> Democrats blamed corporate greed. “Just offer workers more money,” they said, “and the skills gap will close itself.”
No seriously. Offer more fucking money.
No seriously. Offer more fucking money.
Market wages are what they are because some other viable business can afford to pay them.
Failing businesses don't get to pay less on utilities, why should they get to pay less on wages?
If, on the other hand, there are 100,000 companies who all think that adding a insert-your-favorite-kind-of-specialist-here will enable their company to generate $X additional revenue per year, where X is an above-average income that many people would love to earn, but they can't find anyone to do the job for $X, it makes sense to broadcast throughout society the message that this kind of special skill may be worth obtaining.
Many specialists will realise that working for one's self or in partnership with a small group of other specialists is far more lucrative.
So there's no contradiction here. The employers are right to say that if they could employ more specialists on the cheap then they would win more business and make more money. And the specialists are right to say that they make more money with a different working arrangement.
None of this implies that there is actually a real shortage.