¿El futuro del trabajo o el trabajo del futuro? Algunas reflexiones sobre el mercado laboral de EEUU

Los datos de empleo recientes de la principal economía mundial, EEUU, me hacen reflexionar sobre un fenómeno dual que creo se acabará trasladando en nuestro mercado laboral en España. Como siempre las comparaciones siempre tienen matices, y más cuando EEUU tiene el 5% de tasa de desempleo frente a nuestro actual 24%. Junto con mi nota corta, pondré en cursiva el texto en inglés que me ilustra la reflexión.

1) En creación neta de puestos de trabajo, en EEUU los mayores de 55 años están obteniendo más oportunidades frente a las edades más jóvenes

• Older workers are simply taking employment market share from younger workers. 

2) En trabajos donde no hacen falta habilidades especiales, o asociadas a nuevas tecnologías, los empleadores prefieren trabajadores mayores por ser más económicos

• Employers continue hiring mostly those toward the twilight of their careers: the workers who have little leverage to demand wage hikes now and in the future
• Older people may simply be willing to work for less money, although I don’t think Barnes & Noble is paying high salaries to any of its retail clerks. Some have other income sources, such as Social Security
• It turns out they need a lot less to support their lifestyle than you might imagine, and they prefer working intermittent gigs, being able to do what they want, and having no boss.

3) La gig economy o economía de trabajos intermitentes es cada vez mayor y sigue creciendo frente a los contratos normales (trabajo de 9,00am a 5,00pm) 

• The gig economy is rapidly changing the country’s economic landscape – for better or worse.
• There are literally scores of websites and apps where you can advertise your services, get temporary or part-time work, and do so from anywhere you happen to be.

• Indeed, a recent survey found 60 percent of such workers get at least 25 percent of their income from gig economy work.
• the gig economy, and the independent contractor world in general, is almost completely divorced from anything that looks like a social safety network. Healthcare? 401(k)s? Retirement programs? Extra help for single moms? Forget about it.

4) Pero al tiempo, hay un problema de falta de personas con formación y habilidades para cubrir los puestos que las empresas necesitan

• But outside of the gig economy there is a growing need for skilled workers
• I mean, this inability of firms to fill positions from the current supply of available labor speaks to the structural issues in the labor market rather than anything cyclical.
• there is no amount of monetary policy stimulus that can reasonably be expected to fix this – this is something that needs to be addressed through skills training and related government policy
• The answer is that we have a skills gap. The workers who are looking for jobs aren’t qualified for the available job openings.