Workforce??

[bluestreak2k5]

Yes Supply affects production, however I never imagined it would also be hooked to employment? That means if you increase supply in a hex from 60% to 100%, then the factory:

1. produces 100%
2. Hires at 100%

The way to test this is build 2 supply depots on your capital, along with an airbase if it doesn't have 1. This should get you to 100% within about 5 hexes from the capital.

Build factories around it. Lets say 1 Hex or 2 Hexs full of 6 Consumer Goods.

Note unemployment and production.

Now reload the game. Build factories in the exact same spots, but nothing else.

Note unemployment and production.

[vorius]

Just some observations of my game in response to your tests...
Is it really fair to look at just these numbers in isolation?
Big thing I noticed specifically with jacking up infrastructure spending was a big gradual shift upwards in the production of all resources and manufacturing. Does this imply that there are perhaps more people able to be employed because of improvements in infrastructure boosting production?

I suppose that makes sense, better supply allowing more production to occur means you need more workers. Yes I can see the logic in that.

But what about my second scenario, where I did not touch anything and the unemployment just kept going up and up and up, literally everything else was stagnant. That cannot be explained.

[Spookyashell]

So yes you do get unemployment to go back up but it is slow and it is either based off inflation or social service Quality or both.

I tiny fraction yes. When you start with 19.5% unemployment and put up SS to recommended and see it fall to 2.7% rapidly, when you then turn them "off" you get it up to just over 3% in a year. Would think it would go up alot more. For me it seems it doesn't release the workers. Its just the population growth that makes unemployment go back up a bit. Thats how it looks for me.
I guess I should take a look at it with several different nations. Maybe the US factories start with a skeleton crew, so they start hiring like crazy when the game starts, dunno!

[Aragos]

the catch is that if you lower Social Spending, you get less immigration and more deaths than births--which lowers your population and exacerbates the unemployment problem.

[Spookyashell]

Started a new game and tried to be as careful as possible with workforce, but down to 2.6% unemployment in July 37, So I checked around the world and the only countries I could find with over 3% unemployment was Spain and Germany with 3.4% and 3.1%. Rest I checked had 2.4%-2.7%

Something is clearly wrong..

[Inzann]

Also have a lot of problems with unemployment in my game as Sweden. It drops for no apparent reason and I have a very hard time increasing it, most countries I view also have very low unemployment. I think France is down to 2% and keeps dropping. Makes no sense to me. O.o

[magiclight]

After reading all this I find it strange no one has mentioned the military.
Deactivating bases, reducing garrisons, reducing reserves, and active personnel which in theory makes workers available to the public sector. Thus allowing them to be employed by factories and as social workers. In truth I don't know if it makes an impact at all, but it's something I often find myself doing when un-employment is critically low.

I agree there was an issue with SR:CW that has been carried over to '36 in regards to employment.

Regards,
Magic

[Indecisive]

It's hard to believe we've already gone through three game iterations (of the 2020 game engine, at least) and there's still no clear explanation of how employment works beyond very basic supply-and-demand.

Developers, can you chime in and share some details with us?

Is employment a flat rate per facility? Or is it determined by goods output? (e.g., scaling with productivity as new techs develop that increase output) Do cities produce or consume "employees", given the fact they produce goods? And what about different sectors? Farms versus factories versus power plants; are they all the same, or do they vary in employment? How about synthetic production facilities compared to "regular" ones?

Do taxes affect employment rates? (I'd presume they could drive off private sector companies, right?) What proportion of the work force do social spending programs use up at maximum settings? For that matter, how much of the workforce is actually "usable" by the player and isn't just permanently unavailable to simulate self-employed people? Does education affect employees available? What about free trade agreements and freedom of labour agreements?

[Fistalis]

After reading all this I find it strange no one has mentioned the military.
Deactivating bases, reducing garrisons, reducing reserves, and active personnel which in theory makes workers available to the public sector. Thus allowing them to be employed by factories and as social workers. In truth I don't know if it makes an impact at all, but it's something I often find myself doing when un-employment is critically low.

I agree there was an issue with SR:CW that has been carried over to '36 in regards to employment.

Regards,
Magic

This was actually my first thought. As your reserve grows it takes from your unemployed. So unless your preventing the growth of your reserves this could throw off any other tests. Would also explain the world wide low unemployment numbers since i sinecerly doubt the AI is reducing it military growth.

I would suggest to Try cutting military spending etc and see if your unemployment rises faster.

During the early access phase there was a long discussion on how many reserves you should gain per day.. i dont know if this was adjusted but if it was adjusted up then it could easily explain why unemployment stays low with moderate military spending. Rather than being unemployed they are enlisting.

[Balthagor]

I will start poking George with sharp objects to get answers...

[Kibawan]

I will start poking George with sharp objects to get answers...

That is just mean...use acid.

[mattpilot]

The whole economic system is just ... 'odd', IMO.


The easiest way to dump GDP & Raise unemployment is to stop all building, stop all social spending (biggest part) and to cut off your population from consumer goods (stop production, stop import).

GDP lowers by ~1% a day doing this.

Want to raise GDP and lower unemployment, just spend more via the above methods.


GDP is just the calculated value of GOv't spending + population spending in your country possibly minus exports.

Unemployment %, IMO, is probably just a calculated value based off of GDP that somehow factors into other formulas such as rate of military personnel increase, but otherwise does nothing.

I see no evidence that unemployment % somehow affects production output of your factories or anything else.

It's hard to believe we've already gone through three game iterations (of the 2020 game engine, at least) and there's still no clear explanation of how employment works beyond very basic supply-and-demand.

Yep.... sad. Many opinions, but nothing definite.

[Inzann]

I wish this game had more explaination as to how things work and at least some explaination as to what forumlas are used to calculate certain things. I'd really do anything to increase my unemployment rate but I have no idea what to do, I have tried pretty much all suggestions without any luck.

[mattpilot]

I wish this game had more explaination as to how things work and at least some explaination as to what forumlas are used to calculate certain things. I'd really do anything to increase my unemployment rate but I have no idea what to do, I have tried pretty much all suggestions without any luck.

Question - Why do you want to increase your unemployment rate? What effects are you hoping it will give you? Other than real world effects -> what ingame effects do you KNOW it will give you?


If you still want to raise it, do as i posted 1 post above. It works.... fast.

[Indecisive]

I wish this game had more explaination as to how things work and at least some explaination as to what forumlas are used to calculate certain things. I'd really do anything to increase my unemployment rate but I have no idea what to do, I have tried pretty much all suggestions without any luck.

Question - Why do you want to increase your unemployment rate? What effects are you hoping it will give you? Other than real world effects -> what ingame effects do you KNOW it will give you?


If you still want to raise it, do as i posted 1 post above. It works.... fast.

He means free up workers -- or get new ones -- for use, because chronic workforce shortages are a serious issue in the Supreme Ruler series of games, especially for low-tech nations. I myself am currently playing as China, and despite having a half-billion large population, I don't even have enough manpower to run my social spending at 50% (with all factories shut off and no army deployed!) without suffering from workforce shortages. Not to mention that actually paying for the social services for any decent length of time requires even more workforce to produce goods for selling.