Freelancers and umbrella company contractors tend to welcome news of talent or skill shortages, as it means more work for them – but is this necessarily good?
When there’s fewer permanent workers out there with the requisite skills and training to satisfy employer demand, firms will routinely turn to contract workers to fill these gaps. It’s great for the aspiring freelancer or umbrella contractor, but what’s the real result if a talent shortage lasts too long?
Well, we’re likely to find out soon, if a new survey can be believed. It turns out that the shale gas industry has grown so quickly in the UK that demand for workers has outstripped supply. The research study found that more than have of the industry experts surveyed felt that the growth of the industry – and how the government has approached the hydraulic fracturing process to get at the shale gas – is completely unsustainable right now.
For what it’s worth, not even the number of excellent and well-versed local contractors will be able to stem the flood of demand for very long. The population of UK freelancers with the specialised knowledge for hydraulic fracturing – also known as ‘fracking’ – is quite finite, and eventually UK firms will have to either reduce production, which will have a terrible effect on the industry, or seek overseas help, which will mean there are fewer jobs or contracts actually going to Brits.
So just think about that for a moment before you start rejoicing about how much work you’re going to have as a contractor or freelancer during a skills shortage. Sure, it’s all smiles at first but the rest of the economy will be in for shedloads of pain if it continues more than a few months or years; I don’t know about you but I’m already sick and tired of the current economy and I really can’t bare another long, protracted recession or downturn.
So how in the world do we fix this problem? Well I think the government needs to increase its skills education programme – if we can encourage younger Brits to learn the specific and specialised skills that the fracking industry needs – or any other industries suffering from a talent shortage needs -then we as a society can bring this slow slide to economic obscurity to a halt and get back to making sure everyone in the UK can begin making money again!
Blimey, someone get me into Westminster. I’ll turn these blokes around before you can say ‘irreversible damage to the ground water supply.’
