How Innovative Solutions Are Addressing America’s Labor Shortage

According to the latest figures, nearly 10 million Americans were unemployed and looking for work in June. That’s just the latest statistic reinforcing the current labor shortage touching many an industry, as skilled professionals become harder and harder to come by for open positions.

On this episode of Skip the Line, a Mashgin podcast, host Hilary Kennedy was joined by Mashgin’s Toby Awalt, Director of Product Marketing, and Darren Schulte, Vice President of Membership for NATSO, to discuss this critical topic.

This is the first conversation in an upcoming series of episodes centering on different industry perspectives on the labor shortage – and what thought leaders and experts are doing to address it.

NATSO “is the only national trade association representing the travel plaza and truck stop industry, [representing] more than 2,000 travel plazas and truck stops nationwide owned by over 220 corporate entities.”

“Our industry has always, like a lot of service industries, been challenged with the labor piece,” Schulte said. “But COVID has certainly pushed that further. … Members that were already innovative have become more innovative.”

Because individual owners often don’t have the capital to simply increase wages, they look elsewhere to entice talent, such as discounts on gas or other benefits.