Today, as part of a briefing from the Massachusetts Workforce Association, we heard a presentation on the state of the Massachusetts labor market by Boston Indicators. They found that, while the Commonwealth has recovered considerably from peak of the pandemic recession, it still has not returned to its pre-pandemic strength. Sectors like health care, education, and leisure are still down tens of thousands of workers compared to pre-pandemic levels, and these labor shortfalls in turn put more pressure on the existing workforce. Labor force participation remains below where it was at the start of 2020, as many workers have not returned to the labor force since the pandemic due to numerous forces: including lack of child care, fear of illness, and discouragement about available job opportunities. Understanding the issues of the current labor better our ability to target workforce development dollars to programs that will get more people into high demand, high paying jobs throughout Massachusetts

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