Ontem publicamos aqui no blogue: "Depois não se venham queixar das empresas zombies".
Volta e meia escrevo aqui sobre o país do absurdo. Querem mais um exemplo? O novo aeroporto de Lisboa. Às segundas, terças e quartas, empertigam-se porque já deveria estar construído e em operação, para às quintas, sextas e sábados protestarem contra o excesso de turismo e contra as alterações climáticas.
Às segundas, terças e quartas, empertigam-se porque temos demasiadas empresas zombies...
para às quintas, sextas e sábados, quando lhes começam a tremer as pernas, protestarem por causa da falta de apoios para elas.
Voltemos ao tema da parte I, a falta de mão-de-obra. Vai ser o novo normal.
Entretanto no NYT de quarta-feira passada encontro "Signs of a Lasting Labor Crunch"
"At Lake Champlain Chocolates, the owners take shifts stacking boxes in the warehouse. At Burlington Bagel Bakery, a sign in the window advertises wages starting at $25 an hour. Central Vermont Medical Center is training administrative employees to become nurses. Cabot Creamery is bringing workers from out of state to package its signature blocks of Cheddar cheese.
The root of the staffing challenge is simple: Vermont's population is rapidly aging. More than a fifth of Vermonters are 65 or older, and more than 35 percent are over 54, the age at which Americans typically begin to exit the work force. No state has a smaller share of its residents in their prime working years.
Vermont offers an early look at where the rest of the country could be headed.
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"All of these things point in the direction of prolonged labor scarcity,"
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Employers are fighting over scarce workers, offering wage increases, signing bonuses and child care subsidies, alongside enticements such as free ski passes. [Moi ici:a diferença para a parte I é notória] When those tactics fail, many are limiting operating hours and scaling back product offerings.
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Long-run labor scarcity will look different from the acute shortages of the pandemic era. Businesses will find ways to adapt, either by paying workers more or by adapting their operations to require fewer of them. Those that can't adapt will lose ground to those that can.
"It's just going to be a new equilibrium," said Jacob Vigdor, an economist at the University of Washington, adding that businesses that built their operations on the availability of relatively cheap labor may struggle. [Moi ici: A quem caberá a carapuça?]
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"You may discover that that business model doesn't work for you anymore," he said. "There are going to be disruptions. There are going to be winners and losers." [Moi ici: Sinto tanta falta deste pragmatismo adulto carregado de bom senso... faz-me voltar ao piquenine e às formigas de 2006]
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The winners are the workers. When workers are scarce, employers have an incentive to broaden their searches - considering people with less formal education, or those with disabilities and to give existing employees opportunities for advancement.
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Other businesses are finding their own ways to accommodate workers. Lake Champlain Chocolates, a high-end chocolate maker outside Burlington, has revamped its production schedule to reduce its reliance on seasonal help. It has also begun bringing former employees out of retirement, hiring them part-time during the holiday season.
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"We've adapted," said Allyson Myers, the company's marketing director. "Prepandemic we never would have said, oh, come and work in the fulfillment department one day a week or two days a week. We wouldn't have offered that as an option."
Then there is the most straightforward way to attract workers: paying them more. Lake Champlain has raised starting wages for its factory and retail workers 20 to 35 percent over the past two years.
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"We need to start looking at immigrants as a strategic resource, incredibly valuable parts of the economy,;" said Ron Hetrick, senior labor economist at Lightcast, a labor market data firm."
Na parte I temos o típico comportamento tuga em que o locus de controlo está no exterior (nós somos uns desgraçados, uns Calimeros, não temos agência, tem de ser alguém no exterior a resolver o nosso problema). Na parte II temos um discurso em que o locus de controlo está no interior.
(Fonte)
