Comment by jiveturkey | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jiveturkey | Hacker News Reader

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Some entire industries have this problem, eg trucking. There is this shortage of truck drivers. The quiet part is that it's at the rates trucking companies are willing to pay. That rate is based on what they can charge to customers plus a thin profit margin. Because trucking is too easy to get into, companies can't simply raise their rates because other companies will undercut them (in their own desperate bid to survive). This kind of market competition is healthy for the "market", perhaps not healthy for workers.

The depletion of tech workers for Amazon is similar. The part that isn't said is: at the salaries Amazon is willing to pay. Amazon has a different market to worry about, the stock market. They can't just increase their HR spend 25% without taking a hit in the stock market. And I guess they aren't willing to change the work environment to be more attractive. Maybe they can't at their size, as it can be hard to avoid dead weight.

Google doesn't hire in the US for some PAs, for similar reason. Salaries are capped (artificially) by stock market demands. But Google doesn't call it worker depletion.

Shortages always exist at a given price. If people demand their iphones cost only $100, there would be a massive shortage of iphones.

Same goes for labor: if you pay shit, demand for that job is going to be shit.

Of course on the labor side, part of the "price" is job satisfaction, working conditions, etc. Many more people would rather be receptionists at $17/hr than working in a warehouse or factory for the same rate.

i think another part of it is whether there's any meaningful difference in value for a mediocre vs good employee.

let say you ran a trucking company and decided that you'd pay more to ensure you cornered the market on 'good' drivers. but... it turns out that your customers don't care if you have good drivers or mediocre drivers, so you can't justify charging a higher rate.

With rates of drivers hitting overpasses mediocre is a high target here.

That's usually captured by "pricing power" (i.e. the ability of a company to increase price/margin vs competitors).

> Because trucking is too easy to get into, companies can't simply raise their rates because other companies will undercut them.

How are they going to undercut them without drivers available to actually do the work?

This narrative is absurd. Per mile domestic truck shipping rates have gone up dramatically in recent years, and are generally quite variable. Trucking profit margins were until quite recently way up, the fall driven by high fuel prices and interest rates (which increase the costs of equipment financing and insurance) and reduced demand.

The truth is trucking is currently going through a recession with freight demand down and empty miles up. Trucking companies most certainly could raise rates and pay pay to attract more drivers; right now they don't want more drivers.

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