Exploring the US Labor Shortage and Unemployment
Commentary
Businesses across the United States report that they find it hard to find staff and that vacancies are going unfilled. Meanwhile, companies are making cuts, and unemployment is expected to rise.
In 2021, more than 47 million workers quit their jobs, considerably more than the 42 million in 2019. Some of these resignations were due to vaccine mandates, but there is much more to this shortage of workers story.
In 2019, unemployment was 3.6 percent. In 2020, it climbed to 6.7 percent and reduced to 3.9 percent in 2021. As of July 2022, the unemployment rate had dropped to 3.5 percent, slightly below the pre-COVID level. But this does not necessarily mean that everyone who had a job in 2019 is back at work….