Work mandate solves labor shortage

America’s labor shortage isn’t ending anytime soon. While Friday’s jobs report showed the creation of 428,000 jobs, a record 11.5 million job openings still exist nationwide. That number has been stuck above 10 million for nearly a year – something never before seen – and the economy is struggling because businesses can’t find the workers they need to grow and thrive.

Yet states could end the labor shortage, if they wanted. Nearly the same number of Americans – roughly 11 million – could easily be encouraged into the full-time workforce. They’re unemployed and underemployed food stamp recipients between the ages of 18 and 59, and they don’t have young dependents who can’t yet go to school.

That means they have greater flexibility to find a job. If states required that these able-bodied adults join employment and training programs, which federal law allows, America’s worker shortage could disappear, and the economy would take off.

Employment and training mandate

Here’s how: States can issue an employment and training mandate as a condition of receiving food stamps. People could fulfill it by signing up for job coaching, job search services, workforce development initiatives and other efforts that would help them find work. They could also simply reenter the workforce.

The mandate acts like a de facto work requirement, and while Congress has temporarily banned such a requirement during the pandemic, employment and training programs are still on the table.

Fewer than 10 states now have a mandate to participate in employment and training programs. Yet hardly any state comes close to covering the maximum number of eligible food stamp recipients, with only 8% expected to participate in employment and training programs nationwide.

My home state of Florida has typically covered about 25% of people. The best state has historically been Idaho, which covered more than 90% of ablebodied, work-capable adults until late last year. This policy contributed to the state’s stellar economy, including a 2.7% unemployment rate – among the lowest in the country.

States that don’t have a work requirement should implement one, and ideally, every state should cover 100% of eligible people. In Georgia, 535,000 people on food stamps could work in a state that has more than 370,000 job openings.

It’s a similar story in Montana. The state has 44,000 open jobs and roughly 30,000 able-bodied adults on food stamps. They are not currently required to pursue work. The state shouldn’t rely on food stamp recipients to voluntarily look for jobs when it could help them find one.

Every state should implement an employment and training program requirement. Crucially, they don’t need to establish new employment and training programs, which already exist. But without a requirement that people participate, these programs are vastly underused.

My research shows that 84% of state spending on these programs goes toward administrative costs instead of helping people find employment. In some states, such as Alabama and Louisiana, more than 90% of funding is lost to bureaucracy.

Imagine if taxpayers paid salaries for teachers, sports coaches and school administrators but didn’t require students to attend school. That’s the situation with food stamps: Taxpayers have built an off-ramp, but hardly anyone is required to use it.

More workers help the economy

That needs to change. States should encourage more people to find the independence that comes with employment, which will not only help end America’s worker shortage, but also grow the economy by nearly $160 billion . That matters especially after the economy shrank in the first three months of the year.

The bottom line is this: America still has a record 11.5 million job openings, but there are also nearly the same number of work-capable people on food stamps who could fill them.

The sooner states start to move these numbers toward zero, the better.