Where Have All The Essential Workers Gone? Consumers Are Feeling The Impact

Innovation Where Have All The Essential Workers Gone? Consumers Are Feeling The Impact Luke Sophinos Forbes Councils Member Forbes Technology Council COUNCIL POST Expertise from Forbes Councils members, operated under license. Opinions expressed are those of the author. | Membership (fee-based) Aug 26, 2022, 07:15am EDT | Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Luke Sophinos is the Founder and CEO of CourseKey , a software platform provider supporting trade and vocational schools across the U.

S. getty Why did we stop clapping for healthcare workers? Or other trade workers, for that matter? A remarkable thing happened in cities in the spring of 2020. Every day at 7:00 a.

m. and 7:00 p. m.

, New Yorkers and people in other cities around the world would lean out of their windows, take a break from the pandemic’s isolation and clap for the healthcare workers walking the streets as they changed shifts. This was a collective nod to the life-saving work that healthcare workers were doing during this uncertain and harrowing time—from respiratory therapists to CT technicians to hospital maintenance workers. Soon the ritual spread to cities around the world, and during that strange chapter of time, we all had a genuine appreciation for the training and dedication of these invaluable healthcare workers.

Then, life went back to normal (sort of), and the clapping stopped. All good things do eventually come to an end. But our appreciation of healthcare professionals, and so many other tradespeople, needs to remain front and center.

Healthcare Is In Jeopardy This is especially true because healthcare workers are leaving the industry in droves. A recent report, “Clinician of the Future,” found that up to 47% of healthcare workers plan to leave their positions by 2025. According to a Forbes article that cited the report, “The global study found 71% of doctors and 68% of nurses believe their jobs have changed considerably in the past 10 years, with many saying their jobs have gotten worse.

” MORE FOR YOU Google Issues Warning For 2 Billion Chrome Users Forget The MacBook Pro, Apple Has Bigger Plans Google Discounts Pixel 6, Nest & Pixel Buds In Limited-Time Sale Event It’s not hard to connect the dots on how this will affect consumers. Fewer healthcare workers means less access to routine and emergency healthcare, longer wait times and poorer patient outcomes. Construction, Trucking And Other Trades Also Face Dramatic Shortages Then let’s turn to other essential trades — as of February 2022, about 4 million vacancies remained in industries responsible for most transportation, construction and mechanical needs nationwide.

Trucking may be one of the worst areas hit. Per a CBS News report, “According to the Transportation Department, roughly 300,000 truck drivers leave the profession every year. The Covid-19 pandemic only made the driver shortage worse because training and apprenticeship programs were either closed or limited their operations.

” And, for a period, consumer demand fell off a cliff when people stopped driving their cars, so tanker drivers left the field because there wasn’t any demand for the gas. The driver shortage affects the entire economy, as more than 68% of all freight is moved on U. S.

highways. Without truckers, deliveries of groceries, medicine, toilet paper and other essentials remain at risk—the oft-discussed supply chain is squeezed. The driver shortage is also squeezing margins which can have a deep impact on supplier costs.

That is reflected in consumer pricing—all of which contribute to mounting consumer frustration. Then there’s construction. According to the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) organization, the construction industry needs to immediately attract nearly 650,000 additional workers over and above its normal pace of hiring in 2022 to meet the increasing demand for labor.

Trade School Enrollment Could Help One possible bright spot is surging trade school enrollment in key areas. Student enrollment among agriculture, construction and transportation schools has increased up to 40%, according to new data from National Student Clearinghouse (via Fox Business ). One reason that more students are starting to rely on trade school education is the lower cost of tuition.

On average, a trade school education costs a total of $33,000 . For context, that is roughly equivalent to the price of a single year’s tuition at a four-year college. The more people who understand the value of a trade-focused education, the better.

Trade schools need to attract more students, keep them enrolled, advance their success and assist with job placement. High schools can market the advantages of vocational training to their students—it’s not the stepchild of the four-year degree, but rather a viable career path. Trade schools can better identify at-risk students who may be in jeopardy of dropping out.

And more bridges can be built between trade schools and companies that will eventually employ their graduates (unless they strike out on their own—entrepreneurship is also a common path for career education grads). Tech Leaders Can Step Up Tech leaders can play an important role here. Google has already provided a grant to actually launch a new trade school, Mobile Hope , that will train young adults (some homeless or at-risk youth) from 18-24 in trades, including HVAC, drywall installation, auto-machinery and IT.

Google may not be getting workers out of this school, but they are addressing an overall skills shortage problem in our country and offering upward mobility to those who need it most. It’s critical to remember just how grateful we were of essential workers during the height of the pandemic. When we can continuously show our appreciation for a trained and dedicated workforce, perhaps more workers will be attracted to these jobs knowing that their skills and knowledge are essential to the health and well-being of millions of Americans.

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