Help Wanted.
Locally we need police officers, healthcare professionals, TV news reporters, blue collar positions in construction and retail, and according to a story filed today by SNN’s Samantha Sonner, we need more accountants.
Like most of you, I am not an economist, so call me a casual observer of what is going on. On the one hand the U-S unemployment rate dropped to to 3.5% last month. The lowest since February 2020 and before COVID really made a mess of things.
Here in Florida, we appear to look even better. June unemployment was at 2.8%. That compares to more than 13% in April of 2020, right when COVID was getting going.
But again, on the other hand, we have scary shortages as I listed above. Is the cause low unemployment? Or something else?
For answers to such things, we at SNN turn to David Kotok, the founder and CIO of Cumberland Advisors.
David listed three groups of potential workers impacting shortages.
Number one: Former President Trump shut down immigration, depriving the country of about two million persons to fill lower paying, manual labor and assistant positions, as well as skilled laborers like nurses and construction workers.
Number two: We have three and one-half to four million persons, 16 to 64 who have long covid. They’re either not in the labor force because of illness or they are caregivers.
Number three: We are short about 800,000 65-plus workers against pre covid numbers. David says they died, are sick or taking care of someone else
The end result of not having these people in the labor pool? Businesses are scrambling to find people.
How to fix things: David says opening the border would end the scramble for nurses and other skilled workers. And, my guess is it would help in hospitality and retail. But, we know immigration is one of those things you bring up and the result is a verbal food fight.
And, on top of this, add the impact of no affordable housing here on the Suncoast.
So, here we sit. Low unemployment and critical shortages in several job categories. As a hiring manager, I have never had so much difficulty hiring reporters and anchors. Have an interesting story about how you are filling positions at your place of business? Let us know. Contact us at news at SNN TV dot com or on Facebook. We might do a story.
That’s how we view things this week. I’m Craig Burdick. Looking for a few good reporters at SNN, THE Suncoast News Network.
