Prepare for the rise of the “labour-lite” business

Staff shortages are not going away any time soon – businesses that can do without a big workforce will thrive, says Matthew Lynn.

Robot barman
It’s springtime for robots
(Image credit: © Anthony Devlin/Getty Images for MSC Cruises)

In Britain, labour shortages are getting more and more acute every week. Some supermarkets are running low on stock at critical points in the week because there are not enough truck drivers to make all the deliveries. Restaurants are turning down bookings, or closing at lunchtimes, because they don’t have enough chefs and waiters. There are already warnings that we may face a modest Christmas, not because of Covid-19, but because gifts and food will be in slightly shorter supply than usual.

And this is not just a British problem. The head of Germany’s federal employment agency said last week that the country needed an extra 400,000 workers to fill all its vacancies. American logistics companies are trying to ship in extra drivers from abroad to fill all the gaps. It is a global issue.

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Matthew Lynn

Matthew Lynn is a columnist for Bloomberg, and writes weekly commentary syndicated in papers such as the Daily Telegraph, Die Welt, the Sydney Morning Herald, the South China Morning Post and the Miami Herald. He is also an associate editor of Spectator Business, and a regular contributor to The Spectator. Before that, he worked for the business section of the Sunday Times for ten years. 

He has written books on finance and financial topics, including Bust: Greece, The Euro and The Sovereign Debt Crisis and The Long Depression: The Slump of 2008 to 2031. Matthew is also the author of the Death Force series of military thrillers and the founder of Lume Books, an independent publisher.