A Major Reason Why Jobs Remain Unfilled

Published on: 01/11/2022

In this edition of Chart Talk, Tony Ogorek and Jeff Viksjo discuss how there is a decline in a specific portion of the work force after the financial crisis and after COVID, that is leading to unfilled jobs and what is needed to get them back in.

TRANSCRIPT

TONY:

Welcome to another edition of Chart Talk.  I’m Tony Ogorek. I am here with our Portfolio Manager Jeff Viksjo.  And you know, Jeff, there is a lot of talk out there about jobs being open.  Employers unable to find people to be able to work in them.  A significate part of the work job force, obviously, is women, and we’ve got a chart here which addressing this. So, this takes a look at the labor participation rate for women, who are aged 20 and above.  Interestingly, you go back at the end of World War II, only 30% of women were in the work force and really, it sort of doubled, so that we got into over 60% of women who were working in the 2000’s. But right now, after the financial crisis and after COVID, you see quite a different picture.  So, give us a little bit of background of what you see here.

JEFF:

So, an economy needs workers to grow.  And so, women entering the labor force in such large numbers, you said doubling between 1950 and the end of the 1990’s, was a tremendous tailwind for the economy. Saw great growth in the economy during this time.  You can see that’s leveled off, really, after the Dot-Com Crisis and then again during the Great Financial Crisis it was on a steady decline.  COVID was, sort of, the last nail in the coffin here.  It caused a further decline. Obviously, Daycare centers were even closed during COVID which was a big factor.  So now, we’re basically, today, at the same rate as we were in 1988.  That’s, really, why a lot of positions remain unfilled out there.  This worker shortage primarily women now.

TONY:

Yeah, I mean it’s shocking Jeff.  It takes us back almost 35 years, under 60% for the labor participation rate for women.  So, the question going forward is: if the economy is going to be recovering, we have to get those women back in the work force, and what policies are going to help encourage them do that? And what opportunities are available for them, particularly with remote work, that may allow them to continue to contribute to our country’s economic growth?

Thank you for joining us for another edition of Chart Talk.

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