The end to America’s nationwide labor shortage is still not in sight, but some economists suggest that having a more diversely-abled workforce in today’s hybrid work culture could help solve it.
The switch to working from home or through a hybrid model as a result of COVID increased the rate of employment for disabled workers. According to the Economic Innovation Group (EIG), disabled individuals between the ages of 25-54 “are 3.5 percentage points more likely to be employed in Q2 2022 than they were pre-pandemic. In contrast, non-disabled individuals were still 1.1 percentage points less likely to be employed.”
“The ability to hire remotely allows firms to not just hire workers in their local labor markets but hire workers across the country and in some positions even across the world,” Adam Ozimek, chief economist at EIG, told Yahoo Finance. “That is helpful [for the labor shortage]. Firms that embrace remote work will find themselves less subjected to an inability to hire.”
The roots of the current worker shortage are linked to the coronavirus pandemic, which wiped out half a million jobs from the U.S. workforce, and the Great Resignation, which took hold after the pandemic. If every unemployed worker filled a job opening, there would still be about 4 million open jobs, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Industrial states like Texas and Ohio are two examples of places that have an extreme labor shortage where more than 200,000 workers are needed. Meanwhile, Washington is the only state in the U.S. that has a surplus of workers.
“The labor shortage is obviously a huge economic problem, but it’s also a big opportunity for people with disabilities,” John Robinson, CEO of Our Ability, told Yahoo Finance.
Pre-COVID, 6.3% of disabled individuals worked from home versus 5.9% of non-disabled individuals. Working remotely increases productivity for workers with disabilities because it eliminates challenges such as commuting to work and other environments that can be difficult to navigate.
