If you’re thinking the current labor shortage is all about getting workers to renter the job market amidst COVID fears, child care challenges, or enhanced unemployment benefits, think again.

 

Our labor shortage was a problem before the pandemic and may only just be beginning, according to a report by analytics firm Emsi Burning Glass. (There’s also fun, short video summarizing the finding.)

 

The report notes that 70% of businesses said they had a people power shortage before the pandemic even began. The causes? Baby boomer retirements, a decline in college enrollments, and the lowest birth rates in U.S. history.

 

But on top of that, more than one million baby boomers retired during the pandemic than expected.

 

As a result, businesses, colleges and communities should prepare for a new and radically different recruiting equation, Hannah Grieser, one of the authors of the report, tells Andy Medici at the Business Journals.

 

That includes focusing more on retention.

 

“The biggest takeaway I hope businesses in particular take away is that it's going to be really important to just value the warm bodies that you have working for you because they are going to be harder and harder to replace.

 

"People are not expendable, and talent is valuable,” she said.

 

 

“This is like the moment in the horror movie when you think the horror is over and the credits are about to roll. And it all starts back up again.”

 

That’s how Rep. Jamie Raskin, Democrat of Maryland, described a nationwide resurgence of COVID cases.

 

CDC director (and Newton resident) Rochelle Walensky says we're in a “pivotal point” in the pandemic and, once again, warned the unvaccinated to get their shot.

 

But Walensky is sticking with CDC guidance for now which says only unvaccinated people need to wear masks to be safe.

 

Gov. Charlie Baker said basically the same thing yesterday.

 

Baker said he currently has no plans to reintroduce any COVID-related restrictions in spite of an uptick in infections, particularly on Cape Cod, Nantucket and, now, Cambirdge.

 

But he left the door open for local officials to set limits on their own communities should they consider it necessary, according to the Globe.

 

“We’re not looking at changing any of our existing rules or policies,” Baker said.

 

“We have a set of statewide standards and they’re based on what we see on a statewide basis. And if communities believe they need to pursue strategies that are more effective and appropriate to them, then they should do so.”

 

Should Walensky, Baker and others be doing more? Helen Branswell at STAT explains why that’s tricky.

 

 

Newton police are investigating two separate bias-related incidents aimed at Asians in Newton, actions that come after a series of house breaks may have also targeted Asian-Americans, the Globe reports.

 

In one incident, a jogger removed a “Stop Asian Hate” from a lawn and tossed it to the street. In another, a sign from a Newton Out Doors Arts installation that depicted the artist’s Asian grandmother was damaged. 

 

Separately, more than six months after police shot and killed a man in Newton Highlands, the Middlesex DA announced the incident will be “referred to an inquest.” (Wicked Local)

 

• BBJ: Burden of COVID unemployment shouldn't just fall on businesses
• Globe: Restoring the state’s charitable tax deduction is the right thing to do.

• The good folks at Trio Newton are hosting an outdoor event Saturday from 1-3 p.m. featuring food and drink samples from Newtonville businesses MIDA, Clover, Cabots, Anchor'd, Craft Beer Cellar, and more.
• Needham Rotary’s carnival is back, through Sunday at Needham High School. Details.