A couple weeks ago, we examined some data illustrating how Lubbock has fared in its economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic when compared with the state of Texas and the United States as a whole. Recently, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has released a state-by-state workforce shortage (or surplus) profile compared to February 2020 before the pandemic.

Here's what the data says about the state of Texas:

• In February 2020, Texas had 1.22 available workers per job opening, meaning more people needed work than there were available jobs
• This was the 11th highest in the country at the time
• By November 2021, Texas had just 0.94 available workers per job opening, meaning there were more jobs available than people to fill them with
• This was the 7th highest in the country at the time

Many other states have fallen far below the 1:1 ratio, signifying even if full employment were reached, a large share of jobs would still be left unfilled. There are 11.3 million job openings and 5.9 million unemployed workers, meaning nearly 5.4 million jobs would be left unfilled even if unemployment were zero. More than 3 million workers from February 2020 are no longer in the workforce for one reason or another. This is particularly manifesting itself in industries like manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade, leisure and hospitality, and financial activities.

As our local analysis showed, Lubbock's overall workforce has actually grown by more than 3% vs. February 2020, bucking the overall national trend. However, there are still local cases of businesses finding it challenging to fully staff indicating more work can be done to help the goals of businesses and workers align.