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Fears of Covid-19 and dissatisfaction with work-life balance and pay are among the factors fueling the worker shortage as the US economy has bounced back from the pandemic. (Photo: AFP) - 

To keep the taps at his recently opened beer tasting room flowing, Peter Chekijian had no choice but to ask his main employees to come in seven days per week.

The staffing shortage has also kept Chekijian from realising his goal of brewing beer on site, since he can't find contractors to finish installing the tanks he requires.

"That's been a big issue of getting people to actually finish up the job," said Chekijian, who co-founded the small Twin Fork Beer Company in New York state.

Even as millions of Americans who lost their jobs to the COVID-19 pandemic have returned to work, companies nationwide report they're still struggling to hire employees in recent months.

More than 10 million jobs were unfilled as of the end of August, according to government data. The labour force participation rate, which measures the US economy's active workforce, was 61.6 per cent in September, compared to 63.3 per cent before the pandemic.

The causes of the short staffing are myriad, from continued fears of contracting COVID-19, particularly among people who live with elderly family or children, to early retirements and objections over work-life balance and low wages.

And while the government throughout the pandemic offered generous unemployment benefits to keep people who lost their job financially sound, their expiration last month hasn't yet caused hiring to increase.

The employee shortages come as restaurants and entertainment venues reopen amid as more Americans get vaccinated, and ahead of the uptick in business around the holiday season.

With "so many employers trying to hire so many people at the same time, it creates that imbalance", said Aaron Sojourner, an economist at the University of Minnesota.

Employers who spoke to AFP told of mad scrambles to attract applicants by offering higher wages and other perks.

Chekijian has put out ads looking for employees and attended job fairs with offers of time off, benefits packages and salaries as generous as he can manage, but still can't find the people he needs.

"It's been shockingly slow," he said. "It's definitely affecting what we're trying to do in terms of growing our business."

The biggest American retailers are hiring staff ahead of the holiday season, with Amazon and Walmart both recruiting 150,000 people, Target and UPS taking on 100,000 and FedEx 90,000.

Logistics company GXO is looking to hire 9,000 employees for the busy season over the next two months, and its head of human resources Maryclaire Hammond said "finding people has been a huge issue".

"There is a massive competition for talent at all levels, there is an absolute war," she said in an interview//CNA