Disappearing Workforce
The Berner Zeitung of 9 July 2022 has a large article on page 17: "Wo sind all die Arbeitskraefte geblieben?" (where have all the workers gone?). The song "Where have all the flowers gone?" (https://genius.com/Pete-seeger-where-have-all-the-flowers-gone-lyrics) springs to mind.
The article starts with one egggspert (from ETHZ) claiming that nearly every branch is having trouble finding employees. Curiously, he then produces data from BFS showing that there are more employed now than before the pandemic. This is hard to explain since job openings are much higher. He blames it on the pandemic which caused lots of firms to shed employees. It is hard to square this with the BFS data showing employment at an all-time high.
Along comes another egggspert (from Avenir Suisse) saying that the workers haven't left Switzerland (duh), and the problem is only that there are more job openings than workers. Talk about circular reasoning. We know that many businesses had to close, in particular restaurants and hotels, and yet it is exactly the (remaining) restaurants and hotels that are having the most difficulty finding employees. Same for the airlines which have drastically reduced flights due to lack of personnel. If these workers have changed job branch (pilots? Seriously?), then why is nearly every branch suffering from lack of employees?
One explanation is offered by this article from the Brownstone Institute: Stop Blaming Workers for the Labor Shortage. The basic idea is that multitudes of workers, especially in the service industries such as restaurants and airlines, have had their lives rudely ripped out from under them. Once thus bitten, they are understandably shy to commit their lives again to a job that may disappear any moment at the whim of government. Demands for increased salaries are simply compensation for the new job uncertainty.
Our egggspert also claims that, contrary to popular opinion, older workers are more in demand in the Swiss workplace than ever. He's obviously never had the delightful experience of looking for a job in Switzerland while being over 50. I had one headhunter agency tell me point blank that they weren't going to work with me because none of their customers were interested in older workers. They agreed that I was highly qualified, and that I met the job requirements, but their customers would never accept someone my age, so they weren't going to waste any more time on me. One company informed me that they had a policy of mandatory retirement at age 60.
What nobody dares mention is the possibility that there are simply fewer people available to work. You won't find it in the mainstream media, but anyone willing and able to search the internet can readily find all manner of studies and reports about record numbers of deaths and disabilities starting in 2021. The most obvious evidence of this is the hundreds of young athletes who have been observed by packed stadiums and on live television keeling over and dying in the middle of a game. Mainstream media pretends this is normal. Morticians and coffin makers are doing land office business, and life insurance companies are reporting payouts running some 20-40% above normal. Commercial pilot (pre-retirement) deaths are also some 40% elevated. A multitude of prominent doctors and medical researchers place the blame squarely on the covid-19 "vaccines," but these people are studiously ignored. Somehow none of this makes the 11 O'clock news. Nothing to see here, move along.
