(Matt Drzik/Beaver County Radio)

“We still have a labor issue in the county.”

Those were the words of Commissioner Jack Manning, who spoke at Wednesday’s work session about the numbers he learned in regards to the amount of Beaver County citizens looking for jobs as opposed to the job openings that are still available. These numbers were presented by PA CareerLink in a meeting attended by Manning.

The numbers:
433 Job Openings
152 Job Seekers

“There’s a multitude of reasons for that,” said Manning on the nearly 3-to-1 ratio. “People are concerned about if it’s safe to go back to work, they have child care issues, they have transportation issues, and it’s clearly been exacerbated by the extra money that they’re getting from the federal government.”

A change to that might draw those numbers back to even, as it was announced earlier in the week that the qualifications for unemployment benefits will stop being waived by the Wolf administration starting in July. That, however, doesn’t ease the concerns displayed at the May 26 work session.

“I don’t think there’s anything we can do about it,” said Manning. “I think we’re going to have a tough time this summer with our small businesses, particularly with finding the employees they need to expand horizons and really open back up post-pandemic.”