What jobs are you/your employer struggling to recruit to?

[wanttoworkbut]

Just that really. There's a million comments saying getting jobs is difficult at the moment, but there must be some shortages somewhere, or at least where there are fewer good candidates. I am looking in the north, but any region of the UK welcome.

We need more cleaners, gardeners & "handyman" there is such a large market for honest, reliable people!

As per the regular threads about cleaners, people won't pay a decent rate to make it worthwhile. I've always maintained self employed need to charge at least double NMW, so basically £25 per hour for basic mostly labour only work, and higher where equipment/supplies are needed to be provided. That covers all the non chargeable time, such as visiting and writing quotes, travel to suppliers to buy equipment/materials, bad weather days when they can't work, the unpaid holidays and sick days, making their own pension provisions, car/van costs, overheads such as transport, professional fees, subscriptions, equipment & tools, insurance etc.

Whilst people are only willing to pay £15 per hour, you're really not going to get many people setting up self employed and working for such a derisory amount.

Please, put prices up! Quality and reliability are worth paying for, £15/hr isnt what it used to be.

But will the employers want to pay higher taxes for more job ready grads? Will they heckers like. And so it falls back on the individuals to take the risk, and debt - a very Americanised culture we're becoming, and all the poorer for it IMO.

I'm a retired accountant. I would love to earn a bit of money from part-time working but unfortunately the job has changed beyond all recognition.

When I started out, we used ledgers and hand-written workings etc. We then progressed to spreadsheets and basic accounting software packages. I kept up with most changes over the years, but I really don't like spending all day filling in boxes on a computer.

The job has changed from being a fairly challenging technical job into a very mundane, box ticking exercise even at a senior level. Everything has become so prescriptive that no imagination or intelligence is required. Added to that, remote working and the reduction in face-to-face meetings with clients has increased the boredom to a level I find unacceptable. I used to see half a dozen clients a day, enjoyed entertaining or being entertained by them at lunch or dinner, etc I doubt most senior managers see any clients regularly and very few would have an entertaining budget due to tight margins. This loss of the personal side has taken away the sense of purpose that came from helping individuals.

The enjoyment and satisfaction has completely gone from job and for that reason I decided to retire early and change direction to do something more inspiring. Unless working conditions change, these types of jobs will be undesirable and probably AI will make them obsolete anyway.

Totally agree with @FalseSpring

remote working and the reduction in face-to-face meetings with clients has increased the boredom to a level I find unacceptable ... This loss of the personal side has taken away the sense of purpose that came from helping individuals.

My previous job is the same. Just all done remotely by WhatsApp, email or the occasional Zoom call now. So dull.

It’s interesting you say that - I def think it’s gone that way even in sexy industries like ours ( music) I remember the company we do all our work for had a great fun party a few years ago for a big anniversary - think 40 years in business etc and several veteran musicians ( well known ones) commented how much they enjoyed it because there are next to no industry parties anymore- lots of the award ceremonies have stopped, people stopped taking others out for lunch or after work drinks, no vibe in offices because half the staff aren’t in ( sometimes even more) clear desk policies, so no personalisation - far fewer calls and chats as all email with occasional zoom - an awful lot of jobs have become sterile , box ticking and dull- even in what should be vibrant industry’s

No, I think the Unis should be providing more "profession" orientated degrees so that the graduates can at least hit the ground running which makes them a more employable commodity for employers and will make them more likely to persevere through the professional exams required after Uni alongside working too! A win for the employee, a win for the employer and a win for the country.

It's what Polys' used to do before they were scrapped, i.e. trade/vocational/professional courses. Our obsession with degrees over the past three decades has really screwed the country.

I'm quite relived you say that because that's how I feel about work lately. I used to work in some really fun places. Having said that I will work almost anywhere now because I need a job.

Ditto to all that. I'm a sole trader accountancy practice, in the middle of being "bought out" by a slightly larger firm of accountants so I can retire next year. I never expected to "retire" as such and always planned to just wind down into retirement over several years and then "dabble" a bit with a small number of clients in retirement just to keep an interest and earn a little pocket money. Sod that. Come next 1 April, I'm finished, forever, and I won't be the least bit sad nor regretful about it.

The "working life" has never been worse. Clients expect everything yesterday but only want to pay peanuts. Dealing with HMRC is utterly impossible. Clients are dropping like flies due to the economic situation, higher taxes, ever increasing employment legislation, etc. It's all utterly depressing.

I don't actually mind the computing/IT side of it. I started in 1983 and we had computers and spreadsheets back then, so I didn't know much different (although we still worked with hand written cash books, Simplex D books, and hand written extended trial balances in those early days, but it was declining by the mid 80s). I taught myself Novell network programming and installed our first office-wide network in the late 80s or early 90s, then installed our first email system in the mid 90s. So highly IT literate really. Then I developed my own website and integrated online book-keeping for clients in the early 00s - before the likes of Sage and QB joined the party! Never really relied on nor been too keen on meetings etc and embraced Teams/Skype etc and even some self-made videos for presenting accounts etc for bigger clients.

But HMRC's utter incompetence and the ever changing tax rules, meddling Chancellors, yet another round of Companies House accounts disclosure changes, etc etc has ruined it for me. It's all going round in circles and in a lot of ways we're almost back to the 80s, especially with Limited company accounts submissions for small companies. What a monumental waste of time and money.

I'm just so jaundiced by the whole thing now and can't wait to put it all behind me. I can really understand and empathise with the growing numbers of people who are taking early retirement. It's just all so soul destroying these days.

If graduates are no better than sixth form leavers, then employers shouldn’t ask for a degree! If employers didn’t insist on a degree for even the most basic admin job, then far fewer young people would go to uni and start their lives with high levels of debt. Personally, I think employers should pay a graduate tax if they employ a graduate.

In some jobs, a degree is necessary, so employers should either pay the cost of it, or provide the training themselves. It’s unfair how all of the burden is put in the individual, who can end up with huge debts and a poorly paid job (or worse, no job) at the end of it.

Yes there are only 2 colleges and both in the south which meant I wasn’t able to do this as they didn’t offer part-time courses.

How much experience do you need in industry? I'm a Trusts and foundations fundraiser which has a lot of transferable skills and have often thought about going over to bids and tenders.

You can do it as a part time masters if you already have an undergrad. They have done a part time grad for at least 15 years.

www.harper-adams.ac.uk/courses/postgraduate/46/rural-estate-and-land-management

Brookes and Royal Ag?