part time under £12/hr and seem to want a great deal of flexibility. Many jobs don't even advertise the rate or hours, it just says eg 24hrs per week Monday to Sat between 8 and 8....

Not difficult is it? Because they are asking too much for the wage they are offering. Boomers have retired and taken their economy and wage / living costs ratios with them. Suddenly all that stuff they forced us xennials to swallow about positive change shit is on the other foot, and unsurprisingly it was always a load of bollox built on the reality of power-based relations. They have made work not worth doing and now the new economy and new ratios cannot stand, it has no reality. Dont expect change any time soon though, it will involve the inheriting rich having to give something back.

Also there were concerted efforts to push the reserve army of labour, ie women with kids, out of the workforce. They suddenly need us back but a lot of the pushing out relied on lying, manipulation and ‘nudge’ work. I’m not sure the people in charge even know what truth and practical reality is now, let alone how to approach real change in our favour without exposing their lies.

They've never even suggested anything! I have applied for that many jobs in that many fields because I was so scared of them pushing me into doing something I didn't want to do.

They offered to help me with my CV. Gave them a copy. They sat on it for ages and sent me a notification saying 'reviewed ' I got no feedback whatsoever.

I considered volunteering but they wouldn't consider it as part of the hours I'm expected to look for work so I don't have time to work search and and look for unpaid work too. Also I spend half my life filling in forms and preparing for interviews.

Every job I've applied for the process has been worse than ever.

One NMW retail job interview involved shadowing staff and practical exams and took 3 hours.

I've had discrimination over my age and single mum status that upset so much I wrote to my MP about it.

The job I accepted last week the employer is so disorganised I've not had an official start date and they've changed the induction venue twice. And they got very stroppy with me when I said I couldn't start immediately.

I kept my options open and I have two more interviews next week. Both I've already had telephone interviews for and done online assessments and one has sent me homework to do.

I've been so despondent about the whole process I genuinely Don't know who I am and what I want anymore and if I end up having to decide between 3 jobs I don't know how I'd decide.

The two other roles are the same hours and pay. 25/30 hours for around 23k. One is a hybrid marketing executive and one is a local authority finance Officer.

I know the other one fits in with the kids but it feels like it's not enough and it's mostly because of the job centre that I'm thinking that.

I've had no guidance whatsoever just constant threats and psychoanalysis from the re-start people. That felt like an extra layer of pressure not support. The online courses they sent me to prepare for interviews were a complete waste of time so I haven't requested any more for my next two interviews.

So I'm not gonna stand in anyone's way with the banana skins!

Get this, I've got all that going on and they're still telling me to put in more applications!

Maybe the government needs to help people abandon those physical locations (e.g. buy and demolish housing) and relocate to the places with jobs?

It’s not easy to move locations, what about people having a support structure around them - family, friends, schools and communities? There’s also a huge disparity in house prices, so leave the home you bought in Wales to move somewhere much more expensive to access a job paying the same salary? Or the government could invest in those locations, support local industry and small businesses. People aren’t pawns to be moved around at the convenience of businesses who will ultimately show no loyalty to staff who uproot themselves for a job.

@mrsnec I worked as a job coach during the pandemic, most of my colleagues were teachers, no training in job coaching whatsoever. Take their advice with a pinch of salt.
Take the role that works for you and the children. I was required to discuss increasing hours with claimants, they called in, I said can you increase your hours, they said no i havent got childcare, i wrote it down. End of conversation. Once you are in some kind of job they back right off, you will be treated a lot better. It's absolute luck of the draw who you end up with.

It seems the huge shortages are in low-paid work with antisocial hours - cleaners, care assistants, hospitality, etc. Those jobs were filled in the past with lots of people from the EU. Many of them went home after Brexit and during the pandemic. They now can't come back, even if they wanted to, because thanks to Brexit they've lost the right to live/work here. Brexit fucked this country.

It's the low-paid that is the issue. Pay more and you will find applicants. Brexit didn't fuck the country, employers who expect workers to work for low wages fucked this country.

The wages are part of it, but also the labour force has shrunk and pretty much the easiest way for people to join it has gone away. That's obviously going to have an impact.

We don't need as many workers with automatization and AI etc. Companies are just going to have to deal with it, find ways to make it work, or close down. We can't keep bringing in immigrants to do shit jobs forever. We need to modernize and become a sleek, modern country with relatively few well-trained people all doing good jobs for high wages.

One of our recent Tory PMs promised us a high wage high skill economy, which is of course why they are so keen to increase the pay in line with inflation of highly skilled workers like teachers, doctors and nurses.

Because that's great for society right?

"Choosing to not work" should not be a viable option. Everyone should work.

As if people faced with low wages that don't allow them to live comfortably will factor that into their decision.

I dont understand how this fits with the vision if AI doing all the basic work and relatively few people doing higher paid work.

Sounds a bit commie, that. And what would you do about people who don't need to work?

@PinkCherryBlossoms - we need to get back to a position where benefits are a safety net & where people realise how society works

In terms of how society works, understanding that people don't actually want to do low paid work with crap conditions and there are fewer opportunities to coerce them into it in an employees market is pretty fundamental. You're not going to get very far without understanding and accepting that.

Surely one reason so many people can't survive without benefits is the vastly inflated cost of housing 🤷

Yep. And relatedly, when you put something as basic as reliable and decent housing so far beyond many working people, you divorce the cost of it from labour, you remove a substantial incentive for people to buy into the system.

Until we fix that, everything else is just plasters on a broken limb.

Exactly, if you have no chance of affording something is basic as a roof over your head how can you be expected to feel part of society ☹️

Why?

@@jgw1 - to fund public services

What about all the unpaid work which also contributes to society?

It's true, we have a lot of people who need care and thus we need others to provide it to them. Unless you're planning a mass cull, which wouldn't be a very sustainable idea bearing in mind that a lot of the people needing care are children, your principles are worth bugger all if they don't factor this in.

In practical terms, there are carers and also people being cared for who would like to do some work, but haven't been able to get anything suitable. It would be worth trying to accommodate those groups.