We’ve never had as many working age people as we do today
In absolute numbers that is true, but the workforce has declined relative to the size of the population. If there are two people and one of them is in the workforce, that might be okay. If the population then grows to 100 people and now two people are in the workforce, you’ve doubled the workforce!, but you’re bound to have a bad time.
The questions are “why can’t we attract workers into X fields”
Because the workforce has shrunk, relative to the need for workers. A larger population needs more productive capacity.
but more national, question of “why does a worker, that produces more than ever, have less purchasing power than ever?”
Because we reached peak worker productivity a long, long time ago. Overall productivity is up only because capital has picked up the slack.
Funny thing is, once upon a time we encouraged our youth into university research labs to develop new capital which they could capitalize on, promising a higher income on the back of the productivity of the capital. Curiously, we heard the university part, and we heard the higher income part, but glazed over the rest. For some reason that message turned into people thinking they should go to university to get a job where they can be no more productive than any other person has ever been. And, unsurprisingly, incomes have held stagnant for that segment of the population, to which they now act like we have no idea what’s going on…
the workforce is shrinking relative to the size of the population.
That depends on the range you look at. 51.88% of the population was in the workforce in 2001, increasing to 53.41% in 2023. We did peak at 54.55%. Either way, were talking relatively minor undulations
(Statscan 1 July population estimates and labour force characteristics)
Because the workforce has shrunk, relative to the need for workers. A larger population needs more production.
Your workforce assumption was misinformed, unfortunately negating the rationale. I also drill specifically into industries 61 and 611 to show the number of workers, and number of workers per student, is actually increasing.
Productivity is up only because capital has picked up the slack.
Capital is certainly part of it, but there have also been many improvements in I-O, timekeeping, and digitization.
Either way, were talking relatively minor undulations
We’re not exactly missing that many people. We need around 300,000 people to restore job vacancies to the historical norm. Which, conveniently, is the size of that undulation.
Your workforce assumption was misinformed
Only if Statscan is misinformed, as the numbers come straight from they.
but there have also been many improvements in I-O, timekeeping, and digitization.
Those improvements came from capital, and as such capital gets the reward. If workers want a bigger piece of the pie, they are going to have to figure out how to become more productive themselves (or get their own capital).
I can’t speak to all industries, and we also shifting to a bigger scope. The article in question is about education on Québec.
TL;DR: they have +15.0% students for +40.6% workers in the industry.
So the question is, how are there work vacancies when more people are working to provide services to proportionally fewer people.
Restore job vacancies to the historical norm
Can you help me out here? I can find seasonally adjusted since 2015, but I’m bogged down with quarterly data, nothing annual.
Those improvements came from capital, and as such capital gets the reward
I’m pretty sure people innovate, not capital. But innovation benefit capturing is outside my scope; I just steal them from other organizations and implement them in my own.
Regardless of who owns the rewards, the person years : output ratio should still be trending towards needing fewer workers over time.
