one of seven workers

Are you experiencing the squeeze of the trade labor shortage? Whether it's from techs changing occupations, retiring workers or new positions opening, the Bureau of Labor Statistics?expects the market for technicians to expand by 5% from 2021 to 2031. However, with fewer techs coming out of trade schools, that could be a big burden for building owners and facility operators.

We need a bold new way of thinking to help them succeed.

Let’s consider that the current labor shortage is about more than the skills gap or low-quality jobs. Maybe the real issue hindering our economic recovery is that our workforce investments haven’t been comprehensive. In other words, we haven’t addressed all the other “stuff” that workers have to contend with in order to get and succeed in a job. For example:

• unaffordable and/or unsafe housing that is far from centers of employment
• unaffordable and/or inaccessible child and elder care
• inefficient transportation systems that don’t connect the home to child care to work and back
• employer practices that prevent formerly incarcerated people from getting most jobs, except the lowest wage, lowest quality jobs
• policies that punish the poor with fines and fees that can lead to revoked driver’s licenses and other harsh penalties that affect a person’s ability to work
• mental health issues, including the effects of trauma and toxic stress brought on by systemic racism, generational poverty, and a pandemic

Any one of these things makes life and work harder. Too many people in this country deal with multiple challenges on this list, day in and day out. It’s no wonder that businesses are struggling to recruit. It’s no wonder that too many workers are at the breaking point.

These are not new issues. COVID made them worse, sure, but they’re not new.

And for a long time, the workforce development field said, “Those are big, complicated issues that someone else is working on. We need to stay in our lane and focus on skills and training.”