NORFOLK, Va. — Hampton Roads isn’t alone in its continuing struggle to find enough workers, but why are we still seeing such a noticeable workforce shortage?
“The pandemic has obviously proven devastating to labor force members, but the problem existed pre- COVID,” said Whitney Lester, Senior Director of Talent Development with Hampton Roads Workforce Council. “The baby boomers retiring without significant surge to cover those losses, people working from home for out-of-market companies, leaving the jobs here unfilled. There’s an outward migration of talent from this region and from the Commonwealth, and then there’s things like childcare shortages and housing affordability issues.”
Lester said our area is especially in need of maritime-related workers.
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Newport News Shipbuilding reports it’s on track to hire approximately 3,000 skilled trade positions by the end of this year to meet the Navy’s shipbuilding needs. It also anticipates hiring nearly 19,000 people in the next decade.
Dr. Robert McNab, Professor of Economics for Old Dominion University says in addition to healthcare workers, our area also needs a lot of hospitality employees.
“The unemployment rate in the region is hovering just below 3%. That means there’s just not a lot of unemployed people out there who are available for work,” Mcnab explained. “So that means most hires are taking employees from somebody else.”
Some experts say we are seeing more people return to the workforce after the pandemic but with different expectations.
“We’re not going to return back to where we were after the Great Recession, where there were five or six people for every job that was available," McNab said. "But we might get back to the point where there’s at least one available person for every job opening, and that will make things a little bit more efficient in labor markets.”
In fields where it’s possible to work remotely, many prospective employees are holding out for that flexibility.
“If you’re hiring at high-wage professions, and you allow people to remote work, you’re probably going to have a lot more applicants than if you’re requiring people to be there physically in the office,” said McNab. “What we need to realize is the way America is working now is different than it was prior to the pandemic. Work from home is still significantly higher than it was in 2019.”
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The Hampton Roads Workforce Council has created a talent division, and Lester says they are staying extremely busy. One piece of advice he has for job seekers is to keep an open mind.
“There’s a misconception at times that the job they are seeking doesn’t exist here in the region, and we tend to believe it usually does; it’s just not being marketed and advertised very well,” Lester said.
The Council has multiple centers to help connect applicants with businesses, including two centers designed for veterans and military spouses. Click here for more information.
