Shortages

Ouch. A scary article in the Baltic Times today talking about the labor shortages in Estonia and the rest of the Baltics. Not enough workers to go around and nothing that can be done to incentivize workers to increase productivity. Of the people who are still unemployed “About 99 percent of those are unemployable. They are too drunk to fill out the paperwork”. Yikes!

Eesti is a tiny country that isn't growing population wise but has a rapidly growing economy, eventually something has to give. Will the government allow in more immigrants to work there? Probably not for reasons that are somewhat understandable.

One of the most interesting quotes was about the recent elections: "Some parties promised to ensure that workers will earn a monthly wage of 25,000 kroons". I think the use of wage increases as a political gimmick is disturbing, especially in a market economy where the government should have little role in setting wage levels. Sounds like something would have happened years ago with a "managed economy".

I know a number of people who own or run companies that are desperate for decent workers and have made it clear the labor shortage is the #1 problem currently. Maybe it's time for me to jump back across the pond, I think I'm sober enough to fill out paperwork. :)