Understanding America’s Labor Shortage: The Most Impacted States
Lindsay Cates and Stephanie Ferguson
December 19, 2023
America is facing a worker shortage crisis: There are too many open jobs without people to fill them. The interactive map below shows which states are suffering the most from a labor shortage by comparing their Worker Shortage Index ratios.
The Chamber’s Worker Shortage Index ratio indicates the number of available workers for every job opening. States with a higher ratio have more workers available to fill open jobs. For example, a ratio of 0.39 means a state has just 39 workers for every 100 open jobs. A ratio above 1.0 would indicate a surplus of available workers compared to job openings.
