7 million vacancies: why employers in the US cannot find employees In the US

The US economy is in a period of recovery. However, the labor market is now a record number of vacancies. But the number of employees has reached a minimum in the last 40 years. Economists, officials and investors never cease to wonder: where did everyone go?

At the peak of the pandemic, more than 23 million Americans were unemployed. Since then, almost half of them have been able to find a job, but there are 7 million more vacancies in the labor market than there were when the lockdown began in the country. According to preliminary data, about 875 thousand vacancies appeared in July - the largest addition since August last year. However, this did not have much effect on the labor force participation rate - a parameter that shows the percentage of working-age Americans who are already working or looking for work. This figure has been at its lowest level since the 1970s for almost a year.

Of course, there are temporary coronavirus-related factors that are hindering a job market recovery — notably higher unemployment benefits, inadequate access to child care facilities, and worries about the more contagious delta strain (although some of these factors will fade in the coming months). But when the dust settles, American entrepreneurs and officials will have to face other challenges, such as a dwindling workforce and the proliferation of technologies that will destroy some jobs. Many of these trends predate the pandemic, but are now accelerating. “The share of the economically active population has been declining over the past 30-40 years. But during the pandemic, the rate of decline has increased markedly,” says Marcus Casey,

Economists are already predicting that the declining working population will weigh on the economy—the kind of long-term stagnation that Larry Summers was warning about even before the pandemic. However, if the positive impact of technology on productivity continues, this will partially mitigate the effects.