Audacy, October 2021
Making sure their workplace is safe, paying people fairly and considering childcare needs could help employers find staff amid a labor shortage that is persisting longer than economists’ expectations. Overall, the U.S. has roughly 11 million job openings and 7.7 million unemployed.
After months of speculation by economists that there would be a hiring increase in September, when COVID-19 pandemic-related extended unemployment ended, the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs report only showed a 0.4 percent employment increase, equal to 194,000 jobs overall. As those jobs were added, 309,000 women over age 20 dropped out of the labor force and 182,000 men joined it.
Women could be leaving the labor force as schools start due to a lack of childcare options, according to the Washington Post. Although many schools across the nation have tried to reopen for in-person learning after on-and-off remote learning spurts necessitated by the pandemic, the delta variant-fueled spike in cases over the summer is still making in-person school a challenge.
