If companies paid better wages, would they need to import workers?

Question

On the news in Australia at the moment there are a lot of stories of companies saying they can't get local staff and need to import workers from China/India/etc.

I have the feeling that its not about not being able to find local workers but that the working conditions and wages are so poor that people would rather be getting welfare.

Can you think of any other reasons why this situation would happen in major cities as well as small towns?

Answer 1

Its rather a combination of all these things. with globalization there is a tough competetion in the marketin all products. every buyer is highly educated and looks for the least price in given quality. in these circumstances it is a necessity for the companies to bring down the cost of production. they can not afford to pay higher wages, when their competitors are working with comparatively more efficient workers.

On the other hand governments by providing welfare making the human force lazy and worthless.

so its not the responsibility of companies alone, it is equally shared by customers/clients and the government.

Answer 2

That's a good question and is quite open to opinion. However, is there a labor shortage there? What is the unemployment rate and is it healthy? If it is rather high, then yes I would think that people are leeching off the social benefits that the gov't provides since they need to import workers. Many countries with high unemployment rates also tend to have good unemployment compensation like France, etc. Unemployed people don't have as much incentive to work in economies like that because they can just mooch off the gov't.

Raising the money wage rate would probably cause a drop in the unemployment level in the short term and cause a permanent rise in the price level. Note that the money wage rate and the price level are relative. So even if you pay higher wages, you still might need to import workers to make up for the labor shortage and because the money wage rate is relative to the price level, folks would still rather sit on their butts and collect unemployment benefits.

I know it sounds convoluted but basically IMO, if you raise wages, in the short term they might not need to import as many workers but in the long term it will go back to importing workers. Lowering unemployment compensation like welfare, etc. is actually a good way to raise employment theoretically as long as there are jobs in the economy to support the additional workers.

Answer 3

Don't know about Australia but I'd bet the real problem is the same as in the U.S. The problem is that welfare, government assistance whatever, you call it, is so easy to get we have a significant number of people who simply aren't going to work, no matter what the pay scale.

Answer 4

what he said above me

Answer 5

no