In Washington state, the shellfish farming industry has been struggling to fill open job positions due to a variety of compounding factors. The current tight labor market is making it challenging to attract workers to an extremely physically demanding job that has become even more taxing given climate change. Additionally, there are residual effects from the pandemic that are contributing to the hollowed-out shellfish industry. The workforce was reduced when demand fell, and there is now a housing shortage in the coastal towns of Washington where shellfish farmers work and live due to the exodus of people from the cities to the suburbs during the pandemic. Companies like Taylor Shellfish Farms are embracing mechanization to address the labor shortage and make production processes easier, as well as to convince existing workers to remain in the industry.
See "Labor shortages in the shellfish farming industry due to continuing effects of pandemic and climate change", Mara Kardas-Nelson, The Guardian, October 3, 2022