15 Reasons You May Have a Labor Shortage and What To Do About It:

Overview

Despite the worst unemployment since the Great Depression, there are still employers who can’t find enough qualified job applicants. Millions of jobs with attractive pay and benefits that once drew legions of workers are gone, probably for good. Many companies are feeling the pressure of not finding the level of talent their businesses require, ranging from entry-level service positions to high-end engineers to IT professionals.

Agenda

Highlights of the seminar include how to:

• Address the supply-and-demand imbalance in the labor market in a systematic way by developing a strategic direction.
• Anticipate growth as well as loss of personnel because of hit-or-miss hiring tactics and an immediate need or crisis.
• Identify credentials, education and certifications that are not negotiable and are required as minimum standards.
• Work your “network” and don’t rely on Help-wanted ads in the local newspaper to find good people.
• Apply valued conditions of employment as you put a rigorous, but fast recruiting process in place for identifying/hiring top candidates.
• Get new employees up to speed without investing extraordinary amounts of time and money.
• Avoid underestimating the talents of your current staff and overlooking them for promotional opportunities.

REASON FOR LABOUR SHORTAGE

Labor Shortage: Opportunity or Crisis:

The phenomenon of a labor shortage (migrant worker shortage) that has emerged in the Guangdong-Fujian area since 2003 has brought extensive attention from scholars and experts in China and abroad in recent years. It has generated great interest and heated discussion in academia and industry on the prospect and impact of its development. To analyze the causes of this phenomenon, there are several main reasons as stated in the following: first, the One Child policy China has adopted since late 1970s has had an effect on the change of population structure. As a result, the supply of young laborers is decreasing. A study conducted by the Chinese Social Science Institute in 2005 demonstrates that the annual labor supply appeared to decrease for the first time in 2004. It estimates by 2011 the labor supply will no longer increase, aSecond, in recent years the central and local governments emphasized the importance of agricultural production and rural development. Pro-agriculture policy and the slowdown of the growth in manufacturing and processing industry have encouraged a considerable number of migrant workers to return hometown and resume farming. In addition, the alleviation of residence control (the “hu kou” system) has also promoted the geographic and inter-industrial mobility of migrant workers as well as its frequency.

Third and most importantly, the stagnant and even decreasing wage level, high intensity of the pace of work and poor benefits in the Guangdong-Fujian region and the Pearl River Delta region forced a great number of migrant workers to leave for places that provide better labor treatment.

According to a report by the official Xinhua News Agency, the average monthly income of migrant workers in Fujian Province is approximately a mere ¥600 ($75) currently. This amount is only 42% of non-migrant, or resident workers in Fujian . These migrant workers work more than 10 hours a day but rarely make more than ¥1,000 a month ($125). Most of the medium-size and small non-state owned enterprises in Fujian Province pay salaries based on piecework. Workers cannot possibly complete required production quota within 8 hours. Hence, they have to work overtime in order to receive the compensation they should receive based on regular working time under the law. It is very common for workers to work 10-12 hours a day on average. Nonetheless, most factories use the piece-rate payment method as an excuse for not paying overtime compensation. In contrast, the Yangtze River Delta region has surpassed the Pearl River Delta region in wage levels and work conditions. The Yangtze River Delta region has produced a series of policies to protect migrant workers' rights, covering work injury insurance, minimum wage insurance, health insurance, etc., which has contributed to the geographic shift of migrant workers. Shanghai , which is located at the edge of the Yangtze River Delta region also mandates pensions.

China Labor Watch believes that the labor shortage phenomenon and the migration of laborers will have a positive impact on the overall improvement of wage standard and labor treatment of migrant workers. The decrease of production and profit in factories caused by labor shortage has forced the local governments in the Pearl River Delta region to amend labor policies and improve the treatment of workers. Among these changes, Zhongshan and Dongguan City of Guangdong Province raised their minimum wage standard from ¥450/month ($56) to ¥574/month ($72). Guangzhou City raised its minimum wage from ¥510 ($64) to ¥684 ($86) a month. Shenzhen expects to increase its minimum wage from ¥690 ($86) to ¥800 ($100) or ¥850 ($106) a month.nd the total annual labor supply will begin decreasing from 2021.

 long-term solutions to labour shortages:

For years, the shortage of qualified labour has been one of the top priority concerns for our members in the North. In fact, 47 per cent of small businesses say they have ignored new business opportunities due to labour shortages. With the economy in NWT slowly emerging from the recent recession, governments need to re-focus their efforts on developing meaningful, long-term solutions.

We have lobbied for the launch of a pilot territorial nominee program, and were pleased the Government of NWT (GNWT) took action in 2009. While not the only answer, improving the immigration system to make it more responsive to the needs of employers is a huge step forward. Where they exist in other Canadian provinces and territories, they have been very well received by small business.

Another sensible strategy is for the GNWT to introduce a training tax credit for small business, as a way of recognizing the time and cost that small business invest in the training their employees. Together, we will continue to pressure policy-makers to develop better strategies to help deal with the enormous challenges faced by small business.

Skilled Labour Shortage:

Due to baby boomer retirements and an aging population, Canada is facing a serious skilled labour shortage. The older average age of many tradespeople and their stated intention to retire suggest that if efforts are not made to train the next generation of skilled workers, Canada's future economic competitiveness will be in serious jeopardy.

For the sectors that rely upon tradespeople, apprenticeship is a proven training method that produces productive, highly skilled, and safe employees. Since it typically takes five years to train an apprentice, industry needs to invest now in order to have the highly skilled tradespeople it needs for the future. A sustained and ongoing commitment to training and to passing down knowledge will be required if skill shortages are to be effectively addressed.

Labour shortage drives construction wage rises

Labour shortage drives construction wage rises:

A spate of new construction sites and a lack of labour is driving salaries higher. Skilled tradespeople are in particular demand, often chasing higher wages and overtime pay from site to site as developers bid for their sought-after skills.

Ko Kaung Htut, foreman for a group of 15 workers, said that his group often works at more than one site at once.

The group may work for three days at one site, then switch to another site if it has more urgent work giving overtime pay, before switching back when the second task is completed.

The shortage is particularly apparently for skilled labourers. “We still have many non-experienced workers,” he said. “But we don’t have enough skilled workers and there are many construction sites out there.”

Wages keep pace with the worker shortage, according to developers.

U Aung Aung, an official at one construction firm in Kamaryut township, said that in 2013 casual workers started at about K3000 a day. “Today the lowest payment is K5000 a day,” he said.

Casual workers with some experience were earning between K4000 and K5000 a day, while skilled professionals earn between K6000 and K8000 a day, in 2013. But insiders say they must now pay far more for skilled trade. Some say they regularly pay over K10,000 a day for skilled labourers.

“Hiring fees have been gradually increasing since a year ago, and we are making high daily payments for workers,” he said.

“It’s difficult hiring professionals. In the past you could get a real mason whose work was excellent. But now we have to hire an ordinary worker who uses a mason’s tools,” said U Aung Aung.

Royal Smart construction company owner U Tin Tun said the skilled workers are available – if one is willing to pay the costs.

It’s not difficult finding casual labourers, as “many people want a job,” he said. “But of course I can’t get enough skilled workers, but if developers pay enough it’s not difficult to find them.”

U Tin Tun said he pays his female casual workers K3000 a day and male workers K5500.

“But the minimum for skilled workers is K8000,” he added.

An official from Aung Myin Pyae Sone company in Thingangkyun township he reckons many skilled workers are being lured abroad by promises of higher salaries.

The official, who requested anonymity, said his firm is conducting recruitment in villages to try and find workers to bring to the big city.

“Even though we’re looking for skilled workers in the villages, we’re finding no one,” he said.

“There are fewer skilled workers as they go abroad for higher-paying jobs.”

Wages are rising even though the quality of work is often dropping, he said. He added wages had increased about 50 percent for casual labour and about 70pc for skilled carpenters from later year.

“Skills speak for the price,” he said.

Although there is a shortage of skilled labourers, officials from the Myanmar Engineering Society said their efforts to provide training programs with masonry, carpentry and iron work skills often fail.

It cancelled a carpentry class in June because too few people registered, he said. “Workers want to be working instead of being in class”.

Apparent shortages and multitudes of skills

Apparent shortages and multitudes of skills:

The Programming Wisdom Center^{[self-published source?]} has identified a possible conundrum whereby there may be a skills shortage from the employer's perspective but not the employee's perspective. This can happen when many "sub-skills" are involved in the selection process, such as requirements for multiple programming languages and computer tools often found in technical job ads. The phenomenon may account for seemingly contradictory complaints from both large companies and technical professionals regarding visa worker quotas.^{[4][unreliable source?]}

The theory suggests that the more skills that are involved, the higher the gap between primary matches and secondary matches. Combing the globe for candidates allegedly increases the chances of a better match. However, it may reduce the chance of a citizen being hired even though on the average their skills are on par. In other words, having a wider choice reduces the chances of a citizen being the best candidate due to probability field increase alone rather than lack of skills on the citizen's part.

A comparable analogy would be the opening of Jewelry store B next to the existing Jewelry store A. Even though store A may have similar prices and selection, their sales will still likely slide downward. A given customer will now purchase from the new store B half the time. Unless more customers in total come to the area, store Asales will be cut in half.

Wages as a factor in labour shortages

Wages as a factor in labour shortages

Wage levels have been suggested as one way to measure a labour shortage. However, this often does not match people's common perceptions. For example, if wages alone are the best measure of labour shortages, then that would imply that we should be importing doctors instead of farm workers because doctors are far more expensive than farm workers. However, there are institutionally-imposed limits on the number of doctors that are allowed to be licensed. If foreign migrant workers were not allowed into a nation, then farm wages may go up, but probably not enough to approach the wages of doctors.

The Atlantic slave trade (which originated in the early 17th century but ended by the early 19th century) was said to have originated due to perceived shortages of agricultural labour in the Americas (particularly in the American South). As this was the only means of malaria resistance available at the time.^[2] Ironically malaria seems to itself have been introduced to the "New World" via the slave trade.