Labour remains one of the biggest challenges facing the packaging industry, according to a report by PMMI.The leading global trade association for the packaging and processing industries says issues around labour are an economy-wide trend, with the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic playing havoc with human resources.It said this was the top response from a survey conducted recently with consumer packaging goods companies and original equipment manufacturers who said they were facing unprecedented labour shortages.The industry has further been impacted by the fact that consumer habits have changed significantly over the past two years. As e-commerce has exploded around the world and home delivery of all kinds of consumer products increased, demand for packaging containers has also boomed. According to reports, before the pandemic manufacturers were already exploring options to optimise product packaging for e-commerce rather than for brick-and-mortar operations. Experts now predict that producers in the near future will aim to optimise packaging for specific channels rather than the one-package-fits-all approach.Whilst the packaging industry is considered essential and saw very little restriction on operations, there have been labour issues as most operations have had to introduce new ways of working to make room for social distancing and other Covid protocols.“We believe the focus on staffing will last well beyond the current staff shortages being experienced,” reads the PMMI report. “Digging into the responses, we found many issues related to Covid-19. Managing growth in a tight labour market was a common problem."
