Examining the Hiring Challenges and Labor Force Shortage in Barron County, WI

Abstract

Many local businesses in Barron County have been struggling with hiring individuals recently. To determine what factors, cause the shortage of employees, we investigated the demographics, housing, transportation, and public safety of Barron County, and compared the data of Barron County with that of Wisconsin and the US. We found old dependency ratio at Barron County is too high, which directly results in the lack of labor. A solution to decrease the dependency ratio within a community is to promote immigration for younger people, maintaining and attracting younger generations to the community. Then, we analyzed the existing research data and concluded that household median income is highly correlated with the ratio of gaining and maintaining young generation. The findings of this proposed research will help to direct the local business and government to areas of improving labor force participation and assist in guiding future studies and investigation if necessary.