The HVAC industry has struggled for years with a skilled labor shortage. Various explanations for why this is happening run the gamut from lack of vocational training in high schools to an aging population to parents pushing their children to attend college rather than trade school.
But it’s not just the HVAC industry that is struggling to find workers, as labor force participation in the U.S. has slipped from 67.3 percent in 2000 to 62.7 percent in January 2018. The reason for this decline may be a result of increased drug use, noted Alan Krueger, Princeton University economist. His study, “Where Have All the Workers Gone? An Inquiry Into the U.S. Labor Force Participation Rate,” posits that a national increase in prescriptions for opioids between 1999 and 2015 could account for a 20 percent decline in labor force participation among men in their prime working ages of 25-54.