From an economic perspective, the prevailing mood associated with the coronavirus pandemic has been pretty dismal, with the vast majority of sectors struggling to stay afloat, and very real fears of unemployment reaching unprecedented levels.  Such challenges are not felt evenly across the economy, however, and new research from McGill University explores how some sectors are struggling to find enough staff to cope with the rising demand and constricting supply.

“To minimize the spread of the pandemic, state governments are increasingly restricting who can work outside the home to workers in essential industries. Roughly 60% of employment is in these industries,” the researchers say.  “Reducing the strain on the health care workforce will be essential as they stand on the front lines of the battle against the pandemic.”

Childcare shortage

The study suggests that a significant factor in the availability of people to work outside the home is the availability of childcare, especially with schools and daycare facilities largely shut.  What’s more, because of social distancing guidelines, people can’t even turn to grandparents, friends or neighbors to help out.

The study estimates that around 25% of the US workforce has young children at home at the moment, which might significantly limit their ability to work full-time.  What’s more, these rates are higher in vital industries, such as healthcare, where it’s believed that 5.6 million workers have at least one child under 12.

It’s also believed that healthcare workers are more likely to be single parents, and often single mothers, which makes childcare arrangements especially sensitive if labor supply is to be maintained.

Vulnerable groups

“Another limiting factor on labor supply could be attempts to limit outside contact for members of the household who are most at-risk. At-risk populations include those aged 65 and over, people with compromised immune systems, and people with underlying medical conditions,” the researchers continue.

The authors estimate that around 20% of the workforce is either in the at-risk group themselves, or live with someone who is.  As before, this number rises to 25% for healthcare workers, with approximately 4.6 million people in this group.

The situation is compounded by the legacy stress levels healthcare workers operate under being added to by the considerable increase in demand for services and the concern people have over both their own health and that of loved ones.

One strategy to raise the worker pool has been to bring people out of retirement, or have them return from other jobs.  This could raise the number of nurses by 27%, the researchers suggest, but they warn that around two-thirds of these are either in a high-risk group themselves, or live in a household with a high-risk individual.  As with so much during the pandemic, there is no easy answer.