The jobs employers just can't fill

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By Kate Morgan
12th September 2022

Some sectors are crying out for employees – but workers think they can do better elsewhere.

https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20220908-the-jobs-employers-just-cant-fill

In the first year of the pandemic, 68% of those who died in the US were labour, retail and service workers.

Throughout the past few years, workers have been resigning from jobs in record numbers. Some have been switching careers, some have been job-hopping for faster advancement and some have left the workforce altogether. In the US, for instance, the August 2022 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the labour force participation rate at 1.0 percentage point below its February 2020 level.

In other words, people have been quitting and, in some sectors and jobs, they haven’t been coming back. Perhaps it’s unsurprising, given the poor conditions in many workplaces throughout the pandemic. The dearth of workers is most evident in hospitality and service-work industries, where positions for dishwashers, truck drivers, retail workers, food servers, airport agents, home health aides and similar roles have been open for literal years.

This is not because people don’t want to work, say the experts. They just want better jobs; higher pay, improved conditions. The job market upheaval caused by the pandemic has enabled some workers to switch into better employment – and if hard-hit sectors want their workers back, they need to find ways of making their jobs more attractive.

Why are these jobs open?

Particularly in the US, data shows it’s been tough to be a service worker for a long time. In 2020, for instance, full-time American food counter workers made, on average, $23,960 (£20,796) a year – failing to clear the poverty line for a four-person household. Weekly hours have rarely been guaranteed, making it difficult for workers to be sure their income would cover their bills, or arrange things like transport and childcare.

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