There are 10 million jobs open in the US. The problem is that many people’s lives are not set up for work right now.

• 10 million job openings in the US remain unfilled.
• The November jobs report showed millions of Americans are not content with economic conditions right now.
• Reasons why include low wages, lack of childcare options, and no mandated paid leave.

Even with 10 million job openings in the US, the November jobs report added just 210,000 payrolls, badly missing expectations. The reason could be simple: conditions in the country just aren’t good enough for people to be returning to work.

As Insider reported, at least 12.4 million Americans are not getting what they need out of the economy right now. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, among the 7.4 million Americans who fell in the unemployed category, 2.2 million of them have been struggling to find a job for for at least 27 weeks. In addition, 4.3 million of them are employed part-time due to economic reasons, and 5.9 million of them are not actively seeking work but say they want a job. 

None of those categories saw much improvement in their job prospects in November despite the 10 million job openings in the country, and it could come down to low wages, lack of childcare options, and restricted paid leave, among other things, that are driving the labor shortage.

Insider’s Juliana Kaplan reported that during the pandemic, people’s standards have changed and they will no longer put up with low wages. The leisure and hospitality sector, for example, has been leading hiring growth over recent months, but in November, employment there “changed little,” according to the BLS, and wages for nonsupervisory employees in the industry actually went down.

Childcare is another leading issue dominating the labor shortage. The number of daycare workers is continuing to drop, and soaring childcare costs are making it difficult for parents to return to work when they have to take care of their kids at home. 

The lack of national paid family and medical leave presents a similar problem. Currently, the US guarantees zero days of paid leave, which disproportionately keeps women out of the labor force. Democratic lawmakers — including Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders — want to change that in President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better agenda, calling the current US policy “a disgrace.”

—Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) November 30, 2021

Four weeks of paid leave made it into the House version of the bill, and Vicki Shabo, a paid-leave expert at the think tank New America, previously told Insider it would be a game-changer for millions of Americans who don’t have access to paid leave.

“This will have implications on women’s labor force participation and earnings, on the ability of people caring for loved ones to be able to remain in the workforce, and to improve their financial security, both in the short term and for retirement,” Shabo said. 

But the measure risks getting cut out of the Senate’s version of the bill, which won’t help with filling the millions of job openings in the country – especially as COVID-19 lingers and people are hesitant to return to work due to health concerns. While Biden maintains his outlook that economic recovery from the pandemic continues to be strong, conditions for workers need to improve so they can feel the same.