The State of Arkansas is about to make it easier to make kids as young as 9 work and that’s a very unique way of dealing with the labor shortage issue.
From Yahoo Finance:
“The governor believes protecting kids is most important, but doing so with arbitrary burdens on parents to get permission from the government for their child to get a job is burdensome and obsolete,” Henning said. “All child labor laws will still apply and we expect businesses to comply just as they are required to do now.”
Currently, children under 16 are required to verify their age and provide a description of the work schedule, as well as a parent or legal guardian’s consent, in the certificate. The revision would essentially nix that requirement.
Quartz via Yahoo Finance
Ironically, Arkansas is poised to suffer from a severe shortage of doctors and other medical professionals and their plan is to train more medical students and keep them in the state but the irony is the kids won’t be in medical school if they are working at meat packing plants after HB1410 is passed. From KXAN.com:
An Arkansas Hospital Association report estimates that in four years, cities like Fayetteville, Springdale and Rogers will only have a fraction of the physicians they need. Specialties like radiology and optometry are facing some of the largest gaps, with the workforce expected to reach only two-thirds of the area’s demand.
“We’re at a deficit now of health care providers locally,” said Northwest Arkansas Council’s Ryan Cork, who focuses on health care for the council.
KXAN.com
We’ve written about the tough choices ahead to 2030 because this labor shortage problem is just getting started. We continue to research investment and profit opportunities with these changes so stay tuned, stay profitable and stay solvent…