August 30, 2022

Any new car dealer will tell you that talent retention is a challenge, specifically in the service department. The pool of qualified auto technicians in the industry has been dwindling for some time, and the pandemic wreaked havoc on an already waning supply. The so-called “Great Resignation,” coupled with a mass exodus of baby boomers retiring from the industry, has created an even larger vacuum.

Catalytic converter thefts present a growing problem for dealers and their customers. In 2021, the National Crime Bureau estimated that more than 52,000 catalytic converters were reported stolen, compared with 1,300 in 2018. That’s 40 times as many converter thefts, and it doesn’t include the number of unreported thefts. If the repair cost is the amount of someone’s deductible, they may not report the theft to the police or the insurance company since they will have to pay the money either way. Filing a report creates the possibility of increased insurance premiums; not filing maintains the status quo.

You’ve probably noticed it’s harder to find qualified people to hire lately. The Macrotrends website says the U.S. population in 2022 is slightly less than 385 million people. The 2020 census found that more than 55 million people (about 14%) had retired. The labor force participation rate was 62.2% in April 2022, and the unemployment rate was 3.6%. There were already job shortages before the pandemic, but the pandemic worsened it. However, even though many people chose to retire during the pandemic, about 1.5 million came back into the workforce later.