Four Ways Employers are Addressing Skills, Labor Shortages

by Jessica Mulholland, Managing Editor, CalChamber

The current labor market is rough for employers. In California, the civilian labor force consists of roughly 19.33 million individuals, according to July 2022 Bureau of Labor Statistics data, which reported the state's unemployment rate as 3.9 percent in July. From a worker perspective, the California labor market is doing quite well.

But from the employer's perspective, it's still dicey. Why? Stated simply, there are more open jobs in California than there are workers to fill them.

For those who are curious, the details about this situation are:

• Collectively, Glassdoor, Monster, Indeed and LinkedIn have in the neighborhood of 2 million open positions listed.
• With 19.33 million workers in California, an unemployment rate of 3.9 percent works out to roughly 753,800 people who are without jobs.
• This means there are at least 2 million open positions and less than 1 million workers to fill them.
• More specifically, roughly 1.25 million positions in California alone simply cannot be filled.

Now, for employers willing and able to hire full-time remote employees, the view is a little less grim, since workers nationwide can apply for positions here in the Golden State. But with many companies now shifting toward remote work, it means even potential applicants within an employer's geographic boundary may be out of reach because California workers may be taking remote jobs based in other states.

Thankfully, that's not the be-all, end-all for employers, as many are getting creative in an attempt to tackle this shortage. In addition to increasing pay, here are four things employers are doing to address their workforce shortages.