pokee

This new world we live in is seeing businesses go bankrupt right, left, and centre... if only it was simple as having them all fork over more money to better compensate employees.

People are already rising up and demanding a better work life - they all want to work from home! So yeah, the pay has to go up everywhere if we have to put on pants go to work, right? Lol. Sad but true, the work life balance is better with those types of jobs, and so many have set up their lives around it.

I'm all for better pay for hardworking individuals, but I'm tried of these unions holding the public hostage to get it done. I just wish there was a better way!

cirrusdragoon

Society is in a much more complicated situation than this. Our world is in the throes of a serious labour shortage, and it is not all the pandemic's fault; it is the inevitable culmination of a seismic demographic shift decades in the making. We are seeing the Baby boomer generation exiting the workforce .

While those 55 and older have been steadily exiting the workforce. It is an exodus accelerated by the pandemic, as many older workers opted for early retirement. There simply are not enough younger workers to replace them.Much data points to the emergence of an employees' market where workers are enjoying an enormous amount of leverage over employers.

It is undeniable this trend we are in where the balance between job seekers and job vacancies has definitely shifted. In particular, the construction and manufacturing sectors are having a difficult time recruiting skilled workers, followed closely by accommodation and food services, which includes hotels, restaurants and bars.

People are finding other places to work. There just aren't enough people willing to do poorly paid jobs that are marginal at best.

Workers have a lot more choices now. With more choices and you do not have to work in that industry, you will work in an industry where there is a better career stream and where the wages are higher and the hours are more predictable.

This could force employers to raise wages. The transportation industry included. Demand for these jobs is not going to go away. In my view, we certainly are going to see some pretty serious wage inflation in many industries over the years ahead. This competitive new environment means employers in certain sectors will need to raise wages if they hope to retain skilled workers.

Of course there are other possible outcomes — increasing automation to fill the vacuum left by the labour shortage, for one. Some industries could also bring in more temporary foreign workers to help fill gaps at the lower end of the labour market, potentially blunting the gains made by domestic workers. Rising wages could help erase some of the inequalities caused by a labour market that has for years paid some workers well and the rest poorly.

If we improve wages and working conditions, particularly at the bottom, we could be creating the conditions for making a more resilient middle class that can actually afford to buy stuff. That is what we've been missing out on for quite a while now.

Population aging can be our friend, not our enemy. Our society world-wide needs to treat our current predicament as something more than just a labour shortage for business. We have to treat it as an opportunity to make every job a good job.

Fisch

***Unifor and WestJet reach Tentative Agreement***

Stby for more

Fisch

WestJet workers in Calgary and Vancouver reach tentative agreement

https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/westjet-workers-in-calgary-and-vancouver-reach-tentative-agreement-863070565.html

cirrusdragoon

Excellent step in the right direction Onex and Mr Schwartz