America has millions of open jobs. So why can’t people find work?

This article is written by Tina Hamilton, an Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) member in Philadelphia and the founder and CEO of myHR Partner, a human resources outsourcing firm that manages HR for small and midsize businesses throughout the United States. The company has appeared on the Inc. 5000 list four times and was named to the 2025 Inc. Best Workplaces list. An HR expert, Hamilton shares information about a hidden problem building in the U.S. workforce. America’s job market has a contradiction hiding in plain sight: Companies can’t find enough workers, while millions of people are struggling to get hired. Warehouses, hospitals, and factories are filled with “Now Hiring” signs, yet qualified candidates are still being passed over. The problem isn’t a lack of jobs or a lack of workers. It’s that the two are increasingly failing to connect. Everyone is talking about AI, with good cause. Will it take your job? Will it replace your kid’s first career step? A bigger and quieter problem lies just beneath the surface: The U.S. is heading toward what may be the largest labor shortage in its history. According to research from the Lightcast project, a gap of roughly 6 million workers …