I keep hearing about pandemic related staffing shortages.

Workplaces, including government workplaces, are having chronic staffing problems because of people being out sick with covid, or with covid complications. It’s hard to understand why testing and masking and vaccination was considered unsustainable, but these chronic staffing shortages are considered sustainable. They’re not. Either the government needs to do something to require covid mitigation OR needs to at least require employers, including government employers, to hire more staff to cover the inevitable pandemic-related absences. Something’s gotta give here because the workplace situations are not getting better. 

Unionizing is a good idea. Just sayin.

There’s reason to think that employers are not hiring when they ought to be and know they ought to be. Companies are posting “ghost jobs” to make the people being overworked believe help will be coming. I’ve been hearing about this for a couple of years now. The employers admitted it to a ResumeBuilder.com employer survey.

Ghost Jobs Are Haunting the Labor Market  AUG 1, 2024 Ghost Jobs Are Haunting the Labor Market Big Take – Bloomberg 
Stacie Haller: “So what they told us was, many of them are posting jobs so their own employees feel like oh we’re hiring more and you won’t have to work so hard. The workers are coming into the rescue. Or, they’re telling us they want you to believe the company is growing and expanding, when it’s not.”

Hiring managers are reported to be happy to have some power back in the job market, and are pleased with the results of their fake job postings, so they’re probably not going away.