Offering This Key Benefit Could Be The Answer To Finding and Retaining Workers
And it doesn't cost as much as you think
By | Gene Marks | www.entrepreneur.com
When I think of St. Louis, I think of Midwest charm, baseball at Busch Stadium, tasty BBQ and even better jazz. It’s a great city, and how can it not be? Yogi Berra, Chuck Berry and Joe Buck all come from there! But unfortunately, it hasn’t been so great for small businesses. At least, not when it comes to hiring. That’s because, when compared to all other major cities in the country, employers in St. Louis are having the toughest time finding workers.
According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, analyzed by researchers at healthcare consulting firm HelpAdvisor, 46% of small businesses in St. Louis had trouble hiring new employees in April, the worst among all cities in the study. Unfortunately, the problem isn’t limited to St. Louis. Nationally, Missouri ranked as the state with the highest number of small businesses facing hiring struggles, at 44%. That is 16 percentage points higher than the national average of 30%.
Why are employers in St. Louis and Missouri finding it so challenging? There is a multitude of factors, not least the state’s unemployment rate — at 3.1% — which is among the nation’s lowest. But there are two more significant factors contributing to this problem — reasons that should be of concern to all employers: childcare and transportation.
According to HelpAdvisor, the Missouri job center reports that 40% of Americans who are out of work cite one or both of these problems as a reason why. “Numerous childcare centers throughout Missouri shuttered their doors during the pandemic, and many have either not re-opened at all or have re-opened with limited space,” says Christian Worrell, the researcher behind the report. “Transportation issues have presented a rippling effect. Many bus drivers were let go during the pandemic, which led the St. Louis bus system to suspend or reduce the frequency of many routes, which in turn led to even more unemployment among those who rely on the bus system to get to work or a job interview.”
