Worker Absences From Covid-19 Hold Back Companies' Growth

[mahatmakanejeeves]

BUSINESS

Worker Absences From Covid-19 Hold Back Companies’ Growth

The Omicron variant has hit staffing hard, and lingering pressures remain for some employers

By Lauren Weber and Chip Cutter
https://twitter.com/laurenweberwsj
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https://twitter.com/ChipCutter
[e-mail]
Updated Feb. 6, 2022 10:50 am ET

Employers from McDonald’s Corp. to home builder PulteGroup Inc. said staffing pressures caused by hiring challenges and surging Covid-19 cases suppressed growth or cut into operations in the fourth quarter.

While pressures may be easing in some aspects for large companies, indicating a diminishing effect from the Omicron variant going forward, labor challenges and other concerns remain.

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[Otto_Harper]

1. I have seen it written by some analysts that the impact of Long Covid

may be greater than is commonly acknowledged, and may be one of the invisible forces contributing to labor shortages. They also postulate that this may be with us for the long term. They cite waves of other illnesses that showed up years after the 1918 influenze pandemic (encephalitis and others) as illustrative examples.

If this is the case, then salary structures and health care will most definitely be impacted for years/decades to come.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

2. I agree that long covid is going to have

a far greater impact than is commonly acknowledged.

Other aspects of the pandemic will also make huge changes. I've been likening this to WWII. Stay with me here. Pretend it's spring, 1939, you and I are good friends and we are planning a trip to Europe next year. We've been planning for several years, working extra jobs, saving money, and are just now beginning to make the final plans. We can hardly wait! Then September rolls around, and war breaks out. Oh, crap. We won't be going to Europe next year, but we're optimistic that this war won't last long and we'll get there in 1941. But the war does last. And last. It doesn't finally end until 1945. The soonest we might possibly take that long-postponed trip is 1946, more likely a year or two later. And the Europe we finally visit is vastly different from the one we might have seen in 1939.

It's going to be somewhat like that with Covid. Things will change more, and will change in ways we cannot predict. Some stuff is already out there, such as working from home. Schooling is also changing, although that's going to take a lot longer to figure out and get settled.

With Covid, we're in the equivalent of early 1942, and have a lot longer to go than we think.