Germany has a shortage of installers. The United States needs more postal workers. Australia lacks engineers. In Canada, hospitals are looking for more nurses.

“The great resignation” that countries have experienced since the easing of the Covid pandemic restrictions is not over.

Michael Blume, managing director of a software company in East Germany, said he was having “great difficulties finding workers”.

“We lack qualified workers everywhere,” Blume, whose company Currentsystem23 is based in eastern Germany, told AFP.

In Germany, Europe’s largest economy, 887,000 jobs were vacant in August, around 108,000 more than in the previous year.

“Help Wanted” signs are posted outside restaurants and other businesses across the United States, where there were more than 11 million job listings at the end of July, or two for every job seeker.

“The job vacancy rate is very high around the world. Polls and companies say it’s still very difficult to fill vacancies,” said Ariane Curtis, a Toronto-based economist with research firm Capital Economics.

Countries in Western Europe and North America are having particular difficulties filling vacancies, although the problem also exists in Eastern Europe, Turkey and Latin America, Curtis said.

Job vacancy-to-unemployment ratios rose sharply in late 2021 in Australia, Canada and the UK compared to pre-pandemic levels, according to a July OECD report.

The bottlenecks persist, although the global economy has started to slow since Russia invaded Ukraine earlier this year.

It’s affecting a wide range of sectors: from a shortage of teachers in Texas to understaffing in hospitality in Italy or Canada’s healthcare system.

The bottlenecks have forced companies to adapt.

Pharmacies in the US state of Wisconsin, hospital services in Canada’s Alberta province and restaurants on Australia’s Sunshine Coast were forced to close for parts of the day, local news reports said.

Employees are also in short supply.

Clement Verrier, co-head of an executive recruitment firm in Paris, said it used to be difficult to find companies looking for staff. Now it’s the other way around.

“We’re seeing an unprecedented number of candidates disappearing midway through the recruitment process without calling back,” Verrier said.

Aging populations started causing shortages even before Covid, but the problem exploded with the pandemic.

There are several factors behind the phenomenon: some people have chosen to take early retirement, while others are struggling with long-lasting Covid symptoms. Others are simply fed up with bad working conditions or low wages.

Other factors include a sharp drop in immigration due to lockdowns, people moving out of cities and workers seizing the moment to reconsider their career choices.

“The pandemic has resulted in a fundamental shift in mindset and priorities, and employers are not keeping up with this shift,” said Bonnie Dowling, Expert Associate Partner at McKinsey, a global consulting firm that conducted a study of the global hiring wave.

In order to retain or poach employees, companies offer higher wages. Other benefits that have emerged include the ability to work from home, “bonus” holidays, and more personal days.

Some countries are relaxing their immigration rules to attract more workers.

Germany on Wednesday unveiled plans to make it easier for people to hold multiple citizenships and ease naturalization for foreigners.

“The big question is whether or not what we’ve seen over the past few months will cool down,” said Mike Smith, CEO of Netherlands-based international recruiter Randstad Sourceright.

“From our perspective, we don’t think it’s temporary,” he said.

“We believe it’s a structural shift in how employees want to interact with work. Trends continue to suggest so. The shift in worker expectations is here to stay.”