Speaking to Reuters, Smith argues that the number of people who want a top-level tech job is dwindling. With a smaller pool to choose from, he believes corporations – not just Microsoft – will need to compete more than ever for talent. One way to do that is to simply throw money at the problem. “That helps explain part of why you can have low growth and a labor shortage at the height at the same time. There just aren’t as many people entering the workforce,” laments Smith. So, why are fewer adults entering the workforce? One of the reasons is because people are having less children so there are generation games in the employee pool. As older workers leave their roles, there are fewer people to replace them.
Automation
It is unclear what the solution to the problem and it is clearly an issue that will not just affect Microsoft. While Smith doesn’t say it, I sense an undercurrent of Microsoft laying the groundwork for excuses when the company eventually automates more and more of its work tasks. Not just Microsoft too. AI advancements will make employees obsolete in many areas. That may not go over too well when people start losing jobs. At least Microsoft can in the future argue it is better to automate than enter a pay escalation battle with fellow tech giants for employees. Tip of the day: Do you know that Windows 11 / Windows 10 allows creating PDFs from basically any app with printing support? In our tutorial, we show you how this works via Microsoft Print to PDF and Bullzip PDF Printer to save a PDF from any app, even with advanced options like adjusted quality, multi-page printing, and password protection.
