First it was hand sanitizer; then came the toilet paper. The pandemic-related toilet paper shortage of spring 2020 really caught the world by surprise. Americans rushed to obtain a sense of security as the pandemic’s effects were just starting to sink in.
Today, over a year and a half later, people around the world are still struggling to find certain everyday essentials, and prices have no sign of coming down anytime soon.
How will the world ever return to normal with material and labor shortages plaguing manufacturers?
The material shortage goes hand in hand with the labor shortage; they feed off one another. The lack of workers is slowing down the already crippled supply chain by preventing the needed raw materials to reach factories and ultimately distributors and retailers. Driving through any small town, you will find “now hiring” signs littering fast food billboards with starting wages in the double digits in an attempt to maintain normal operations, which isn’t working. Arby’s in Paris, Tennessee, is now currently closed on Sundays and Thursdays due to a staffing shortage; talk about firsthand inconvenience.
Initially, the assumption was that fear of the coronavirus accompanied with increased unemployment benefits provided no incentive to go back to work. Considering the additional unemployment benefits ended, the approval of multiple vaccines internationally and coronavirus cases trending downward, the shortage of labor is puzzling. With the US vaccination rate at 69.9% at the time of publication, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), which recently approved COVID booster shots for all vaccinated people, that assumption is no longer rational.
Surges in COVID numbers abroad in major manufacturing countries, such as Vietnam and Taiwan, caused those governments to implement restrictions that forced many factories to shut down temporarily. Many of these developing countries don’t have an adequate supply of coronavirus vaccines and are requesting the reluctant help of the United States and other leading European powers. Sharing our vaccines with developing countries to stop these unprecedented shortages is a small price to pay if it eases restrictions by slowing the spread of the virus.
The ongoing and inevitable U.S.-China Trade War contributes directly to ongoing inflation in the U.S. especially. China has targeted politically important U.S. commodities, such as soybeans and beef, affecting farmers and therefore making the U.S. government spend more on agricultural subsidies. China has imposed numerous tariffs on a number of their exports, which directly contributes to rising prices. If we agree to easing tariffs on our exports and hosting diplomatic discussions with the Chinese government, we can hope to end this so-called war.
Some industries were hit harder than others during the worst of the pandemic, namely those in the tourism and hospitality sector. Trying to reopen and rehire employees in a sector where business was virtually nonexistent for the last year comes with a variety of challenges. Workers question the security of their jobs, while business owners wonder if they will be able to break even in a post-pandemic economy.
Surges in COVID numbers abroad in major manufacturing countries, such as Vietnam and Taiwan, caused those governments to implement restrictions that forced many factories to shut down temporarily. This direct impact could easily be avoided if these countries had an adequate supply of COVID vaccines.
A semiconductor shortage has practically halted the production of new vehicles and high-end gadgets like the PS5 and Xbox Series X alike. The lack of computer chips has caused a ripple effect as automobile factories across the world have been forced to shut down and more people lose their jobs, contributing in part to the ongoing labor shortage.
The very nature of supply chains and distribution centers are also partly responsible for the shortages. Retailers only tend to keep a few weeks worth of any given item to cut storage and waste costs; this means that the supply is several weeks ahead of the current demand. So when demand for a particular product skyrockets, manufacturers won’t be able to meet said demand for at least five to six weeks.
According to the White House, “Stay-at-home orders led to a sudden 40-percent increase in demand for retail toilet paper, the fluffier kind used by households. Yet supply cannot rise overnight to satisfy demand. Toilet paper is bulky to store, and demand is ordinarily very stable, which led retailers to keep only two to three weeks of sales in inventory and manufacturers to operate their plants at 92-percent capacity. Worried they would be left without toilet paper, Americans cleaned out store shelves.”
Although an expensive alternative, businesses could eat the additional warehouse costs and have more products available at a given time to be prepared for the next surge in demand.
Granted all this information paints a grim picture, there are collective solutions that you as an informed consumer can contribute to. By not contributing to mass panic purchasing, you can collectively help stop the shortage. The world isn’t coming to an end; only get enough of something to last you for the next few months, not years.
Being an informed shopper, you can prevent yourself from facing a shortage ever again. Keeping up with intentional news and business trends can help you see a shortage before it ever arrives.
Diversification and redesigning the manufacturing sector will help solve future supply chain issues; if country A was unable to produce jeans due to coronavirus restrictions, country B could pick up where country A left off. Preparing factories to shift production at a moment’s notice and being able to specialize in more than one item will also alleviate any future shortages.
Through raising the minimum wage and mandating the COVID vaccine for large employers, the government would provide incentives for the unemployed to reenter the workforce. The minimum wage hasn’t been a livable wage for some time now, and the combination of these pandemic-related issues is the perfect opportunity to increase it. The vast number of jobs currently available gives the unemployed the ability to pick and choose the best fit for them, another incentive to return to work.
There are signs of improvement as pandemic-related restrictions for factories across Asia have been relaxed in recent weeks. Although there is light at the end of the tunnel, as for when we move past this supply chain shortage, we’ll have to practice patience; only time will tell.
