Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Shortages

No there isn't a shortage of pilots. Until airlines start actually offering higher wages they can't get away with pretending there is one.

The only time an industry can legitimately claim there's a shortage is if the labor supply is perfectly inelastic, that higher wages don't attract people back into the work force. Sure that can happen temporarily, especially in specific locations, but it's rarely true.

I've read too many "gosh, it's just too darn hard to find people to work for $13/hour there's a shortage!!!" articles in the past few years. It's always bullshit.