Labor shortages in Iowa are so bad that laws are being changed to let children work some potentially dangerous jobs. From Yahoo Finance:
A new bill introduced in the Iowa Legislature would rewrite Iowa’s child labor law to allow teens to work in previously prohibited jobs so long as they are part of an approved training program.
And as bad as that sounds, it gets worse. The bill would also exempt businesses if these kids get killed.
The bill exempts businesses from civil liability if a student is sickened, injured or killed due to the company’s negligence. A business also would be free of civil liability if a student is hurt because of the teen’s negligence on the job — or is injured traveling to or from work.
Yahoo Finance
We don’t think any of us here will ever be traveling to Iowa anytime soon or perhaps ever given the states abhorrent view of the safety of children but it’s the type of brutal escalation that will continue as the labor shortages across America get worse and worse. We are in the early stages of labor shortages because there are still tens of millions of boomers that haven’t yet left the labor force but when they do the desperation will reach new proportions.
Which of these Iowa companies will struggle the most with labor shortages in the future? We’ll keep an eye on them and what they say about Iowa.
This has been a preview of the things to come over the next 7 years when in 2030, all baby boomers reach the age of 65 and can opt to walk off (retire) the job and enroll in social security and medicare.
In the future, there will be states and companies with the right labor force that win big and those that will lose big. We think Iowa might be a big loser because according to NAR, Iowa lost 7300 people in 2022 so stay tuned, stay profitable and stay solvent…