The pandemic had numerous consequences and contributing to the worker shortage is one of them.  Congressman Tom Emmer joined me on WJON this week.  He says we have 4.9 Million less people in the United States looking for work now than we had prior to the pandemic.  Emmer says a large portion of these individuals are baby boomers choosing to retire and get out of the workforce.  Emmer says "we're going to have to figure out how to deal with the loss of workforce in addition to creating the policies that give the incentive to get people back into the workforce."  Emmer says we have 8.4 Million unemployed Americans, and we have 10 Million job openings with the unemployment rate in the U.S. at 5.4% with Minnesota's unemployment rate at 4.4%.

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Emmer says he was in a local hospital earlier last week.  He says the staff told him they have the beds for patients but don't have the people to staff the building.  Emmer says the reports of hospitals being overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients is in large part due to staff issues.   He says this is something that they need to look at very closely as we move forward.

Listen to my conversation with Congressman Emmer below.  Tom joins me on WJON each month on WJON.

 

 

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