As the United States continues its economic recovery following the Covid-19 pandemic, many previously ignored economic issues have now become major roadblocks for the nation. The needs of workers and of business owners no longer line up. The cause of this is debated, but regardless of who is to blame, change is necessary for both political parties to survive in these turbulent times. The recent economic turmoil in China reveals that no nation is completely safe from economic disaster during this recovery period. The United States cannot ignore fundamental economic errors anymore, and must find a way to fill the millions of unfilled jobs in essential industries.
The economic balance of supply and demand that the free market relies on is in jeopardy. Many suspect that workers are choosing to not return to work for health reasons. This is playing a role, but it does not fully account for the overwhelming lack of available workers. As of August 2021, there were 8.4 million unemployed people and 10.4 million job openings. This is quite perplexing, as a large portion of small businesses closed indefinitely during the economic shutdown caused by Covid-19. The raising of wages has not seemed to affect job interest for many companies as well. This issue is not only affecting the US, as many European countries are facing similar problems, which is disrupting the global markets as well. Most consumers have seen the effects of this global production shortage through long delays on ordered goods and materials.
The service industry is seeing huge disruptions in job applications as well. This has affected almost every aspect of the industry, from film sets to classrooms, which has forced many institutions to hire inexperienced and/or unqualified workers just to stay afloat. For public school classrooms in particular, this often results in a lower quality education for students and more stress on available school teachers than pre-pandemic times. But the limited number of qualified teachers willing to work is not surprising when you consider how difficult and financially unrewarding public school teaching jobs were even pre-pandemic. It is likely that many people have realized that their standards of living were simply not being met before everything shut down. Perhaps this problem is not the fault of individual business owners or unmotivated workers, but the overall expectations for workers not meeting an acceptable standard anymore.
In the capitalist system that the western hemisphere is based on, constant financial growth is expected. This growth is dependent on, among other things, a surplus of workers. When there are more workers than jobs available, jobs and industries are created in order to employ these workers. This relationship between supply and demand of talent and workers, which extends far beyond just the hiring process, is incredibly essential to the system, but has proven fragile. The employer’s role in the capitalist system is to find ways to employ enough workers to maximize the bottom line. This requirement of employers has led them to do many morally questionable things throughout history—whether it be understaffing (causing workers to work exorbitant hours) or limiting breaks, even to go to the bathroom—in order to maximize profit and keep innovation and societal improvement through product coming—this is the price of progress, in the capitalist system. Modern western society’s workers, however, haven’t prioritized economic growth in recent decades. There’s little incentive to, after all. And the lack of incentive to prioritize economic growth is why the general shift in perspective is far more exaggerated in the working population, more specifically in the service and manufacturing industries, than with the employers. It is possible that, during the Covid-19 economic shutdown, this shift has accelerated for workers as many experienced prolonged unemployment for the first time. The shift of the job market from a place of scarcity to now one of high supply and low demand has changed what is required of employers.
