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 ?

I think people see high profile benefit claimants like Boris Johnson and think that all are like that.

This should be looked into. Too comfortable or something else

But how many hours are these vacancies? When I was job seeking there was a vacancy near me. It was 8 hours a week but you couldn't take a second job because they wanted you to be free to cover when they needed you to.

A friend at university had a holiday job at a meat factory (1990s). He said there were 'mum shifts' where women would arrive after taking the kids to school and then work until 2pm, so that they could pick the kids up from school.

I suspect (educated guess based upon the UK labour market from early 2000s and current labour shortages in meat processing) that a lot of those jobs disappeared in favour of young Eastern Europeans working 12 hour shifts.

Companies will need to bring back that kind of flexibility to get staff in the post brexit world.

The jobs in the OP aren't being advertised at £16ph, they are people already employed there that are earning £16ph so they have probably been there ages and doing a slightly higher up job anyway so were given a pay rise. I doubt the company is advertising new posts at £16ph.

We have lost several teaching assistants recently who have found jobs that whilst are still on the same minimum wage, they are instead based from home and are 9-5 all year round, rather than 9-3 term-time only so they are not only more flexible, but have the scope for lots more hours.

People will choose jobs that suit their circumstances.

I was one that early retired during Covid, I didn't like working from home as it meant being cooped up in our box room, what sort of life is that.

But they’re not working full time. Many deliberately work the minimum possible hours then top up with UC because, well they don’t want to work 🤷🏼‍♀️ we are a lazy population reliant on free cash.

Where I am there’s a huge dearth of reliable childcare, and nothing at all if your child has additional support needs.

I work part time because I can’t get childcare to enable me to work full time, the only reason I can work part time is due to a very flexible employer. My DD starts high school in August at specialist provision, she’s 12 but due to complex needs can’t be home alone, there’s literally no childcare available for her. I couldn’t increase my hours if I wanted to (and I do).

I know many parents in my position who would love to work but are restricted because of caring responsibilities. While folk will say it’s fine to claim benefits if your child is disabled, the reality is if there was better support for those children, specialist childcare available etc many parents would love to work. So many people I know have given up hard fought for careers due to lack of support for their disabled children.

@Jellycatspyjamas

What a lot of people don't realise is the need for respite from caring for children with SEN.

Work can be a place of sanctuary to recharge before resuming the caring responsibilities.

Is there the possibility of your child attending breakfast or after school clubs to reduce the need for childcare?

@roundcork Maybe try advertising without the weekend commitment. I expect that is the killer for single parents with kids of school age.

I'd say weekend childcare is even harder than weekday childcare. If the reason you need 9-2 is lack of childcare options.

Offer an onsite creche?

Most jobs that I see advertised want the earth. I work in admin and often look for jobs online. Everyone wants years of experience in this or that and then offer a measly £22k a year.

The jobs I see in retail, etc want complete flexibility over weekends and evenings, that's not suitable for a single parent for example and often only offer 0 hour contracts.

I'm a completely lone parent so that wouldn't have worked for someone like me, I had no one who would help me with childcare on a weekend.

A large local employer here has always had an on-site crèche which has been very highly thought of. I know a number of parents at the school who work there and have used it. It is closing in the summer (citing inadequate funding from the government and changing expectations for early years), leaving 90 kids and 20 members of staff looking for something else. It’s been quite a big story in the papers alongside several other local nurseries closing due to rising rents/energy charges/mimimim
wage when the given funding per child hasn’t increased.

Childcare going forward is going to be a massive problem unless funding is addressed pretty sharpish.

Is there the possibility of your child attending breakfast or after school clubs to reduce the need for childcare?

Theres no wrap around provision at the specialist school she’ll be going to, no childminders will have her because she’ll be 12, no after school club picks up from her new school - and the school transport actively works against after school childcare in that they will only pick up and return to a home address and they need to hand her over to an adult at home. It’s a nightmare.

That's also a problem in IT.

They advertise jobs requiring guru level skillsets (ideally they want the person that wrote the original system code) but are only paying £35k.

In reality the majority of roles could be done by a reasonably bright person with a few weeks of training.

It tends to end up with chancers/bullshitters trying their luck and getting the roles because nobody matching the advert has applied (why would they?) and less impressive CVs, but potentially more suitable candidates, never got called in for interview.

There are too many deluded middle managers in charge of hiring.

In one of my previous roles a colleague sat in on some interviews. He said one guy was perfect but really nervous. He was unemployed after being made redundant and really needed the job, so his nerves were understandable. Our moronic boss rejected him and hired a total clown that caused nothing but trouble.

Then wages will have to rise in those sectors. The market will resolve the issue by allowing labour where it's needed at the wage required.

Unprofitable businesses will go bust and those workers will be relocated by the market to the businesses that provide goods/services that are in demand.

The theory of the free market doesn't work, because it assumes infinite mobility on the part of all actors in the labour market. In reality things are constrained by skills/experience, transport, and housing. Businesses can't move overnight, and it's not as easy as "get on your bike" to go find another job in another area (for anyone that remembers Norman T.).

When I look at what's happening locally, the hospitality sector is being struggling in popular tourist areas because there's a lack of affordable accommodation, public transport is poor, and the work is highly seasonal. The industrial sector (mostly food related) is struggling because post-Brexit/post-Covid the workforce is on average older and proportionately now has a higher percentage wanting fractional contracts for reasons of childcare, health, or just because they want a better work:life balance.

I'm afraid I don't have any answers. Those seem like intractable issues except for those earning £100k+

My profile on Indeed is still active and I'm getting lots of 'invitation to apply' emails (I'm not sure if this is a new function on Indeed or if employers are having to do a bit more now to try and get staff and it always existed and lots more are using it)
I've just had a look through the last 10 or so and not one is paying over the nmw, many are offering things like a free mandatory uniform or free/paid mandatory training as a 'perk' of the job! And they all say that it's an 'urgent' vacancy, and was posted 30+ days ago, most in care, retail and hospitality.
It's incredibly lazy and short sighted to believe that everyone is just too idle and would rather live on such generous benefits than to do one of those jobs, rather than the employers just simply aren't offering enough - and by enough I mean a wage that you can live on without scraping to survive and working conditions that don't take over your life.

The government aren't exactly famed for their generosity, but we have a situation where you can be getting the same income despite working - the issue there is not too generous benefits, it's too tight employers who have been allowed to get away with paying too little and the state subsidising their business with in work benefits.

I'd like to see a shift to full time work equalling an actual living wage and if an employer can't afford to pay that, then they are the ones who apply for top up benefits in order to be able to do so, not the employees. And they have to fullfil a set of strict criteria to be able to claim - one of which being they cannot be taking large profit while paying the minimum and then expecting government hand outs. I reckon that alone would cut the welfare bill because companies would be forced to pay the actual going rate and prove the reasons they can't - and if those reasons are massive profits then tough, you pay for your own staff and you take less profit.

"it's not as easy as "get on your bike" to go find another job in another area (for anyone that remembers Norman T.)."

What he actually said was in response to people suggesting that riots were due to unemployment.

“I grew up in the 30s with an unemployed father. He did not riot. He got on his bike and looked for work.”

https://wordhistories.net/2021/12/19/get-on-your-bike/

With regards to seasonal tourist work, I'd have thought that students would be perfect given their 12 week summer breaks. They could have working holidays in, for example, Cornwall - but they'd need accommodation to be provided ether by employers or the local tourist board.

“I grew up in the 30s with an unemployed father. He did not riot. He got on his bike and looked for work.”

And a man with limited family responsibilities can do that. The issue is we expect mothers to do that and they simply cannot.

@Maverickess Agreed. It is a ridiculous situation where fat cats pay themselves obscene wages, while their staff live hand-to-mouth on minimum wage / benefits top-ups.

I'm just not sure how that would work for shyster companies like Starbucks that claim to make a loss to avoid paying tax.

With regards to seasonal tourist work, I'd have thought that students would be perfect given their 12 week summer breaks. They could have working holidays in, for example, Cornwall - but they'd need accommodation to be provided ether by employers or the local tourist board.
The season starts in Easter and runs to the end of September. It's longer than the student holidays. They've been advertising for immediate start for over a month already.

With the holiday let cleaning jobs I'm already starting to see the corners being cut. Jobs that clearly don't meet the HMRC definition are being advertised as 'self-employed'.

I'm afraid I don't have any answers. Those seem like intractable issues except for those earning £100k+

There aren’t any answers to be fair, there’s just an expectation that if your child has a disability there will be a non-working carer available at all times. There are so many parents of children with mild to moderate learning difficulties, learning disabilities, developmental delay etc who want to work but can’t because the infrastructure just isn’t there and so they remain on benefits indefinitely.