Workers On The March

?As travelers started moving out after long lockdowns, they realized that at many resorts, the timing of services had been curtailed "as there was no staff at the moment". Especially in the British hospitality sector, overseas employees are crucial, and that has been hit by both Brexit and Covid-19. The situation is somewhat similar for the construction sector.

The shortfall of labor is leading to rising wages, by 10% or 20% at least. The same trend is being seen in the United States, where job vacancies are at their highest in 20 years. Eastern Europe's manufacturers are running low on workers, as are Australian mines and Canadian restaurants.

Is the labor shortage just transient, perhaps like the inflation rate today? Or is this a turning point now? Since 1980, owners of capital have been favored, compared to labor. That was because heavy manufacturing declined, as did the trade unions. In parallel, the globalization of capital meant companies shifted their bases to the cheapest resources of labor, like in China or Eastern Europe.?

Normally it's assumed that capital cannot be beaten now, as technology and AI (Artificial Intelligence) will replace workers in the service sector industries, just like automation took its toll on manufacturing employment. The fear was that the future of workers was truly dark in an Orwellian reality.

The political reaction to the pandemic clearly showed that governments were doing whatever they could to protect workers' incomes by providing them with furlough subsidies, unemployment benefits, and are now pursuing higher corporate taxations. And the psychology of workers may have shifted too, and the flexible work hours have now become the norm and not some exception.

In Britain, the available pool of labor is not low, as many have also lost jobs. But they now demand more training and more flexible work schedules. More vacancies are in low-wage sectors where earnings do not match perceived risks. The minimum wages able to attract workers will rise.

During the 1980s and 1990s, employers had many babies - boomers to choose from. Low fertility rates however imply that workers are now fewer, and the working-age population as a percentage of the total is bound to steadily drop. Perhaps the missing workers can be superseded by robots, but can everyone be?

Human consumers love talking to human service providers, not robots. That may be the upper - hand that labor needs over the capital, at least for some time.?

- Aindri Abhishek Singh