Companies across America today are confronting two critical and related national problems: A dearth of potential new employees is forcing managers to scramble to find workers for empty spots on assembly lines, in offices and at construction sites.
Meanwhile, the opioid epidemic, which killed more than 72,000 Americans last year, has made the worker shortage worse. Large numbers of job applicants are failing pre-employment drug tests and being refused jobs. At some companies in hard-hit areas, the failure rate can be as high as 50 percent.
