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Clerks and Craftsmen - how to distribute them between factories better?

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1anrs

1anrs

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Sorry to spam the forum this evening, another question, again I did try to find on the forum already.

I create clerks using the national focuses in order to have them, and not only craftsmen, in the factories. Obviously, they are also good for research points. Problem is that the game seem to lump them in the latest factory rather than balancing the numbers across all factories. In the screen print I have shown one of the factories where clerks vastly outnumber the craftsmen but the others in that state have numbers of about 8000 craftsmen and 2000 clerks respectively. Is there a way to shift staff between factories, for example redistribute the craftsmen to individual factories or to make the available craftsmen simply divide between them rather than first fill one, then another, then another, etc.

Also, what is the optimum (maximum) number of clerks as a ratio to craftsmen?

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Comrade110 said:
1:5 If Im not mistaken.
Click to expand...

EUnderhill said:
1:4 (or 1/5);)


Usually the best solution to having too many clerks in a factory is to promote more craftsmen. Over time the factories do tend to the optimal ratio from promotion/demotion.
Click to expand...

Thanks guys, so perhaps the other factories being in the 2000/8000 region mean that those factories already have balanced themselves and it is just the most recent one that is out. I will bear promoting craftsmen in mind, I think I had read elsewhere that could be counter-productive and lead to an over-supply so that had made me a bit wary, but I will bear in mind to do it sensibly.
 
You can look in the population screen. Deselect everything and select only clerks and craftsmen. The ideal ration is 80% craftsmen and 20% clerks. You can then see the proportion in every state. Too many clerks (like your example) will be bad for the factory. Clerks give bonus, but don't produce anything themselves, so the factory will lose money and start firing employees. The unemployed clerks will then demote to craftsmen until the factory is profiable again. If you're playing in the Americas, you could also use your NF to promote immigration since a lot of immigrants are actually craftsmen looking for job (so it's good for your industry and population).
 
1:4 is the ratio AI is trying converge to. The optimal ratio depends on the situation. For some factories, especially earlier in the game you need certain percentage of clerks to make them profitable, so that would be a minimal percentage of clerks you would want to have. Craftsmen are needed to produce output and their number serves as a multiplier to the per unit profit. So having more craftsmen is good if your factory is profitable and bad if it loses money. Of course, there are other considerations such as needing the good factory produces and that is sometimes more important than the amount of profit factory makes.
 
Question:

Sometimes, profit is not all you need (specially when you're in State Capitalism) so I boost clerks to boost my research points. I don't mind if my factories' output isn't the best when I'm focusing on research.

Is this a good solution or a crappy one? Should I, instead, focus on clergymen (even though it's beyond the 2% recommended by the game?)
 
It's a good solution if you can actually get any reasonable number of clerks. Nations with low literacy would have problem promoting many clerks, so your suggestion is usually suitable only to fairly literate nations. For those there is not much point to go above 2% clergy. You do need profits in most cases though because that's where clerks and craftsmen get their salary from and if they can't buy their needs it will slow down clerks promotions
 
Thanks for the answers, that is all very useful. Craftsmen for production, clerks for profit and bonuses and keep an eye on your literacy :)
 
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