• The word shorthanded is ambiguous. image

  • 1: The population has decreased, so jobs are overflowing.

  • 2: More work, but not more people to do that work, so it overflows.

  • 3: Increased demand for work has reduced the number of people who can do it, resulting in an overabundance of work.

  • 4: In a situation where jobs with better treatment get priority in getting people, the population has decreased, so the jobs with worse treatment are pushed out and overflowing.

  • 5: Jobs abound as people are pulled out

    • Real-life pull-outs are a mixture of 4 and 5, as pull-outs are often accompanied by high benefits
    • There’s also the “highly skilled people being pulled out” related to #3.

This page is auto-translated from /nishio/人手不足はあいまい using DeepL. If you looks something interesting but the auto-translated English is not good enough to understand it, feel free to let me know at @nishio_en. I’m very happy to spread my thought to non-Japanese readers.