Pandemic early retirements create frontline worker shortage

A shortage of frontline workers has made it more difficult to respond to the pandemic, and early retirements account for a large chunk of that labor shortage, recent research found. In rural America, which tends to have an older population, the trend has probably been greater.

More than 4.2 million people had left the workforce and didn't return as of October, according to the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank. That includes vital frontline workers such as health-care workers, police officers, truck drivers, school bus drivers and more, Tim Henderson reports for Stateline.

A healthier generation of older workers has been a vital part of the workforce in recent years, so cities and states should consider public-health and workplace-safety requirements that could make seniors feel safer returning to work, suggested economist Monique Morrisey at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. "As the pandemic drags on, we would be wise to add more protections for workers, assuring people they will be protected if they come back to work, that would be the single most important thing we can do," Morrisey told Henderson.