It’s now June 2022 and the world seems to have moved past Covid lock downs and restrictions so we should expect everything to be returning to normal by now right? Unfortunately, it seems that labor shortages around the world continue to persist.
In the UK, employers are trying something new…a FOUR day work week.
Facing the same sort of labor shortage that’s frustrated employers in the United States, about 70 companies in the United Kingdom have begun a six-month trial of shorter work weeks in the hopes of making employment more attractive for prospective hires.
Food Service Director
Back in the United States, American Airlines announced it is paying regional pilots 50% more to help ease the pilot shortage.
Some businesses are wising up to the whole demographics situation and opting to relocate to greener pastures (states with plenty of young families and growing labor force). From CNBC:
It is one of the few areas all parties seem to agree on: America’s domestic supply chain is broken. One of the main reasons is not in dispute either: an acute shortage of workers — 5.5 million more job openings than there are workers available to fill them, according to the Labor Department.
CNBC.com
Ironically, we wrote about this issue a while back in, The Next Civil War Will Be About Labor Not Politics outlining that states with younger populations will likely economically outpace states with older populations. The problem will grow in magnitude as 60 million boomers all head for retirement by the year 2030. There won’t be enough young people to backfill all those retiring boomers and if 4 day work weeks become the norm then the Future Is Slow.
Stay tuned and stay solvent…