Employers are currently experiencing an unprecedented set of headwinds. First, businesses are facing difficulties attracting and hiring a sufficient number of workers. As businesses attempt to resume full operations on the other side of the COVID-19 pandemic, consumers are likewise eager to return to their normal patterns of eating out, traveling, and shopping for more than essentials. But a lack of workers has remained a thorn in the side of businesses, and businesses have been forced to adapt to the extent possible. Restaurants have struggled to serve their returning customers. Grocery stores, fast food establishments, and retailers have increased the use of self-checkout and self-service kiosks. Airlines have delayed or cancelled thousands of flights due to pilot and attendant shortages. A lack of truck drivers has continued to snarl supply chains.
Employers’ hiring woes should really come as no surprise upon considering some critical facts. The unemployment rate is near a multiyear low, at 3.7% for August. Not long ago, an unemployment rate of 5.5% was generally considered full employment. The labor participation rate — the percentage of working age Americans currently employed — on the other hand, is at its lowest level since the late 1970s. Additionally, in what has been referred to as the Great Resignation, in the first several months of 2022, almost 4 million people per month voluntarily left their jobs. In most cases, leaving one job was an attempt to improve compensation by moving to one of the 10 million or so open jobs in the country. However, not all departing employees moved to a new job. A good number left for other reasons, such as burnout due to the pressures of the pandemic, to address childcare issues, or to seek more formal education to improve employment opportunities.