Live event Manpower shortage

[zayance]

HI Folks, just wanted to have a chat concerning this, maybe some of you guys are having same issue out there.
I work in this field for many years now, and obviously seems like Covid has given a major stop for many folks in that field.
Depending on their job position, Freelance or whatever etc..., it was such a huge huge loss of activity, specially for
those companies that weren't able to adapt to the new "Digital" all Webcast, zoom/Teams etc....., and many i guess just decided to make a drastic change in their life and go for some other fields that "could" give them more security.
But we can feel the impact of manpower shortage around where i am, and the ones still there are working sometimes more for keeping the thing running.


Anyway, just wondering what you guys have experienced.

T.

 

[sahib]

I do not operate in live events, but if there is no event, which brings the money, then adapting to digital/webcast is not going to save the company. One can only keep the workforce for so long before running out of money.

I would imagine the live events industry is running on pretty tight profit margins, and if one can not see the future then changing sector is the right thing to do before it is too late.

How are you managing?

 

[JohnRoberts]

It is not limited to live sound industry. The recent US labor report revealed around twice as many unfilled jobs as unemployed workers in all industries.

JR

 

[zayance]

I do not operate in live events, but if there is no event, which brings the money, then adapting to digital/webcast is not going to save the company. One can only keep the workforce for so long before running out of money.

I would imagine the live events industry is running on pretty tight profit margins, and if one can not see the future then changing sector is the right thing to do before it is too late.

How are you managing?

I'm in a company in Switzerland, that managed to do a shit load of digital events when Covid arrived, had to refuse there was so much demand sometimes, big clients, more money, they couldn't afford to loose their annual events or what else, we did FIA event virtually etc... etc..., took a little time to switch gears but that's what saved the company PLUS, of course PLUS the help of the state in terms of "activity loss" it kept the company rolling, and of course kept the people inside the company, without that of course some would have been fired.

The company also had an empty space where a green screen was installed years back etc... took a little time to accomodate for the needs, but that helped also.
That didn't get the Profit figures of pre Covid of course, but it was very very good for a critical and difficult time...

Anyway, lately i hear more and more people telling me that for this or this event, they are having a very hard time finding people, like major stadium shows lately they were still looking for like 200x people, plus about 19x Riggers etc....

Yes of course, it was the right time for people who wanted to change things, but the After Covid demand seem to be so big, i was still a little suprised, because a lot of passionate people in the field.

Anyway was just curious for if there are people in that field around here, and if they are experiencing sams things?

 

[zayance]

It is not limited to live sound industry. The recent US labor report revealed around twice as many unfilled jobs as unemployed workers in all industries.

JR

yes as well of course, same here

 

[JohnRoberts]

People may forget how strong the economy was growing just before COVID hit...

JR

 

[sahib]

I know what you mean now.

I think one of the main factors is how long one can do that sort of work, say for a rigger. It is physically a very demanding work and one can burn out pretty quickly. When one is young(er), it is fine. But if one can not see a prospect of a more comfortable position in the company at an older age, then it will be inevitable that one will move into an other sector where there is such security. But I do not think the live event industry paid much attention to that before Covid. So, this is the result.

Part of my business used to be in modelmaking, an extremely labour intensive work and to very tight deadlines. I/we used to do almost 48 hours non-stop shift, come home, have a few hours sleep (if we did not sleep at the workshop in sleeping bags), shower and back in for another shift. But the last time I did that was in 2011 (I was 50) and it nearly killed me. I am not joking. My lips were covered in ulcers. After that I packed in that part of the business.

I used to have young art school graduates coming to work, expecting that they would be having lots of chats with cups of coffee in hand, and somehow the models would pop out at the end of the day. When they faced the reality of hard work after a month, they would run away as if there was a plague at the workshop. That was also one of the reasons that I closed down that part of the business. It is even worse now. Everybody wants to tap away on a computer and become rich quickly. So, I would imagine this is also a factor of labour shortage in the events industry. Finding young workforce prepared to do heavy work.

The government also gave financial support to employers here which was great. But it also brought the worst out of people. Now, hardly anybody wants to go back to work. All want to work from home.

 

[zayance]

"Everybody wants to tap away on a computer and become rich quickly. So, I would imagine this is also a factor of labour shortage in the events industry. Finding young workforce prepared to do heavy work.

The government also gave financial support to employers here which was great. But it also brought the worst out of people. Now, hardly anybody wants to go back to work. All want to work from home."

True also, even in big companies, their workers are having the same problem of people that don't want to come back to work...
Lately we had a hybrid event, and there were questions asked at the end, the one that popped as beeing the most "liked" one was:
" Can we come to the office 2 or 3 days max, FOREVER? " I kept the typo.... we were like "wtf" beeind the technical room..., of course it was anonymous ....
The Boss responded quietly, with a smile, but said "we are trying our best to find a solution for that, and we're thinking about it...."

 

[JohnRoberts]

They say necessity is the mother of invention but laziness and sloth is the real mother of invention. IMO looking for easy solutions to difficult problems is not a bad thing. But that does not mean easy answers exist for every difficult problem, despite what politicians promise.

In the US several company leaders are insisting that workers return to the office, Elon Musk is pretty high profile, but not the only one. Mayor Adams in NYC has begged for office workers to return to the city. I suspect the support structure for all the warm bodies, misses their business. In NYC some workers don't want to return because of random street violence, that is something Mayor Adams can and should address.

JR

 

[jensenmann]

In my dayjob I teach event engineering. During Covid we lost about 20% of our students. As described above they went off into other professions. Since this job is taught in a 3 year apprenticeship system (here in Germany) it means that there will be a lack of skilled workers over the next years. And we cannot see a raise in future student numbers according to our current enrollment numbers.

The only way out of that situation is to raise wages. They were much too low before Covid, because it was a very trendy profession. But now that everyone understood that this job is not really crisis-proof it needs a reason to go into that field. Money is one thing that can help.

 

[cyrano]

Over here, there are way too many music festivals. Even the bigger names like Rock Werchter and Tomorrowland have trouble selling tickets. That's the rebound from a trend that has been going on for over a decade. Every town, no matter how small, had it's music festival. Covid showed people there's other stuff in life than music festivals. I think I can see more private concerts though.

We harbour a few of the big names in PA/lighting/rigging, like Stageco fi and these started again and have their crews. Not many staff problems as most had a waiting list with people wanting to work for them. But lots and lots of the many smaller companies have just stopped doing business. One of the big boys' logistic manager told me that the lack of equipment will be harder to solve than any lack of people they might encounter. There's plenty of equipment on the 2nd hand market, but the larger companies can't use that resource. If you need 200 identical amps, that market is useless as a resource. And nobody in manufacturing has stock.

My own audio recording jobs, usually pro bono, for theatre and the occasional band, have completely evolved to VOIP, Zoom, Youtube and telephony. The smaller theaters haven't restarted because our govt decided to give more money to big theaters and no money to the small ones. There still are new bands appearing, but maybe five percent of what it was before the pandemic.

I'm mildly optimistic the pop/rock music scene will continue as before, albeit on a somewhat smaller scale. And maybe that's a good thing?

I've got no idea about classical and folk music. The big orchestras funded by our govt will certainly survive, but I can see a lot of the smaller ones stopping. The same goes for theater and dance.