Why The Labor Shortage Might Be More Serious Than You Thought

It’s partially a holdover from the pandemic-era shutdowns, but there’s some troubling evidence that ongoing labor shortages in a variety of industries aren’t getting much better.

And while that is often frustrating for customers when a local store or restaurant has to limit its hours, there are some other cases in which the inability to find enough workers could literally be a life-or-death problem.

Here are some of the most notable sectors where this is becoming a potentially dangerous issue:

• Healthcare: Medical professionals worked long hours on the front lines of the COVID-19 crisis, and many of them became so burned out that they left the profession. Now, there’s an ongoing challenge to find qualified replacements, leaving serious gaps — particularly among nurses.
• Education: While it might not seem as dire as healthcare, a shortage among educators and daycare providers are putting added stress on parents while making it even harder for students to make up the learning loss that resulted from pandemic-related school shutdowns. These issues are compounded by a shortage of bus drivers, social workers, and other support staff.
• Air travel: There’s been a pilot shortage for a while and there’s also a growing need for air traffic controllers. Fortunately, there hasn’t been an uptick in serious crashes, but with near misses on the rise, many experts are warning that this is an industry suffering from a serious labor crisis.
• Corrections: As of March, a staffing shortage among federal prisons meant that 21% of correctional officer positions were vacant. This means prison workers and inmates face a higher risk of violence and there has also been an increase in reported health problems.

With the average age of Americans getting higher, there are fewer young people to fill open positions, so this problem might not be remedied any time soon.

Chris Agee August 28th, 2023

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