Tech industry's persistent claim of worker shortage may be phony

Re:Tech industry's persistent claim of worker shortage may b... by ChuckMcM on Sunday August 02, 2015 @11:46PM (#9993658)

Not exactly. The complaint was people who want big money and don't create a lot of value. The ones who want $130K and you ask them why page loading is so slow and they tell you its because the bubble sort they run on every update takes forever. They create negative value.

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Re:Tech industry's persistent claim of worker shortage may b... by ForHackernews on Sunday August 02, 2015 @11:55PM (#9993694)

Then companies better start paying more. This is how supply and demand works. If $130k only gets you incompetents, then it's time to start offering $200k, or whatever the magic number is.

Remember: Any time you hear an employer whining about "lack of qualified candidates" be sure to mentally append "...at the rate we want to pay."

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Re:Tech industry's persistent claim of worker shortage may b... by T2_t2 on Monday August 03, 2015 @02:12AM (#9994094)

And that's a big deal.

But if the cost of an employee is > their value, you get massive off-shoring. That's the danger, and as an Australian the opportunity, of Bay Area pricing being so crazy.

If the Bay Area wants to keep its advantage - in a world where Alibaba is the lead IPO of the last 5 years - it needs to remain competitive in all ways.

Rome wasn't built in a day, but it fell in one.

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Re:Tech industry's persistent claim of worker shortage may b... by gwright on Monday August 03, 2015 @07:17PM (#10000547)

No need to 'off-shore'. Presumably companies in the Bay area could start (or grow) branch offices in other places in the US that don't have such a high cost of living.

It may be that the cost to attract talent to the Bay area is now too high for all but the most profitable businesses. I have no idea if this is true or not but conceptually the giant payrolls needed may finally be overwhelming the benefits of locating a company in the area.

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Re:Tech industry's persistent claim of worker shortage may b... by volaski on Monday August 03, 2015 @12:01AM (#9993712)

Please explain how offering $200k will keep those incompetent guys from applying. I don't see how your "solution" changes anything

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Re:Tech industry's persistent claim of worker shortage may b... by ForHackernews on Monday August 03, 2015 @12:14AM (#9993755)

The complaint "I can't differentiate competent applicants from incompetent ones" is a very different one than "I'm not getting any competent applicants". Offering a higher salary incentivizes more competent applicants to apply.

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Re:Tech industry's persistent claim of worker shortage may b... by rewqfdsa on Monday August 03, 2015 @12:05AM (#9993730)

$200k doesn't stop incompetents from applying. It does, however, tempt competent people to add themselves to the running.

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