Employers across the nation are struggling to find job candidates who can pass drug tests.
SAVANNAH, Ga. — All over the country, employers say they see a disturbing downside of tighter labor markets as they try to rebuild from the worst recession since the Depression: They are struggling to find workers who can pass a pre-employment drug test.
That hurdle partly stems from the growing ubiquity of drug testing, at corporations with big human resources departments, in industries like trucking where testing is mandated by federal law for safety reasons, and increasingly at smaller companies. But data suggest employers’ difficulties also reflect an increase in the use of drugs, especially marijuana, and heroin and other opioid drugs.
Ray Gaster, owner of Gaster Lumber & Hardware on the Georgia-South Carolina border, recently joined friends to swap business talk. The big topic? Drug tests.
“They were complaining about trying to find drivers, or finding people, who are drug-free and can do some of the jobs that they have,” Gaster said.
Drug use in the workforce “is not a new problem. Back in the ‘80s, it was pretty bad, and we brought it down,” said Calvina Fay, executive director of the Drug Free America Foundation. But, she added, “we’ve seen it edging back up some,” and increasingly, both employers and industry associations “have expressed exasperation.”
Data on the scope of the problem is sketchy because figures on job applicants who test positive for drugs miss the many people who simply skip tests they cannot pass.
Nonetheless, in its most recent report, Quest Diagnostics, which has compiled employer-testing data since 1988, documented an increase for a second consecutive year in the percentage of U.S. workers who tested positive for illicit drugs — to 4.7 percent in 2014 from 4.3 percent in 2013. And 2013 was the first year in a decade to show an increase.
Gov. Nathan Deal of Georgia has promised to develop a program to help because so many business owners tell him “the No. 1 reason they can’t hire enough workers is they can’t find enough people to pass a drug test.”
That program is still under discussion. When job seekers contact Georgia’s Department of Labor, which provides some recruitment services to employers, the state would like to begin testing them for drugs; individuals who test positive could receive drug counseling and ultimately job placement assistance, said Mark Butler, state labor commissioner.
In Colorado, “to find a roofer or a painter that can pass a drug test is unheardof,” said Jesse Russow, owner of Avalanche Roofing & Exteriors in Colorado Springs. That was true even before Colorado, like a few other states, legalized recreational use of marijuana.
In a sector where employers tend to rely on Latinos, Russow tried to diversify three years ago by recruiting Anglos, vetting about 80. But “as soon as I say ‘criminal background check,’ ‘drug test,’ they’re out the door.”