It’s a lot of work to find (good) work

The Future. Despite the labor shortage, many Americans are still struggling to find decent work. With supply-chain issues, inflation, and remote work creating challenging economic conditions for many people, the country is hopefully just going through a much-needed adjustment from an economy that stopped working for people years ago.

Labor woes
Even though the unemployment rate dropped to 4.2%, the Bureau of Labor Statistic’s November jobs report wasn’t too hot.

• Only 210,000 jobs were added, failing to reach the projected 550,000.
• 7.4 million Americans are still unemployed and actively looking for work.
• 2.2 million of that 7.4 million have been searching for a job for over 27 weeks.
• An additional 4.3 million Americans are partially unemployed because they’re still working part-time, either after reduced hours or because of an inability to find full-time work.
• Another 5.9 million Americans aren’t actively looking for work but would like to re-enter the workforce as soon as they find the right opportunity.

That’s a lot of people the economy isn’t working for, for reasons like a lack of childcare options, low wages amid rising living costs, and uncertainty surrounding an ongoing pandemic, especially for those working in leisure and hospitality.

While everyone would love to get matched with the job of their dreams, we may all need to just accept that the economy is going through prolonged growing pains.