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How to get more Workers in Cities: Skylines (4 Ways)

How to get more Workers in Cities: Skylines (4 Ways)

If you’ve ever played Cities: Skylines and started a city from scratch, you probably did it without taking a look at the tutorials which can be pretty tedious and annoying to go through. With the normal development of your city, well on your way, you might have noticed that the industrial sector is pretty much down in the dumps. Particularly because there aren’t enough workers around.

To get more workers in Cities: Skylines, you need to ensure an efficient Transport System to the industrial sector from residential areas. Build the industrial sector right next to residential zones. Use the Schools Out Policy and Remove Universities. Check that both sectors have a decent supply of utilities. After it’s all said and done, wait it out.

If that’s certainly the case, you’ll be prompted with the “Not enough workers!” notification. This can be pretty annoying to look at because a fraction of the population is unemployed with loads of job opportunities at hand.

So, let’s figure out why your Cities Skyline NPCs aren’t working and what you can do to nudge them in the right direction.

How To Make Money in Cities: Skylines?

“Not Enough Workers!” in Cities: Skylines

Not Enough Workers Pop Up

First and foremost, the “Not enough workers” issue is pretty commonplace within the industrial sector of your custom city. And you can’t skimp out on this sector one bit as it’s the center of good production and service relegation to the townsfolk.

So, how can you get rid of this annoying popup notification in the first place? Well, you could opt to close it, but that certainly won’t fix the problem. But before getting into the nitty-gritty side of things, let’s see why these issues pop up.

  • Workers already employed in the industrial sector might be having a hard time commuting, indicating that a transport service is either not functioning properly or absent.
  • You might not have enough qualified workers ready to work blue-collar jobs. They could also be over-qualified and not willing to work in the blue-collar industrial sector.
  • Or simply put, you might not have enough citizens, to begin with.

1. School’s Out For Summer

School's Out Policy in force

So, the industrial sector, similar to the real world, needs uneducated workers to put their lives at risk for the betterment of the lives of the elite. But that certainly won’t be the case if the better part of your city is over-qualified and educated to be working these blue-collar jobs.

That means these college-educated NPCs will look for white-collar jobs before simply relinquishing their efforts to settle for the industrial sector.

But there might be a polar-opposite problem as well. Many uneducated individuals might be looking for jobs in better sectors but don’t have the qualifications to do so. So, you’ll have to carefully plan out the education and zoning levels accordingly.

For a temporary fix, you can opt to either remove universities from the city or settle for the Schools Out option in some of the zones. Eventually, educated citizens will settle for employment in the industrial sector.

2. Revamping Transport in Cities: Skylines

Cities Skylines: Efficient Transport System
An efficient Industrial Sector with a Transport System

Citizens are pretty picky and they’re lazy too. If the industrial sector is kind of distant from the residential zones, then they’re less likely to go the extra mile(pun intended) to work in the industrial sector. This is more commonplace if your transport system is subpar at best.

You’ll need to streamline and upgrade your transport system so that NPCs are willing to travel from residential areas to industrial zones. 

If that seems too difficult of a feat, go the lazy route and just demolish your industrial sector and rebuild it right next to your residential zones.

3. Utility Bug in Cities: Skylines

Cities: Skylines Utilities

If you’ve done all the above-mentioned steps and individuals still refuse to work in the industrial sector, then you might be dealing with a bug that many users have reported in the past. A scarcity of utilities can somehow mess up the employment rate in the industrial sector. So, ensure an adequate supply of utilities in both the industrial sector and residential areas.

4. Wait it Out

Cities: Skylines Residential Area

If you’ve done everything, streamlined your transport system. Heck, even build the industrial sector right next to your residential area. Ensured a decent supply of utilities in both sectors. Then all you can do is wait it out till the ball starts rolling on its own.


Conclusion

Cities: Skylines is pretty complex and there are loads of problems to deal with on your city-building journey. If you skipped the tutorial and started going ham in the game, you’ll need to refine your city in the long term.

We hope this guide has helped you in increasing the number of workers you have in Cities: Skylines.