MT PLEASANT, Mich. — The impact of ongoing product shortages extends well beyond West Michigan.
The current, persistent supply chain crisis has enveloped the globe and may linger on for several years, according to experts.
Higher prices you’re paying at the pump, at the grocery store and everywhere in between these days crystalize a host of broader, underlying issues and vulnerabilities that exist within the global supply chain.
The huge volume of people spending money, flush with extra cash on hand has paved the way for a historic level of demand many companies are simply ill-equipped to meet, even under ordinary circumstances.
Persistent labor shortages, in turn, have driven prices even higher, supply even lower and impacted virtually every facet of the economy.
The internet dubbed this month ‘Striketober’ following a historic number of walk-offs.
Others, now referring to a ‘Great Resignation’ after the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in mid-October that 4.3-million Americans had left their jobs over the course of a single month earlier in the year.
“It is the perfect storm when you have both challenges in that supply chain as well as moving it as well as installing it,” Dr. Sean Gottleff, a professor of marketing and logistics at Central Michigan University, related via Zoom Thursday. “You can throw more money at it, but you need the talent. You need the skilled labor to assume those jobs and really increase that capacity and that throughput.”
In August, the number of job openings hovered around 10.4 million, according to the USBLS.
Truckers were likely well-represented in that figure; the American Trucking Association estimated a US shortfall of approximately 80,000 drivers.
The so-called inefficiency of the global supply chain, experts point out, predates the onset of the pandemic, which acted as a force multiplier, exacerbating known issues to the breaking point.
Goffnet and others believe the lessons learned since 2020 may have set the stage for an efficiency overhaul of the global supply chain in the coming years.
Regardless, he said, the process would require time to play out, meaning relief could still lay well-beyond the near-term.
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