The Labor Shortage is Coming
- Jerry Olson
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
Author, Jerry Olson, is a Business Advisor with The Resultants.
The Problem Is Bigger Than You Think
Population growth drives economic growth, and labor force availability is the engine.
By most estimates, the U.S. is currently running about a million workers short of what it needs just to sustain (not grow!) a healthy labor force.
The baby boomers who are now exiting the labor force (in enormous numbers) have not been replaced by U.S.-born workers. And we've been depending on somewhere between one and two million foreign-born workers every year to fill that gap.
That immigration pipeline has changed dramatically. And it's not likely to be fixed anytime soon, politically or otherwise.
This isn't a short-term blip. It's a structural shift that will shape the next 20 years of business growth.
The businesses that will thrive in this environment are the ones that get serious about people now — before the pressure becomes a crisis.
So, what do you actually do about it?
The answer isn't to panic, and it isn't to wait.
The only way to overcome a labor crunch is to be more attractive — both as a place to work and as an employer to work for — than your competitors.
That happens at three levels: how you lead at the top, how you hire, and how you keep the people you have.
How You Lead: Start at the Top
If clarity, accountability, and genuine engagement aren't present at the top of the organization, you cannot expect them anywhere below it.
Whatever is happening — or not happening — in that leadership team cascades down through every layer of the business. A misaligned or disengaged top team produces exactly that culture throughout the organization, guaranteed.
The solution starts with the owner or CEO getting clear on three things and communicating them consistently throughout the organization:
Where the business is going (vision)
How you go about it (culture and core values)
What results you're trying to achieve.
When every frontline supervisor and every individual contributor can connect their work to something meaningful, the whole organization operates differently.
People know what's expected. They know how they fit. They know they matter.
How You Hire: Have a Framework for Recruiting
Getting clear at the top sets the foundation. But you still have to bring the right people in.
This is where most small businesses have a significant gap, because they don't have a clear framework for what "right" actually means.
I see a version of this constantly. A manager needs someone in a role. You ask what they're looking for, and the honest answer is: "I don't know. Just bring me some candidates and I'll know it when I see it."
That hiring manager is going to hire someone they like. Maybe someone who shares their interests, has kids the same age, had a good conversation over coffee. This is almost never the right basis for a hiring decision.
A better framework is straightforward. Every hiring decision should come back to three questions:
Are they aligned with your vision? Do they believe in the difference your business is making?
Do their behaviors support the culture you're trying to create?
Can they do the work? Will they deliver the results you need?
Direction, culture, results.
Building your selection process around those three questions changes who you hire — and dramatically reduces the costly churn that comes from bringing in the wrong person.
In a labor market that's only getting tighter, you cannot afford to fill a seat with the wrong person and start over six months later. Getting this right upfront is not a luxury. It's a competitive necessity.
How You Retain: Create a Workplace People Never Want to Leave
Most business owners see the labor challenge as a recruiting problem. But the bigger lever is what happens after someone walks in the door. How do you make sure that person never wants to leave?
Statistically, the average tenure for someone in their 20s entering the workforce today is about 18 months. If you haven't built something worth staying for, you are going to be replacing that person right when they finally hit their stride.
The solution is simpler than most people expect. Every leader should have an eyeball-to-eyeball conversation with every direct report at least once a week.
Are expectations clear? Do they have the resources they need? What obstacles are they running into, and how are you helping them through it?
Every month, they have a real conversation with every employee. Not a formal review, just a conversation: how are things going, what do you need, is anything getting in your way?
They had just brought on a seasoned professional from within their industry. Two months in, the CEO checked in as part of that practice. The feedback stopped him cold:
"This is the first time in 16 years that somebody told me I was doing a good job."
Sixteen years in the workforce. Not once had anyone stopped to say: you're doing good work.
That person is not going anywhere. Not for a competitor's offer, not for anything. Because they finally feel seen, aligned with what they're doing, and valued for how they do it.
And here's what it does for your recruiting problem: when your people love where they work, they say so. They tell their friends, their neighbors, former colleagues. Word spreads in ways no job posting can replicate. You stop competing for talent and start attracting it.
The Payoff Goes Well Beyond the Labor Market
The return on getting serious about people extends far beyond just holding onto employees.
When people are aligned around a shared vision and clear on what's expected of them, your bottom line improves.
People who care about what they're doing are more focused, more productive, and less distracted by things that don't move the business forward.
Your engagement scores go up. Your retention rate increases. The cost savings from not constantly recruiting and retraining are real and significant.
Your performance in the marketplace improves too.
Engaged employees show up differently for customers. They're not just doing a job — they're delivering something they believe in. That's a differentiator your competitors cannot easily copy, because it lives inside your culture, not on a product spec sheet.
The labor shortage is real. It's structural. And it's going to be a constraint on business growth for the foreseeable future.
But it doesn't require a complex solution.
It requires diligence, clarity, and a systematic approach to putting people first. In recruiting, in onboarding, and in the day-to-day experience of working in your organization.
We've helped businesses navigate these challenges. We've seen what happens when the flywheel starts turning — when owners step back from the chaos, when teams align around a shared direction, and when the right people stay because they genuinely want to be there.
It's not an overnight fix. But it is a solvable problem. And we'd love to help you think through it.
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