This Is Why the Nation Is Facing a School Bus Driver Shortage

Joe Weisenthal (0:10)

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Odd Lots Podcast. I'm Joe Weisenthal.

Tracy Alloway (0:16)

And I'm Tracy Alloway.

Joe Weisenthal (0:18)

So Tracy, obviously everyone knows about the so-called labor shortage this year. Like, we've talked about it many times on the show, but numerous employers up and down different industries have all talked about the difficulty they've had in hiring, or at least hiring at the same levels and wage points as they had pre-pandemic.

Tracy Alloway (0:38)

Yeah, truly, it's been a year of shortages, or I guess maybe scarcity is a better way of putting it, both in terms of the supply chain, which we've spoken a lot about, but also in terms of labor market. So a lot of employers saying that they can't find the right employees, or if they find the right employees, then they don't turn up to actually work, or they're all quitting en masse to do something else. I have a lot of questions about what the else is that other people are actually leaving to do, but that seems to be the anecdotes that we keep hearing over and over from the labor market.

Joe Weisenthal (1:12)

Right, and it's important to note, anecdotes from the employer side, obviously, the anecdotes from the labor side might look different.

One area that, from what I understand, is have, and we'll get drilled on the specifics, but public sector employment has been tough. And I think a lot of governments too, particularly areas where people have pensions that they can retire to and so forth, for a long time post great financial crisis, the public sector cut a lot of jobs. But my understanding right now is it's the opposite, where the public sector by and large is having a really hard time recruiting. And of course, the public sector is more limited in budget flexibility and so forth than businesses are. But that's a whole area or some component of the labor market shortage that we haven't really talked about.

Tracy Alloway (1:58)

Yeah, it's kind of an interesting one because for years, if you worked in the public sector, it was considered a very safe and stable and to some extent, desirable job. And I have to say, I'm kind of speaking slightly from experience here because I just realized my mother worked in the public sector for Austria and she just took early retirement last year. I think she was one of the people that basically like threw her hands up and said, it's not worth it anymore. I'm just gonna retire early and avoid all this pandemic related stress and take my retirement benefits and go live my life.

Joe Weisenthal (2:35)

Now, of course, when it comes to government, there are varying degrees to which the public actually interfaces with the government, but there's no question that for a lot of parents, particularly including myself over the last two years, one of the big issues has been schools and getting to school. And that is sort of for people, for parents who have children, kind of one of the key ways that they interact with public institutions and so whether those are functioning, whether they have staffing, whether they can get the kids to school, hint, hint, as to what we're talking about, that is a huge way in which these shortages can, or again, these mismatches perhaps, or this scarcity. I keep using shortages, even though I really think that's like sort of employer side framing, ends up being a real issue for the general public.

Tracy Alloway (3:19)

Yeah, so the only thing I know about this is basically from your tweets, but there is apparently a shortage of school bus drivers. And as you just pointed out, I mean, this is particularly a sensitive issue for parents. And you know, we talk about inflation being painful for people who feel like they're no longer able to feed their families or it's gonna cost them a lot more than it used to. And I feel like you're right, this is probably one area where the labor shortage would actually be particularly felt by parents.

And the question I have is whether or not this is an idiosyncratic development because maybe there are individual things around the school bus driver market that make it more difficult to hire the right people, or whether this is a reflection of that broader trend that you were just describing of people really, you know, the great resignation that we keep hearing so much about and people just deciding that they don't want to drive school buses for a living anymore.

Joe Weisenthal (4:24)

Well, I'm really excited. We're going to dive right into it. Before I do, I just want to say, my daughter, she goes to school very close to our house so she can walk, but she did go to summer camp on Staten Island this summer. So she did have to take a school bus for the first time. So this is an important topic for me.