We have spoken a great deal about labor shortages and the coming baby boomer demographic time bomb but today we’re going to focus on the real life consequences and impacts of labor shortages.
The US Chamber of Commerce recently had an article on how a national nursing shortage is causing hospitals to shut down. The report also highlights which states are at risk. We encourage you to read the whole article here.
From the US Chamber of Commerce:
The lack of available nurses is one major contributing factor to the rise of hospital closures in recent years across the United States. According to Becker’s Hospital Review, 42 medical centers have closed medical departments or ended services at facilities since February 2023.
In June 2023, there were 293 rural hospitals at risk of immediate closure. At the forefront of the risk chart are Kansas and Texas, with both states facing the immediate potential loss of 29 hospitals. Given their widely dispersed populations, hospital closures in these regions could have devastating impacts on local businesses and economy.
Source: US Chamber of Commerce
We wrote about the quality of life issues that nurses have been experiencing and their strikes last year and things haven’t improved much since then either.
We also wrote about how T-Rex will eat first, a concept whereby large businesses with deep pockets hire the best workers and everyone else (the scavengers) gets the leftovers. A similar corollary are large cities consuming up all the working professionals leaving the rural areas devoid of good workers.
We continue to research opportunities in our DIVOS™ model however the market continues to climb to extreme bubble territory so we’re not investing in anything just yet. Stay tuned, stay profitable, and stay solvent…