How Machine Learning Can Help Ease the US Labor Shortage

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Experts have debated the causes of the labor shortage in the United States. But one thing is painfully clear: there is a staggering disparity between the number of jobs available (over 10 million) and the number of workers looking for work (around 6 million).

In this short article, we'll take a step back and look at how we got here, the multiple factors that led to such disparity, and some of the solutions that have been implemented in an attempt to combat this problem. In particular, we will look at machine learning (ML) and how it is being used to mitigate both the causes and effects of the labor shortage in the United States.

The current labor shortage in the United States

According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, labor force participation has dropped in recent years, from 63.3% to 62.3%. While a 1% reduction in the number of skilled workers participating in the labor force would not otherwise present a huge national problem, it comes after a pandemic that saw more than 30 million workers lose their jobs. /p>

The hardest hit sectors are leisure and hospitality, restaurants, durable goods manufacturing, education and health services. But there is almost no business sector that is not affected.

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look here What are some of the causes of the labor shortage?

The COVID-19 pandemic has indeed shaken up the labor market. Studies show that around a quarter of a million people of working age have died from the disease, half a million have left the workforce due to the lingering health effects of the virus, and a similar number of workers went straight from illness to retirement.

This reduction in the workforce should have been compensated by job seekers seeking to enter the market, but this has not happened. Instead, the United States saw an increase in the monthly quit rate across all industries. In some industries, such as leisure and hospitality, the monthly dropout rate exceeds 6%. Traditionally more stable sectors, such as business and professional services, are still seeing an alarming quit rate of over 3%.

Many workers have expressed a desire to continue working from home. This is a difficult expectation for some industries, such as healthcare and manufacturing. But this shift in employee expectations...