The job buffet
There has never been a better time to look for a new job in the US — with more than 10.9 million job openings as of the latest count from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That's the highest number ever recorded (chart here).
The leisure & hospitality industry is particularly struggling to find employees, with the number of job openings in the industry up 88% on this time 2 years ago, which works out to an extra 850,000 jobs. The shortage has gotten so bad that some branches of McDonald's, Chick-fil-A and other restaurants have been shutting down or reducing their opening hours because they don't have enough staff — and it's a similar story in other sectors.
In the manufacturing industry the number of jobs open has more than doubled. There's a truck driver shortage, a shortage of staff at schools and not enough retail workers. Econ majors dust off your textbooks; the shortage means firms should begin to raise wages or make efforts to improve working conditions if they're struggling to attract the right talent — at least in theory.
