Layoffs allow companies to reduce their cost. Labor shortages can stem from various sources - lack of skills need, not paying a fair wage etc. And layoffs and s

Layoffs allow companies to reduce their cost. Labor shortages can stem from various sources - lack of skills need, not paying a fair wage etc. And layoffs and shortages can and often are orthogonal. For example: In the US, the layoffs are largely in tech sector. These companies took advantage but perhaps too much (humans and greed etc) of low interest rates for more than a decade + the crescendo of the pandemic money injection which all made it easy to borrow capital and hire more people than needed. It’s like you don’t realized you have had too much alcohol till the next morning. The night of the party, In the moment you can justify “just one more” drink a few times. That’s your layoffs. On the other hand, I keep hearing that there is a massive shortage of restaurant staff these days. None of these restaurants owners want to pay their employees a fair wage. They don’t realize that at the receiving end of their employer - employee relationship is also a human who is just like them. Who simply wants a better life for the most part. Tipping culture is out of hand - restaurant owners say that if they pay their staff a fair wage they have to raise their prices. So these morons think that keeping the prices low will attract more customers but the reality is that the customer still pays more for their food as they will need to tip. That’s your shortages. One of the big problems here is real wages in America have been stagnant for 30+ years [1]. People are being asked to do more as cost of living keeps rising while making the same amount of money. Nobody wants to address it let alone talk about it. The biggest irony in America is there is lobby for almost any kind of business. But there is no lobby for the people of the country. So what ensues is a rat race. People trying their hardest “make it” as that’s what is in their control. [1] https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2018/08/07/for-most-us-workers-real-wages-have-barely-budged-for-decades/ https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2018/08/07/for-most-...