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| Silverfiddle Rant! |
Three federal pandemic benefits programs have ended as of Labor day.
They are the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation, and a weekly $300 in Federal Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation.
One think tank estimated that the programs' ending affects 7.5 million unemployed Americans. (MSN - Business Insider)
Our nation has been in one of those weird Frankenstein places only a government could create:
People unemployed while we have a simultaneous worker shortage. Paying people not to work has never worked. The extended bennies and the eviction moratorium are ending. I think we'll see those jobs get filled.
What say you?
The root evil of our economy, as it were, is that we've allowed the federal government to pretend that it has the Constitutional power to determine the value of a Citizens labor. Followed closely by the monetary reward for procreating.
ReplyDeleteBut at least this most recent round of giveaways to the relatively non-taxpayer, is ending.
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DeleteWell... as it relates to jobs and employment let me say this without engaging in the legality of the Fed to be involved.
ReplyDeleteWhat Silver has said sounds right to many of us. Anecdotally, all of us probably know, or have heard of at least a few ppl who in fact, are slackerly and have been hanging out in the basement doing nothing.
But widely available data seems to be showing a different reality. In states where federal unemployment was discontinued months ago, we've seen job lines equal, or in some cases worse, than states that still offered federal aid.
That may be due to additional data that shows America is lacking qualified workers in many of the areas, outside of the service industry, where we are experiencing large employee shortages.
But service industry jobs are an interesting place to consider as it relates to jobs. The minimum wage is about 8 bucks here in Las Vegas. Many service industry jobs are being offered with no takers. At between 10-12 bucks an hour.
Doing the math at 12 bucks an hour he grosses about $2100.00 a month, if he works 40 hours, no benefits. Take out about 20% upfront for taxes. That leaves him about $1650.00 His rent for a 1 bdrm place runs about $1250.00. That leaves a big $400.00 for utilities, food, gas, insurance, car payments, etc., etc.
At least as it relates to this industry, across the country, even where states discontinued unemployment earlier, ppl are saying no to these jobs.
Dave,
DeleteThank you for that breakdown. Standard economic theory would predict businesses raising wages since it is a job-seekers market. We'll see.
What no one is yet discussing, even if congress just passes that "smaller" $1 trillion infrastructure bill, I don't see how we avoid bringing in labor from other countries. I don't think we have enough able-bodied, skilled or willing workers to do all that infrastructure work.
So, on the face of it that makes sense. I can't live on a take home of $1650 per month, so I turn down a job which pays that. But how is a take home of $0 better? Are we teeming with unfilled jobs that the person can find with a take home of $5000 per month?
DeleteJayhawk... your question is the issue in a nutshell. If you can't live on 1650, what do you do? Just pay the rent I guess, work your butt off and starve?
Delete30-40 years ago I would hire ppl here in Vegas for about 40 cents over minimum. Back then your housing costs were about 35% of your net after taxes. So you could actually make ends meet.
Now? Hardly. Because costs have risen faster over the years as opposed to wages.
As for the 5k a month jobs, they are out there, but not in the sectors where we have workers. For instance, we have an abundance of service ppl available, but they are not qualified to work those other higher paying jobs for lack of experience or expertise.
Silver... we are indeed short of skilled labor at many levels, even construction if we're gonna spend billions in that area.
DeleteBut sadly the mantra of let's employ Americans first, while a good idea and goal, does not work if we don't have the people who can do that work.
I don't understand why we can't import workers, as Canada is doing, by opening up our immigration policies to make it happen.
For instance, I see no reason we can't be more liberal with "importing" ppl from this hemisphere, if they are qualified workers. After all, most of the countries where we would raw from are, like us, mostly Judeo-Christian in their religious makeup, a good match for US culture.
Dave,
DeleteI (and maybe many others) would be much more sanguine about bringing in temporary worker and their families, if we eliminated birthright citizenship.
To improve our pool of native workers, I would love to see some government-funded apprenticeships and Silicon Valley-funded tech scholarships and training, instead of the current idiocy of paying off everyone's student loans. If we must spend taxpayer money on training and education, focus it on the areas we need. We don't need for (Fill in the blank) Studies majors who end up serving coffee at starbucks
Being in the industrial instrumentation field, we knew years ago our electricians, millwrights, pipefitters, etc. were drying up. The 2009 stimulus helped some as the trade schools were flooded with laid off workers getting 2 yrs of unemployment provided they stayed in school. The manufacturing industries have taken on more in house apprenticeships to help offset. Wages for crats have risen significantly but there's still a shortage.
DeleteBy the way, many craft students have also fallen victim to student debt as well.
Aside from gov or employer help, I get the skilled trade shortage as it takes at least 2 years of schooling at a cost of $20K to $30K or more and then a few years of low wage apprentice work but I also see a growing demand of industrial production workers. There's a unionized aluminum smelter in my area actually advertising a job fair due to being unable to replace retiring workers. When I graduated high school some 40 years ago, an mere rumor of them hiring would have required the sheriff's dept to manage the backed up traffic. And this isn't an isolated case as many of the area good paying & high benefits facilities have significantly lowered their standards to recruit help.
Perhaps this is another reason why the retail workers and fry cooks are turning up their noses at the few coins they're tossed from Walmart or Rally's.
This storm has been brewing long before COVID.
Good words Ronald... the storm has been brewing for years.
DeleteSilver... I'm a guy that thinks we needs to import ppl permanently. Half hearted temporary workers will not get us the numbers we need, nor people who we want to put down roots and make the US their home.
Population stagnation and even decline, is a major problem on the horizon. Put simply, we need more ppl to fill our jobs, and provide labor to keep the economy at it's current level.
Without a significant base of new people, wanting families larger that the typical US household, we're gonna be in a world of hurt.
Temporary workers VISAS won't address that.
But it is a start.
Ronald,
DeleteGood comment. Real wages have been stagnant for at least 30 years, according to some economic analyses I've seen, but those people turning up their noses at retail and service industry jobs are not qualified for the skilled trades jobs.
I don't have an easy answer, other than financial assistance to help them up their skills.
Dave,
DeleteI remember reading somewhere that around 40% of those offered the Reagan era amnesty took the permanent green card but never applied for citizenship. You are the expert on this, not me, but based on the Mexicans I know and what I read, many don't want US citizenship, but they do want to be able to move freely back and forth.
That may be true Silver. And I'm good with, as I'm sure most immigrants would be also, with a green card. It gives them status, lets them work, fill needed jobs and gives them the ability to move freely across the border.
DeleteAs for retraining... we've all heard that term for decades. It never seems to work. Because most steelworkers at 55 are not going to learn something new. They are set in their ways.
I know it's controversial, but when we essentially wipe out an industry, coal is a good example, perhaps the nation owes them a lifelong debt. Perhaps, because those folks are out of work through no fault of their own, the US collectively should take care of them.
I don't know. But what I do know is this... as we move forward, many jobs once done by people, auto assembly is a good example, it seems somehow our country should be responding to this reality.
We need to offer tax cuts to doctors that refuse to see Medicaid and Medicare patients.
ReplyDeleteHalf the workforce are single parents. "You think I'm going to let my child die by putting him/her in some Covid infested hellhole of a daycare center so that I can go to work?"
ReplyDeleteChildren dying of Covid in daycare centers would be tragic if no one was around to catch it on video to enjoy over and over with popcorn
ReplyDeleteThe federal government should be required to pay every single American $500 per day until it passes a Constitutional Amendment prohibiting federal, state, and local government mandates imposing CDC "recommendations" that curtail commercial business activities in all 50 states.
ReplyDelete