It's a simple question with a complicated answer.

Where are the workers?

Well, you know, guess what?

Employers can't find workers.

I said, yeah, pay them more.

In the last few months, some people, including President Biden, have suggested that the

worker shortage facing the U.S. amounts to a kind of labor strike.

This is an employees' bargaining chip now.

There are millions of jobs available, but many of them are hard, low-paying, service industry

jobs that don't come with good benefits.

I mean, why would people rush to a job like that?

I talked with one woman who had been a shift supervisor at Starbucks.

She's 28.

She has a young daughter.

Irene Ivanova is a reporter for CBS Money Watch.

She told me that, you know, the pandemic just made her, you know, preparing for the worst

every time she won to work.

Now, she described this store that was under staff having to sort of fight with customers

all the time about the mask issue.

And she didn't feel like her managers were supporting her.

She didn't have a sense that it would get better.

So she made the decision in June to leave, not having another job lined up.

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