What is the meaning of losing workers or not being able to find sufficient staff for employment?
Is this a fashionable trend that will stay for a long time and will it be applicable to many regions? This is a new phenomenon across the United States and other parts of the world and what are the results to the economy of the region?
The future of this region and many others is built around a leftover from COVID-19 and surely is something that has not completely disappeared. A high degree of the population still has not taken any vaccine shots.
However, there is a need to examine every region of the nation to determine what will the economy look like as a result of a very compact labor market that includes labor shortages, inflation and much more regarding how we can combat the flow of layoffs and other difficult economic situations that have bent the economic conditions of many regions.
How can businesses rebound from the pandemic and not be hit by a downward economy but expect growth and not reducing staffing? Each company needs to evaluate its capability and respond to resulting from the past two-plus years. The nation may experience a recession, but there may be fewer consequences of downward employment.
Much depends upon the Federal Reserve System’s steps in coming months. The scarcity of workers is a factor that many did not foresee as an element of economic development across the nation or this region.
Some have estimated that nationally there are two open positions for every unemployed worker. This tells us that there is a need for retraining even beyond normal conditions that no longer exist. There is uncertainty over the economy and jobs and how a recession might be coming.
Perhaps in lieu of letting people go as a result of a downward push, other steps may be considered to lower the cost of doing business. This is why a special look at the totality of the economy should be fine-tuned by every region, including ours.
It shows in the way businesses may be examining the role of part-time employees as well as what full-time arrangements are best for companies. It remains a difficult decision for businesses to make decisions regarding what to do prior to a slow economy and what they actually do when they see financial difficulty. If they have temporary workers, will they stop that or will these workers seek full-time work and leave their current position?
These are hard decisions for both management and employees. However, both sides of the working table need information to reach an appropriate conclusion. Since this is an unusual time for economic decision-making as pointed out by Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, it points to much more speculation about how to decide on ways to come to a final verdict regarding employment.
Here are some thoughts for this region:
■Restudy the role that management and full-time, part-time and temporary employment plays so that a better conclusion can be obtained under difficult times.
■Create a strategy and action plan that takes into account the ways that the regional economy by all sectors, private, public and nonprofit, can benefit.
■ Develop a plan that makes sense in a complex time and decide how to best commit resources that may change from time to time.
■ Irrespective of whether there is a slowdown in the economy, the hiring shortage may continue and seek a need for readjustment.
■ Businesses may decide that hanging onto people becomes so vital that scarcity leads to strange decisions that may change suddenly.
■ How this region relates to recession becomes a new condition and requires different approaches and policies that can be readjusted during a recession.
■ It may be a time for options to consider during a recession if it happens, and lead to many new ideas from all sides of the economy.
These, and other factors, are key to meeting conditions in the region that have not been faced historically, but may be way to focus on new opportunities for the future.