In the year we have left behind, there were 150,000 unemployed in the peninsular Basque Country, of whom almost 80,000 were not receiving economic benefits. At the same time, 76% of CAPV companies point out that they have a great difficulty finding workers they need. It's one of the paradoxes of the labor market of capitalism.

In this context, “great resignation” has been ingrained. This concept was introduced in the United States in 2021, a country where a significant proportion of workers were willing to leave their jobs to achieve a work model more suited to their vital needs. This concept is being used to explain the “shortage” of personnel currently occurring among economists linked to the business world.

This “shortage” of personnel is not a general problem. It is happening in very specific sectors and jobs. Particularly in sectors requiring very specific profiles, where there is strong competition between companies to access these workers. On the other hand, it is also occurring in sectors with unfavourable working conditions. In the first case it is cyclical, which will be provided until more people are trained; in the second it is structural, which will continue if working conditions are not improved.

Companies often do not take responsibility for the training of their workers; they want to recruit the experienced worker directly. To achieve this they want to guide the education system to guarantee their interests or that workers pay for the training of their pockets. Furthermore, companies are not responsible for living costs, an example of which is the attitude of employers in collective bargaining. However, working conditions are negative and not only wage: unsustainable work rhythms, lack of measures to reconcile work and life, a system based on workplace harassment, among other characteristics.

It is often mentioned that current youth do not want to make an effort, the excuse used to explain the lack of personnel in the construction sector. In this sector what happens is that workers have memory, which in the 2008 crisis left these construction workers aside, staying above the sky and down with the earth. We also have the situation of hospitality, a sector with poor working conditions, with a part of the wages in silent and unquoted stock, with bad working hours. The pandemic came and the harsh situation became apparent. Why return to precarious work when there are some better precarious jobs?

Can there be a solution? We are describing a fundamental struggle in the conflict between labor and capital. The aim of companies is to achieve higher capital gains by increasing the workload and paying, if possible, the minimum. When talking about “absence” of workers, in most cases, it is not a real lack. When dealing with this problem, we do not want to talk about working conditions, companies do not want to take responsibility and the cost of training. The employers will not influence or mention in their reports.

When we talk about employment, we have to change the compass, putting life above the economy: work is overdone, it is able to redistribute it, with decent conditions for all, so that we can all work. With 150,000 unemployed, there is the possibility of employment. But that won't happen in capitalism. In capitalism, because there is no solution for workers.