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the two most basic factors to consider are location and employment.Companies across industries have been in growth mode trying to keep up with elevated levels of consumer demand. The unemployment rate is back in the 3% range following 22 consecutive months of job growth.we also think there’s value in tracking movements in the labor market over the past 10-plus years to make sense of longer-term market resilience.

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https://www.uschamber.com/workforce/understanding-americas-labor-shortage

There are around 6 million unemployed works and there are 10 million job openings in US.Right now, the labor force participation rate is 62.3%, down from 63.3% in February 2020. Due to covid the number of employees went down and are still down. The pandemic forced many childcare providers to close or scale down: between February and April 2020, the industry lost 370,600 jobs — 95% of which were held by women. A full 4.4 million people quit their jobs in May 2022, but hiring has outpaced quits since November 2020 (hovering around 4.4%).

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We hear every day from our member companies-of every size and industry, across nearly every state-they're facing unprecedented challenges trying to find enough workers to fill open jobs. Right now, the latest data shows that we have over 10 million job openings in the U.S.-but only around 6 million unemployed workers.

We have a lot of jobs, but not enough workers to fill them. If every unemployed person in the country found a job, we would still have 5 million open jobs.

The U.S. Chamber is capturing the trends on job openings, labor force participation, quit rates, and more, for a quick understanding of the state of the workforce in our America Works Data Center.

Read on for an analysis of the state of the workforce on the national level. For an in-depth look at how the worker shortage is impacting different industries, click here.

How did this happen?

At the height of the pandemic, more than 120,000 businesses temporarily closed, and more than 30 million U.S. workers were unemployed. Since then, job openings have steadily increased since January 2020, while unemployment has slowly declined.

Overall, in 2021, employers ended up adding an unprecedented 3.8 million jobs. But at the same time, millions of Americans have left the labor force since before the pandemic. In fact, we have more than three million fewer Americans participating in the labor force today compared to February of 2020.

Understanding the Gap

Right now, the labor force participation rate is 62.1%, down from 63.3% in February 2020. It's clear that able workers are being overlooked or sitting on the sidelines. But there's not just one reason that workers are sitting out, but several factors have come together to cause the ongoing shortage.

The U.S. Chamber surveyed unemployed workers who lost their jobs during the pandemic on what is keeping them from returning to work. Nearly one in three (33%) women indicated that the need to be home and care for children or other family members has made the return to work difficult or impossible. More than a quarter (28%) of men indicated that their industry was still suffering and not enough good jobs were not available to return to work.

In addition to the factors outlined below, the survey also revealed some are still concerned about COVID-19 at work, indicate that pay is too low, or are more focused on acquiring new skills and education before re-entering the job market.

Factors Contributing to the Labor Shortage
An increase in savings
Enhanced unemployment benefits, stimulus checks, and not being able to go out and spend money during the Lockdown all contributed to Americans collectively adding $4 trillion to their savings accounts since early 2020. The extra few hundred dollars a week from enhanced unemployment benefits (which ended in Sept. 2021), specifically, led to 68% of claimants earning more on unemployment than they did while working.

In the Chamber's survey, 28% of women cited others in the family making enough money that working full-time is not as critical as the reason they have not re-entered the workforce. Just 17% of men said the same. Higher income and savings bolstered people's economic stability-allowing them to continue sitting out of the labor force.
Early retirements
As of October 2021, the pandemic drove more than 3 million adults into early retirement. In all, the number of adults 55 and older being detached from the labor force due to retirement grew from 48.1% in Q3 of 2019 to 50.3% in Q3 2021.
Lack of access to childcare
Even before the pandemic, a lack of access to high quality, affordable childcare was an issue. Research from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation found that due to breakdowns in the childcare system, the states surveyed (Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona, Missouri, and Texas) missed an estimated average of $2.7 billion annually for their economies.

A recent report from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation and The Education Trust shows that the pandemic created a vicious cycle for the industry; to return to work, workers need reliable childcare, but providers are facing immense challenges themselves. The pandemic forced many childcare providers to close or scale down: between February and April 2020, the industry lost 370,600 jobs - 95% of which were held by women. Unfortunately, the recovery has not been swift; as late as September 2021, childcare industry employment remained 10 percent lower than pre-pandemic levels.

Additionally, women are participating in the labor force the lowest rates since the 1970s. In the spring of 2020, 3.5 million mothers left their job, driving the labor force participation rate for working moms from around 70% to 55%. This number is improving - but it has not fully rebounded.
New business starts
In the spirit of entrepreneurship, some employees either left work or stayed unemployed to open their own businesses. Over the last two years, nearly 10 million new business applications were filed and in 2020 alone more than 4 million new business were started.

The Great Reshuffle

Meanwhile, there has been a "Great Reshuffle" among workers. 'The Great Resignation' worked its way into our vocabulary as the shift of our labor force started to become apparent-and the hashtag #quittok even went viral as social media users posted about quitting their jobs in search for more free time or better opportunities.

A full 4.4 million people quit their jobs in May 2022, but hiring has outpaced quits since November 2020 (hovering around 4.4%).

These reasons above help illuminate the current labor shortage landscape, but the examples are non- exhaustive.

Understanding why workers are missing from unfilled jobs is only half of the equation. The next step in addressing the labor shortage is to implement solutions to attract and retain new workers is underway. Learn about how the U.S. Chamber is driving solutions through the America Works initiative here.

About the authors

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We hear every day from our member companies-of every size and industry, across nearly every state-they're facing unprecedented challenges trying to find enough workers to fill open jobs. Right now, the latest data shows that we have over 10 million job openings in the U.S.-but only around 6 million unemployed workers.

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Give Health Care Workers the Mental Health Support They Deserve - Shakye 

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Give Health Care Workers the Mental Health Support They Deserve - Shakye 

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Advocating for health care workers has become an essential part of our day-to-day. In March, we were proud to see the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act enacted to provide $135 million for programs aimed at supporting the mental health and well-being of health workers. However, while this was a welcome first step, it’s only the beginning of the work needed to protect our clinicians.

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Advocating for health care workers has become an essential part of our day-to-day. In March, we were proud to see the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act enacted to provide $135 million for programs aimed at supporting the mental health and well-being of health workers. However, while this was a welcome first step, it's only the beginning of the work needed to protect our clinicians.

The next crucial step falls to the states: They must remove language in their licensing and credentialing processes that stigmatizes health care professionals who have sought treatment for mental health concerns.

Our research has identified 31 states, plus the District of Columbia, that may still use invasive or stigmatizing language requiring applicants to disclose any history of mental health concerns or to explain why they have taken breaks from work. Some require applicants to disclose any past psychiatric impairment, potentially going back decades, even to adolescence. These questions might violate the Americans with Disabilities Act. They certainly violate applicants' privacy. And there is significant evidence that they deter clinicians from seeking the care they need - at tremendous risk to their well-being and their lives.

Indeed, a survey of more than 1,500 physicians conducted this year found that 80% agree there is stigma around doctors seeking mental health care. Nearly 40% reported that either they personally or a colleague they know has been scared to seek mental health care because that treatment would need to be disclosed on their licensure, credentialing or insurance applications.

Mental health questions were often added to licensing applications out of a misplaced desire to protect the public from clinicians who might not be fit to give care. Yet there is no evidence that these questions serve that function.

On the contrary, the public interest is harmed by these questions, since we know that when doctors, nurses and other clinicians are afraid to seek the care they need, they may find themselves unable to work due to depression or burnout. Some may turn to drugs or alcohol. And tragically, some will turn to suicide. In fact, stigma associated with seeking - or even discussing - behavioral health care is a primary driver of suicide among the health care workforce.

The Dr. Lorna Breen Act is named after the sister-in-law of Corey Feist, a co-author of this piece. An emergency room physician, Lorna died by suicide in April 2020, after weeks of incredibly intense work caring for patients in the first wave of COVID-19. At one point during that surge, Lorna called her sister to confide that she was overwhelmed with exhaustion and grief - but she was fearful that she would lose her medical license or be ostracized at work if she acknowledged that she needed help.

In the years since Lorna's death, we have heard from many families who have lost physician loved ones to suicide. We recently connected with an emergency medicine doctor in Florida who reported that four of her physician colleagues died by suicide this summer. In too many of these cases, the clinicians have acknowledged to friends or family that they are reluctant to get treatment because of the stigma around mental health issues.

One such tragedy involves Dr. Matthew Gall, a devoted oncologist who practiced medicine for 16 years in Minnesota, one of the states that until recently used invasive questions on licensing applications. In 2019, Matthew moved to North Carolina with his wife and their three children. The move to a new practice was difficult, and Matthew struggled with depression, yet he declined to seek help. His wife, Betsy, told an interviewer that her husband felt "ashamed and embarrassed" about his depression, and feared he would lose his medical license and his livelihood if he sought treatment. "He honestly thought that he'd no longer be able to be a practicing oncologist," Betsy said. "The fear was real, and being a doctor meant everything to him." Matthew died by suicide on Thanksgiving Day 2019.

A terrible irony in this tragedy is the fact that North Carolina does not actually ask intrusive questions about mental health treatments in its licensure process. But having just moved to the state, Matthew was not aware of that fact. Lorna, too, was unaware that New York does not use invasive questions.

These stories are painful. They are powerful reminders that we must work toward universal reform of licensure applications, as our team did in Minnesota, which updated its questions to be less stigmatizing after testimony from Lorna's sister and brother-in-law. It's also clear that simply changing the language on applications is not enough. We must also get the word out widely, so no clinicians ever fear they will lose their job if they seek the help they need. In addition, we must continue to change the culture inside health care systems so that physicians, nurses, pharmacists and other health care workers feel comfortable being open about their mental health concerns and their need for support.

We are fighting for those reforms through our campaign ALL IN: WellBeing First for Healthcare, which brings together more than a dozen organizations including the American Medical Association, the American Hospital Association, the American Nurses Foundation and the Physicians Foundation. Thousands of individuals have joined us in contacting state medical boards to demand change.

We are also working to address clinician burnout through common-sense reforms that we expect will eliminate some of the bureaucracy that can consume so much of a clinician's time and remove the joy from patient care.

Ensuring that health care workers can access necessary mental health care is critical for their well-being and for the health of our entire country. Let's do our part to support them. Together, we can show our vital health care workforce that they aren't alone in this fight for their lives.

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Give Health Care Workers the Mental Health Support They Deserve

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Advocating for health care workers has become an essential part of our day-to-day. In March, we were proud to see the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act enacted to provide $135 million for programs aimed at supporting the mental health and well-being of health workers.