Episode 135: The “Labor Shortage” Ruse: How Capital Invents Staffing Crises to Bust Unions and Depress Wages
Added 2021-04-29 00:19:26 +0000 UTC"Trucking Shortage: Drivers Aren't Always In It For The Long Haul," NPR tells us. "The U.S. Is Running Out of Nurses," reports The Atlantic. "There's A Nationwide STEM Teacher Shortage. Will It Cost Us The Next Einstein?" Forbes laments. '"'The Future Depends on Teachers,' PSA launched targeting teachers amid shortage," notes a local FOX affiliate.
Every few weeks, we hear about an essential industry suffering from a critical "labor shortage" –– nurses, truck drivers, software engineers, teachers, construction. According to corporate trade groups and their media mouthpieces, these industries simply can’t find trained workers to fill their ranks.
But a closer examination of "worker shortage" claims reveals that there’s very rarely an actual worker shortage –– what there is, time and again, is more accurately described as a "pay shortage": industries not wanting to provide adequate compensation or safe work conditions for the available labor market that is perfectly willing and ready to work. Instead of a "worker shortage," there's a “"not hyper liquidity in the labor market" problem for capital –– the perfectly capable and trained workers industries do have are not easily replaceable, potentially or already unionized, and making demands of capital those industries simply don't like.
In an effort to increase recruiting of new potential employees, promote legislation that loosens licensing or health and safety standards, and reinforce media-ready memes that American workers are lazy and greedy, industry lobbying groups constantly whine about "labor shortages," knowing the media will mindlessly repeat these claims without any skepticism or curiosity as to why they're reporting on the exact same "labor shortages" every year for 40 years.
Our guest is CEPR's Kevin Cashman.
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Guest
Kevin Cashman is Senior Associate at Center for Economic and Policy Research.
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Show Notes
Literacy Tests and Asian Exclusion Were the Hallmarks of the 1917 Immigration Act
Lorraine Boissoneault | February 6, 2017 | Smithsonian Magazine
Driver Shortage Spurs Company Incentive Plans
Denise Gellene | February 25, 1990 | Los Angeles Times
Trucking Shortage: Drivers Aren't Always In It For The Long Haul
Morning Edition | December 14, 2015 | NPR
Truck Driver Shortage Analysis 2017 [PDF]
Bob Costello | October 2017 | American Trucking Associations
Is the U.S. labor market for truck drivers broken?
Stephen V. Burks and Kristen Monaco | March 2019 | BLS Monthly Labor Review
Rachel Premack | Sep 5, 2018 | Business Insider
Rachel Premack | Sep 26, 2018 | Business Insider
The U.S. Is Running Out of Nurses
Rebecca Grant | February 3, 2016 | The Atlantic
Nursing Salaries Are Stagnant, New Survey Shows
Troy Brown | October 11, 2018 | MedScape
Solving the Nursing Shortage through Higher Wages [PDF]
Vicky Lovell | 2015 | Institute for Women’s Policy Research
There Is No ‘Nursing Shortage.’ There’s Just a Good Nursing Job Shortage.
Michelle Chen | August 7, 2019 | The Nation
Amid a raging pandemic, the US faces a nursing shortage. Can we close the gap?
Rayna M. Letourneau | November 20, 2020 | The Conversation
Where Have All the Construction Workers Gone?
Alana Semuels | February 13, 2015 | The Atlantic
Immigrants flooded California construction. Worker pay sank. Here’s why
Natalie Kitroeff | April 22, 2017 | Los Angeles Times
The Construction Labor Shortage: Will Developers Deploy Robotics?
Juliette Cilia | July 31, 2019 | Forbes
A policy agenda to address the teacher shortage in U.S. public schools
Emma García and Elaine Weiss | October 15, 2020 | Economic Policy Institute
Why I Stopped Writing Recommendation Letters for Teach for America
Catherine Michna | October 9, 2013 | Slate
We Need To Stop Talking About The Teacher Shortage
Peter Greene | September 5, 2019 | Forbes
How Teachers’ Unions Handcuff Schools
Sol Stern | Spring 1997 | City Journal
Tech industry’s persistent claim of worker shortage may be phony
Michael Hiltzik | August 1, 2015 | Los Angeles Times
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Transcript
For a full transcript of this episode, go here.
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Comments
Being a reply guy on patron is probably a bad look but oh well. They do that in the states too. It’s the same reason that all the executives of tech firms pay for all these programming in the classroom initiatives. They don’t care if girls in the intercity code, or if coal miners do they just want to stop paying programs such high wages. With the Google union the case is 2 fold with programmers being very important to the union because they wield so much power. They leverage it to protect people in less powerful positions from poor treatment.
Ben Gialenios
2021-05-06 19:21:02 +0000 UTCI saw on MSNBC today that worker shortage might harm your vacation. My partner had to remind me we had neighbors since I was screaming at the TV so loudly. I find both of these headlines to be deeply disturbing. The class warfare is so blatant it’s disgusting. Its a protection rackette. PMC wouldn’t it be terrible if someone took your treats away from you if you give me what I want I’ll make sure you can keep them.
Ben Gialenios
2021-05-06 19:04:39 +0000 UTCFantastic episode. In the Irish business press, you also see this trope quite a lot, and especially when it comes to IT programmers and engineers. Having said that, in my personal life, I like to attribute my poor physical fitness levels to 'a shortage of exercise opportunities'. It makes me feel a lot better about myself!
Ciaran Colley
2021-04-29 09:24:48 +0000 UTCGreat episode, another good example from CNN a few days ago. "Big scary gasoline shortage will cancel your summer vacation, thanks lazy truck drivers": https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/27/business/summer-gasoline-shortage/index.html
Andrew
2021-04-29 02:28:47 +0000 UTC
