Adobe
The Great Labor Shortage of 2021 might possibly best be explained through data released this week by the U.S. Department of Labor.
More and more Americans want — and are — working for themselves.
The pandemic acted as a cause-and-effect phenomenon on the record numbers of workers who made the decision to strike out on their own. Unincorporated self-employed workers increased by 500,000 since the beginning of the pandemic, to 9.44 million, according to the Department of Labor.
The total amounts to an increase of 6% in the self-employed, while the overall U.S. employment total remains nearly 3% lower than before the pandemic, according to the Wall Street Journal.
“We do know that recession tends to be very good for entrepreneurship,” says Cameron Cushman, assistant vice president of innovation ecosystems at the UNT Health Science Center in Fort Worth. “It’s kind of counterintuitive, but so many entrepreneurship stories start with, ‘I lost my job’ or ‘I finally had enough of my job' or ‘I took my side hustle and turned that into permanent gig or ‘I took that passion project I always wanted to do and made a career change.’
“It didn’t surprise any of us when you see some of those entrepreneurship rates ticking up at pretty historic rates. The last data I remember seeing was in August or September, and it was through the roof of how many people had started companies at a national level.
“I do see that locally.”
Specifically at the Health Science Center, where lab spaces are getting more inquiries for biotech startups, he says.
Cushman also says the Sparkyard platform, where he holds a leadership position, “has seen a definite uptick in inquiries.”
Last week, the Business Insider published a first-person account of a 51-year-old restaurant manager in the Los Angeles area who left behind a career of three decades to become an Uber Eats driver.
“I earned around $3,600 in February 2020 when I worked in the restaurant industry,” he writes. “As an Uber Eats driver, I earned on average around $1,250 a week in April 2021 and $900 a week in October 2021.
Business Insider says it verified his earnings claims through documentation, though those didn’t include his costs, such as gas.
And instead of working long hours and being on call 24 hours a day, he says his schedule is flexible, giving him more time with his kids, and the pressure of his former job is also a thing of the past.