US firms struggle to hire in spite of large-scale joblessness

With more than a year gone by since
the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States, millions of
Americans still remain jobless. For some, it is the trouble one goes through to
find childcare, while for others, it’s lucrative unemployment benefits and
COVID-19 concerns. Facing this unexpected drought in workforce volume, corporations
in the US have begun looking at hiring as an unprecedented challenge, reported
AFP.

“It’s a paradox for the Covid
crisis. We have, and risk having over the coming months, an imbalance between
job openings and demand”, AFP quoted Gregory Daco, chief US Economist at Oxford
Economics, as saying.

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Reportedly, the core of the situation
is made up of workers not being ready to get back to their jobs despite the
vaccination process slowly allowing the businesses to return to normalcy.

“The main issue is we still have
a pandemic, and there is huge concern among job seekers about workplace health
and safety,” Julia Pollak, economist at ZipRecruiter, a job search
website, was quoted as saying.

Despite a quarter of the United
States’ entire population being fully vaccinated, three-quarters still remain at
risk of contracting COVID-19.

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The pandemic had destroyed about 22
million jobs in the US, under which 14 million have already been restored.

Sectors economically hardest hit by
the pandemic include retail, food service, entertainment and hospitality.