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Forum General Possible explanation of worker shortages (Fearless Blue)

Possible explanation of worker shortages (Fearless Blue)

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FredMark (Fearless Blue)
20 Feb 2009 23:51 Link

Possible explanation of worker shortages is an apparent attempt from W3C to increase profitability by decreasing salary cost.

About two weeks ago I took base salary costs of all corporations (takes a long time).
As far as I was following shortages and profitability threats on forums with interest, I decided to double-check what changed over this period.
After spot-check, I found that product component composition did not change (thus base cost cost of mats remains the same), but total salary did decrease for all products I checked, but Gasoline where it remains within degree of rounding error (I rounded to 1-2 milions as far as difficulty to account on welfare).

So, for example for other high-volumetric:
Product__________Was(Mil SC$)__Now__%Decrease
FMU______________198___________182__8.79%
Electric Power___164___________152__7.89%

Numbers provided for corps at full employment, 225 effectivity and base salary (If you to check my data you need to divide salary paid last month to salary level divided by 100. Base salary level will be the same (as any base value) on all worlds, so does not matter which one you pick).

What I can speculate that salary decrease was achieved by re-shuffling of composition of workforce. Again, it is speculation (I do not have historical workforce composition to substantiate) as far as I was interested in corp profitability and workforce composition was not withing area of interest of such research.

I do, however, have some grounds for such speculation, predominantly related to the fact that overall employment levels did not change to unemployment growth. If all professions were decreased proportionally it would create surplus of workforce in all categories, including HLW for "stand still" scenario that was explained in forums. Comment- Stand still scenario assumes all corps already fully upgraded, or vast majority of them are.

As far as collecting salary data for all products is rather exhaustive endeavor, not to mention workforce composition, I will capture 10-20 product's workforce composition this weekend and update you guys one week from now if and what has changed.
M
Martock (Little Upsilon)
21 Feb 2009 00:52 Link
I'm W3C is behind it, even if they aren't creating the situation on purpose. Still, after nearly a bloody year of them, I'm tired of it. As I have stated in other threads, so I repeat here.

I've said it before and I'll say it again in every thread that mentions worker shortages. It is GAME RUINING (not breaking). It detracts from the fun of running any kind of empire or CEO if you constantly have to deal with this issue. As a ruler of a 12 nation empire, I'm tired of having to spend my time (usually 1 full hour) solely devoted to HLW shortages. It's gotten to the point that I don't bother dealing with it because W3C hasn't given me the tools to deal with it. I used to look forward to logging into this game but now, I'd rather read the news as I know I am facing yet more shortages. I wish we simply had the power to convert LLW's into MLW's and into HLW's with NO LIMITS.
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Zentrino (Little Upsilon)
21 Feb 2009 02:49 Link
Thank you Martock. I completely ignore it now in most countries. I am glad someone else will say it takes an hour with 12 countries. That's only 5 minutes in each country. Who wants to spend an hour doing the same thing every time they log in only to find it all broken again when they come back?
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Pathetic Sheep (White Giant)
23 Feb 2009 19:43 Link
Zentrino,
Have you ever played fetch with a dog?
M
Martock (Little Upsilon)
24 Feb 2009 00:39 Link
5 minutes per country would be fine if I didn't have to solely focus on worker shortages. It really ruins the game experience to know that every time I log in, I'll have a worker shortage situation in all my nations and that no fix is in sight.

@ Pathetic Sheep - I used to love playing fetch with my Boxer...she really loved that. My lab, despite being a lab, has no interest in fetching anything that isn't food related.
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Zeba (Golden Rainbow)
24 Feb 2009 01:49 Link
Yea Martok...I'm with you...I would really like to be able to move my workers around.

I said it elsewhere but what about Trade Schools which would allow you could convert LLW or MLW into HLW or just give you the ability to move a certain amount of workers around each month at your discretion.

EX: You have 100,000 LLW that you send off to trade school, provided you have enough Trade schools, and next month they become HLW.
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Zentrino (Golden Rainbow)
24 Feb 2009 05:57 Link
That is a great idea Zeba and would work.

And I love playing fetch with my baby (Choc Lab). But I get lots of wet sloppy kisses for that. What do the HLW shortages give me? :)