With record unemployment, employers can’t find people willing to work: “black money” collects more

In industry 16 thousand. staff shortages, actual numbers possibly higher

Referring to the current labor market situation, Vidmantas Janulevičius, President of the Lithuanian Industrial Confederation (LPK), said that there is currently a record shortage of workers in the industrial sector.

“I think it’s safe to say that there is a shortage of around 16 thousand workers. This is the highest number compared to what it used to be, we really didn’t have that many openings.

The shortage of medium-skilled workers is arguably the greatest. The biggest gaps are in the manufacturing sector, the information and communication technology (ICT) sector, as well as the furniture sector. There is a lack of automated line operators, “he said.

V. Janulevičius openly said that such a record shortage of workers in the industry today, according to him, is determined by benefits paid by the state.

“It is more convenient to work in construction” for cash “or elsewhere and receive benefits than to work a single job. With more cash, people collect more.

Also, in general, there are no Ukrainians or Belarusians in the markets. “They left because of COVID-19, they can’t come, that’s why the deficiency occurs,” he said.

When asked if he agreed that the government itself promotes unemployment by partially dividing benefits, V. Janulevičius assured him that he could not fully agree with such a statement.

“It just came to our knowledge then. In the old days, it was said that it was better to free nine guilty than to punish an innocent one. It is at this point that I partly understand that there are actually socially disadvantaged people who receive benefits, but how many simply They are taking advantage of this situation and it is very difficult to assess ”, said the LPK president.

However, according to him, the shortage of workers in the industrial sector may continue to worsen, which will be related to the cases of COVID-19 and its detection in companies, which, according to him, already number in the hundreds.

“If at least one person is diagnosed with coronavirus, part of the workforce, full shifts, must dedicate themselves to 14 days of self-isolation, then the worker shortage is actually even greater. It is difficult to say what it will be like here in the long term.

In general, the situation is paradoxical. On the one hand, we have 100,000. registered unemployed, from another – 40 thousand. registered official works. And yet private companies often don’t publish it and only look for employees, it’s a fear that the real number is even higher. Paradox ”, commented V. Janulevičius.

There is a shortage of skilled construction workers

Dalius Gedvilas, president of the Lithuanian Builders Association (LSA), also assured that today there is a lack of qualified employees in the construction sector who have clear competencies.

“For some time now, there has been a shortage of welders, network installation specialists and field engineering communications facilities, concrete mixers, finishers and specialists from various groups.

But we lack qualified people, and there really is no shortage of unskilled people, “he said, explaining that the easiest way to distinguish them is who has a builder card and who does not. It is true that there is a shortage of these workers, he said. Gedvil, noticing late summer.

“We believe that a large number of workers have emigrated. Especially when certain measures were applied during the pandemic and the number of construction projects in Lithuania decreased, the developers stopped construction.

And some countries, such as Germany and Ireland, have prepared and launched a series of investment projects to stimulate their economies. Not only local German or Irish builders get jobs, but Lithuanians too.

Today, a large part of Lithuanians have taken another direction towards Great Britain, Germany, and if we look at our ferries traveling from Klaipeda to Germany, they are full and tickets are booked in advance. Many of those passengers are builders.

I think a good number of workers really only emigrated when they were able to leave and Germany accepted them. Today there are many orders there, and the Germans let in our specialists, so a lot of people work ”, explained the shortage of workers in the construction sector.

Asked about the shortage of personnel today, the president of the association assured that there could be about 2,000.

“Currently, we estimate that around 2,000. The most qualified workers could find work in our companies, but they should be those who know the construction trade, ”he said.

Mauricio: employees don’t adapt

The chief economist at Luminor Bank said that the biggest challenge for Lithuania at the moment is general structural unemployment. As you said, people today simply cannot adapt to a rapidly changing job market.

“The biggest challenge for Lithuania is structural unemployment, because with the rapid growth of the economy, changes in technologies, their improvement, the improvement of the structure of the organization of work, the increase in wages, not all employees they can adapt to those changes. And not all employees live where there are many jobs.

We have both regional structural unemployment and skilled unemployment, and this is a very big challenge for Lithuania, which, unfortunately, we will not be able to solve in the near future, ”he said.

Ž. Mauricas mentioned the example of Finland, which, according to him, applies to Lithuania today.

“The best example is probably Finland, which also experienced rapid economic growth in the 1990s, whereby unemployment remained above 10% throughout the year while the economy underwent a major transformation.

Until 1990 there was a boom in traditional industries, and after 1990. information technology began to dominate, high technology, automation occurred, there was a great migration to large cities, as now happens to us.

I think the situation may be the same in Lithuania ”, the economist compared and explained that the situation in Finland in the 1990s is equal to the shock our country is experiencing today due to the virus.

He also recognized that the situation can be affected by state benefits, but not only by unemployment.

Records for almost a decade

Milda Jankauskienė, a spokeswoman for the Employment Service, told Delfi that currently, according to the latest data, job seekers could choose from 37.2 thousand. job offers. In the same period last year, 36.3 thousand. job vacancies.

“The number of vacancies increased in the summer, and especially in August, employers registered 40,2 thousand jobs. job vacancies: the highest number of job openings this year and this decade overall. The last time most of the month was registered was in May 2013, when employers submitted 35.9 thousand. job vacancies.

This August, the demand for labor grew 14.7 percent compared to July, and even 20.9 percent compared to August 2019. Again, in September the demand for labor was high: employers registered 37.9 thousand. job vacancies. This is 9.2 percent. more than 2019 in September.

Such a paradoxical situation in the country’s labor market has not been registered for a decade. All market indicators have been increasing in recent months, both in terms of job supply and demand and employment. In fact, an exceptional situation has arisen in the labor market, when the number of registered vacancies per month is much higher than the number of new registered clients, ”said M. Jankauskienė.

He said that in September 36.9 thousand were registered in UT per month. unemployed – 22.1 percent. more than in August and 55.9 percent. more than in 2019. in September.

Overall, according to the specialist, the increase in the number of registered unemployed was influenced not only by the revised activity prospects of employers during quarantine and emergency, optimized functions and workforce volumes and subsequent layoffs, but also for job search benefits.

“Enrollment is also encouraged by the possibility of receiving job search benefits, which is why more people who are not active in the labor market have applied. Also, due to the economic situation, some freelancers did not resume their activities. They also became clients of the Employment Service, ”he said.

According to data from November 1, the unemployment rate in the country reaches 14.9 percent. and it is 0.8 percent. higher than a month ago at 14.1 percent. Also 31 thousand. In October, the number of unemployed submitted applications to UT’s customer service departments, which was 5.8 thousand. less than in September, but 5.7 thousand. more than in 2019. in October.

In October, 31.7 thousand. people were employed through UT specialists, that is, 12.9 percent. more than in September. 3.1 thousand Support employment was provided through participation in active labor market policy measures, most of which, 1,800, were hired through subsidies. The number of participants in active labor market policy measures increased by 14.5% compared to September. 9.6 thousand – started an independent activity after acquiring business licenses, that is, 3.5 percent. less than in September.

Jurgita Zemblytė, Head of the Monitoring and Analysis Department at Eltai UT, also stated that the situation of job seekers at the moment is exacerbated by the uncertainty of the future.

“The situation of jobseekers is also aggravated by the fact that currently due to the change in the economic situation, the uncertainty in the activities of the companies, the restriction or suspension of the activities of the companies, the choice of work and job opportunities is declining. Therefore, as the job search period lengthens, more people become long-term unemployed, ”said Jurgita Zemblytė, head of the Employment Service’s Monitoring and Analysis Division.