A record number of job openings and fewer workers to fill them have left 42 states with more available jobs than people looking for work, according to a Stateline analysis of federal statistics from August, the latest available.
Employers such as RF Buche, who runs a 116-year-old family chain of South Dakota fast-food restaurants and convenience stores, are scrambling to fill shifts and cutting store hours because they can’t find enough help.
“I’m more worried about burnout than anything else, people working extra shifts,” Buche said. “It’s as bad as I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been in this business all my life.”
The labor shortage, by one measure the most acute since 1968, means higher wages and increased bargaining power for workers. But some experts fear it also could dampen economic growth as the country struggles to recover from the pandemic. And it could make it more difficult to implement the $1.2 trillion infrastructure plan Congress approved, which the White House has said is expected to create millions of jobs in fields such as construction and trucking.
South Dakota, where Buche seeks workers, has one of the highest ratios of job openings to unemployed people who might fill them: There are nearly two openings for every unemployed person looking for work.
The ratio of jobs-to-jobless is almost 3 to 1 in Nebraska and more than 2 to 1 in Utah, New Hampshire, Vermont, Idaho, Georgia, Alabama and Montana. In most states, the ratio is higher now than it was before the pandemic. “We need immigrants, and we need to treat them right. We’ve mistreated them for decades, every time we’ve allowed immigrants to come in and solve our labor force problems. This goes back to the Irish.”
There are just eight states with more unemployed workers than job openings: Hawaii, followed by California, Connecticut, New York, Illinois, New Mexico, New Jersey and Nevada. Hawaii and Nevada are heavily dependent on tourism, which still hasn’t returned to pre-pandemic levels. That may change as the United States reopens its borders to international travelers who are vaccinated.
Most of the states with more jobless people than jobs have plenty of white-collar positions that allow people to work remotely. The labor shortage is most acute in sectors with relatively low pay and high public contact, such as transportation, food service and hospitality.
The shortage is snarling critical services in many states and cities.
Some Massachusetts towns, for example, are offering up to $310 an hour to snowplow operators amid stiff competition for commercial drivers. Paid firefighters and medics are in short supply in parts of Virginia. A shortage of workers has meant longer waits for public buses in St. Louis and fewer menu options in school cafeterias in Utah.
While the national unemployment rate is down to 4.6% as of October, that’s not true for all groups, according to estimates for the third quarter from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. Black workers still face double-digit unemployment in Illinois (10.8%) and California (10.4%), and Hispanic unemployment in New York is 10.7%.
“This brings up the question, ‘Are these employers’ hiring pools as diverse as they could be?’” said Kyle Moore, an economist with the institute. “When wages are high enough and people are satisfied with safety provisions like protective equipment, they will take these jobs.”
In South Dakota, Buche faces a deficit of about 55 shifts out of the 416 he needs most weeks in his convenience stores and restaurants.
Half of that deficit he attributes to hiring woes, but he said the other half is from part-time employees who don’t want more work and don’t need the money since they’re not splurging on extras such as movies and restaurants.
