The U.S. economy may be reviving faster than many businesses can keep up with. Suddenly consumers are facing scarcities for everything from lumber to copper, computer chips to rental cars. Job applicants are scarce, too, in some rebounding sectors like restaurants.
Americans can expect more such shortages and price increases, economists say, as eager-to-spend consumers contemplate a post-pandemic economy and as record government stimulus boosts demand. The silver lining is that, while challenging for now, most of these shortages are expected to be temporary.
Why We Wrote This
The economic trend of recent decades has been abundance for U.S. consumers, built on globalization and supply-chain automation. For now, the story is looking very different, as shortages emerge for key products.