workforce shortage
Not enough workers
A workforce shortage is a situation where employers cannot find enough workers to fill available positions.
The term usually implies a mismatch between labor supply and demand across an industry or region, not just at a single company: Healthcare is facing a severe workforce shortage.
Causes include demographic shifts, skills gaps, low wages, or poor working conditions.
The phrase often appears in policy discussions about immigration, education, and economic planning.
- laborStrenuous effort; also childbirth
- hiringGiving someone work
- help wantedEmployment listings header
- staffingProviding personnel for positions
- understaffedInsufficient employees for workload
now hiring · vacancies · recruitment · talent · brain drain · burnout · overtime · turnover · resignation · retiring · skilled · skills gap · trades · nurses · drivers · applicants · headcount · manpower
- demographicspopulation density, population growth, age distribution, population, gender ratio
- aging workforcebaby boomers, senior staff, age discrimination, ageism, retirement age
- job barriersageism, sexism, racism, glass ceiling, gender bias
workforce shortageunemployment
Being without paid work
redundancy · underemployment · joblessness · layoffs · hiring freeze
workforce shortagefull employment
All willing workers employed
overstaffing · job scarcity · economic recession · depression
workforce shortageoverstaffing
Surplus of workers
full employment · fully staffed · overmanning · hiring freeze · layoffs
workforce, shortage, force, short, workforces, shortages, worker, workers, working