Why Is There Suddenly An Extremely Severe Shortage Of Workers All Over The World?
Francesco Abbruzzino, The Uncensored Report, LLC
The unprecedented employment crisis that we are watching unfold around the globe is so bizarre that it could have been pulled straight out of an episode of the Twilight Zone. For the very first time in recorded history, there is an extremely severe shortage of workers in nations all over the planet. When this shortage first started to emerge earlier this year, I thought that it was very strange, because 2020 had been a year when we had seen unemployment absolutely skyrocket in the U.S. and other western nations. In fact, somewhere around 70 million Americans filed claims for unemployment benefits last year. Not too long ago we had vast hordes of people that were out of work, and now we are suddenly facing the greatest labor shortage in history?
Something is not adding up.
When I wrote my most recent article about the labor shortage, a few people wrote to me and blamed the Biden administration for what we are witnessing.
And it is certainly true that actions that the Biden administration has taken have made the labor shortage in the United States even worse.
But the Biden administration is not the reason why there is an extremely severe shortage of workers literally all over the planet. In Vietnam, for example, there are so few workers that the government actually sent the army out to help with the rice harvest…
Across the world, a dearth of workers is shaking up food supply chains.
In Vietnam, the army is assisting with the rice harvest. In the U.K., farmers are dumping milk because there are no truckers to collect it. Brazil’s robusta coffee beans took 120 days to reap this year, rather than the usual 90. And American meatpackers are trying to lure new employees with Apple Watches while fast-food chains raise the prices of burgers and burritos.
Why aren’t there enough people to do these jobs?
We have never seen anything like this before.
Considering the horrendous unemployment crisis that gripped much of the globe during the earlier stages of this pandemic, you would think that there should be colossal pools of desperate workers for large companies to choose from at this point.
But instead, it is almost as if untold numbers of low paid workers have simply disappeared.
Of course certain types of workers are far more important to the basic functioning of the global economy than other types of workers.
For example, the world would be just fine if there was a severe shortage of actors and actresses.
But if there aren’t enough people to grow, process and transport our food, that is a massive problem, and that is precisely what we are currently facing…
Whether it’s fruit pickers, slaughterhouse workers, truckers, warehouse operators, chefs or waiters, the global food ecosystem is buckling due to a shortage of staff. Supplies are getting hit and some employers are forced to raise wages at a double-digit pace. That’s threatening to push food prices – already heated by soaring commodities and freight costs – even higher. Prices in August were up 33% from the same month last year, according to an index compiled by the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization.