Employers must play role in addressing opioid crisis: Study

U.S. employers must adapt to the challenges posed by the opioid crisis by adjusting job skill requirements and expanding workplace drug testing to mitigate potential productivity loss resulting from illicit substance use, researchers from Stanford University wrote in recently published findings.

In their paper published this month, titled The Opioid Crisis and Firm Skill Demand: Evidence from Job Posting Data, researchers from Stanford’s Institute for Economic Policy Research also wrote that raising hiring standards may disproportionately impact lower-skilled workers, including those who never suffered from opioid use disorders.

Employers, they wrote, often play a “critical role” in addressing and preventing the nationwide opioid crisis.

“The crisis can impose a substantial burden on businesses through lost productivity, increased health care costs, and greater costs for workers’ compensation claims,” the researchers wrote. “It might also be harder to hire qualified workers who can pass drug screenings.”

The paper states that while previous policy discussions surrounding opioids largely concentrated on health outcomes and addiction prevention measures, more needs to be done to address the problem from an employment standpoint.

Employers, for example, can implement educational programs to raise awareness about opioid use risk and the workplace safety dangers posed by the opioid epidemic, they wrote.