(Washington Insider Magazine) -The economic recovery from Covid-19 in the US has been by many measures a huge success in recent weeks. Moody’s Analytics has said the economy is back to 93% of its pre-Covid level from early March 2020. Unemployment claims have plummeted and job postings have rocketed. The Dow Jones industrial average has also surged to record highs.
Yet the expected boom in job vacancies is not being filled anywhere near as quickly as economists predicted. In hospitality and retail, two industries hit particularly hard by the lockdowns, the recovery has been strong and mostly fallen in line with expectations. In some sectors such as trucking, however, the scarcity of labor is threatening to cause ripples throughout the economy.
Truck driving has always had a scarcity of labor and a very high turnover but this problem has multiplied during lockdown. The introduction of a stricter drug and alcohol testing system led to roughly 60,000 dismissals. This was then compounded by a wave of early retirements and the closing of training schools. The dearth of supply has been emphasized by the raise in demand for shipping during Covid caused by sharp spikes in demand for shipped goods. The industry has reached a point of crisis.
As a response, owners of fleets and smaller trucking companies have begun a renewed effort to push Washington into tweaking immigration laws in an effort to help strained supply networks. Visas in particular have been identified as an area where something beneficial could be worked out. The EB-3 permanent works visas currently have a yearly quota of 40,000. The program allows employers to bring in people for work in roles for which there are not enough available qualified workers for in the US.
The question leaves those in Washington in a difficult position as unemployment of Americans remains so high at the moment, as does the general level of anti-immigration sentiment. They will need to work out a solution quickly as supply chain bottlenecks start to affect the rest of the economy. Numerous filling stations, airports and stainless steel factories have had to slow production in response to materials not being delivered.
President Biden’s recent creation of a task force to address the supply chain problems disrupting the economic recovery will be tasked with helping provide a solution for this essential industry.
