The great American labor shortage.

U.S. job growth unexpectedly slowed in April, likely curbed by shortages of workers and raw materials as rapidly improving public health and massive government aid fueled an economic boom.

The Labor Department's closely watched employment report on Friday, which showed a plunge in temporary help jobs - a harbinger for future hiring - as well as decreases in manufacturing, retail and courier services employment, sparked a heated debate about the generosity of unemployment benefits.

The enhanced jobless benefits, including a government-funded $300 weekly supplement, pay more than most minimum wage jobs. The benefits were extended until early September as part of a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 pandemic relief package approved in March. Montana and South Carolina are ending government-funded pandemic unemployment benefits for residents next month.

Economists say some workers could still be fearful of returning to work even as all adult Americans are now eligible to receive COVID-19 vaccinations. Others also cited problems with child care as in-person classes remain limited in many school districts. Labor and input shortages have been well documented by business surveys.

"The employment gain is understated in part because of the generous largess from Washington," said Sung Won Sohn, a finance and economics professor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. "Short-staffed restaurant owners are working overtime, truck drivers are impossible to find even after a hefty increase in hourly wages and loading docks at warehouses are keeping trucks idle as there aren't enough workers."

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-job-growth-far-below-expectations-april-amid-labor-shortages-2021-05-07/


I've never seen it so bad. Help wanted signs everywhere. Business closing early because they don't have the staff to keep the doors open.

Of course when you can make 600 bucks a week not working, a lot of folks will jump all over that. No driving in traffic, no childcare cost, plenty if time for naps and video games. On the bright side, folks who want to work are getting shit tons of overtime pay..

Just another example of the madness that is going on in the topsy turvy world of lefty societies.

It's been happening here for a long time.
An element of society prefer to draw benefits than work a minimum wage job.

Syl wrote:It's been happening here for a long time.
An element of society prefer to draw benefits than work a minimum wage job.

It's why we have usually had much lower unemployment rates than folks across the pond. Unemployment kept you afloat, but not so comfortable that not working was very appealing.

A McDonald's in Florida is paying people $50 just to show up for a job interview. But it's still not attracting many applicants.

Blake Casper, the franchisee who owns the restaurant, told Insider that a general manager and supervisor came up with the idea for the interview reward after he told them to "do whatever you need to do" to hire workers.

"At this point, if we can't keep our drive-thrus moving, then I'll pay $50 for an interview," said Casper, who owns 60 McDonald's restaurants in the Tampa, Florida area.

Sub-standard jobs, like Burger King and McDonald's, are simply not marketable. Employment is a market like any other. All of economics is governed by supply and demand…employment is just another exchange. Sure, jobs are available, but low-end jobs in today’s market are just a poor bargained-for exchange. It's just the market, squeezing inferior goods out—only in this case, it is low-end jobs.

Over-employment has been going on since Obama took office in 2009, and remedied the near depression of the Bush/Iraq era. Obama zeroed out the Bush unemployment rate, and then the hot economy kept going over to the other side of the chart. The result is over-employment. They can't get enough workers.

Since then, the economy has been soaring. Even the USPS has great big banners hanging on their buildings, advertising how they need employees. The suppression of immigrants, who normally take up the slack in times of job-overage, has exacerbated the under-supply problem.

You're missing the point. We need workers and we have millions of unemployed workers.

The pandemic creates a temporary bubble, generating temporary unemployment, but the over-abundance of jobs is still out there.

Original Quill wrote:The pandemic creates a temporary bubble, generating temporary unemployment, but the over-abundance of jobs is still out there.

Yes, the jobs are out there. Employers are begging for workers.

But people aren't taking them. Not when they can make about as much not working.

Syl wrote:It's been happening here for a long time.
An element of society prefer to draw benefits than work a minimum wage job.

I tell you who take those low-paid jobs - Eastern Europeans. They work a lot fucking harder than most lazy English people.

eddie wrote:

Syl wrote:It's been happening here for a long time.
An element of society prefer to draw benefits than work a minimum wage job.

I tell you who take those low-paid jobs - Eastern Europeans. They work a lot fucking harder than most lazy English people.

It's not just low paying jobs too. We need truck drivers and the like.

eddie wrote:

Syl wrote:It's been happening here for a long time.
An element of society prefer to draw benefits than work a minimum wage job.

I tell you who take those low-paid jobs - Eastern Europeans. They work a lot fucking harder than most lazy English people.

Many of the low paid jobs are not even advertised here, so no one can blame local people if they haven't even had the chance to apply for them.

In the past Costa coffee, Butlins, certain bus companies, and many seasonal jobs are advertised abroad and filled by East European workers ...they may or may not work harder, they certainly cost less to employ.

Maddog wrote:A McDonald's in Florida is paying people $50 just to show up for a job interview. But it's still not attracting many applicants.

Blake Casper, the franchisee who owns the restaurant, told Insider that a general manager and supervisor came up with the idea for the interview reward after he told them to "do whatever you need to do" to hire workers.

"At this point, if we can't keep our drive-thrus moving, then I'll pay $50 for an interview," said Casper, who owns 60 McDonald's restaurants in the Tampa, Florida area.

That's crazy.
Maybe if they made working pay and conditions more attractive they would have better luck getting and keeping staff.

Yeah, sounds more like the great American wage-slave shortage to me.

Perfect opportunity for workers to band together and demand better treatment. I think people might be starting to pay attention to the man behind the curtain, particularly now that they've seen that the government is fully capable of stepping up and not allowing its people to end up homeless and hungry.

Now it's up to the private sector to do better than that. And let's not forget that the vast majority of people want to work, not take.

Ben Reilly wrote:Yeah, sounds more like the great American wage-slave shortage to me.

Perfect opportunity for workers to band together and demand better treatment. I think people might be starting to pay attention to the man behind the curtain, particularly now that they've seen that the government is fully capable of stepping up and not allowing its people to end up homeless and hungry.

Now it's up to the private sector to do better than that. And let's not forget that the vast majority of people want to work, not take.

Unskilled wages are easily 12 bucks an hour now. Any more and labor costs drive up already rising costs.

Higher wages don't mean jack when your bills keep getting taller.

It's actually possible, believe it or not, to pay workers a better wage without jacking up prices. I know! It sounds like utter lunacy. But if you structure your company's salaries so that the top guys don't get paid a billion times more than the bottom guys, you can afford to pay a decent wage!

A very wealthy man once told me

“If you pay someone a good wage, above average, then you have a worker for life”

Take that, any way that you will.

Maddog wrote:

Original Quill wrote:The pandemic creates a temporary bubble, generating temporary unemployment, but the over-abundance of jobs is still out there.

Yes, the jobs are out there. Employers are begging for workers.

But people aren't taking them. Not when they can make about as much not working.

And what about the women, who can't afford to work for $7.25/hr. and pay for child care at $10/hr.  Is that malingering?

Y'all capitalists are outbid by reality, not greed or government largess.  Welcome to the capitalist marketplace.

Ben Reilly wrote:It's actually possible, believe it or not, to pay workers a better wage without jacking up prices. I know! It sounds like utter lunacy. But if you structure your company's salaries so that the top guys don't get paid a billion times more than the bottom guys, you can afford to pay a decent wage!

And it's very possible for a company to go broke.

Happens all the time. Labor costs are part of that equation.

But back to the topic. People sitting on their ass are making $600 a week. As long as that's possible, why take that unskilled job?

Original Quill wrote:

Maddog wrote:

Yes, the jobs are out there. Employers are begging for workers.

But people aren't taking them. Not when they can make about as much not working.

And what about the women, who can't afford to work for $7/hr., and pay for child care at $10/hr.  Is that malingering?

Y'all capitalists are outbid by reality, not greed.  That's the point.

That's one reason they don't work. 1000 a week working is less money than staying home for 600 watching TV.

Maddog wrote:

Original Quill wrote:

And what about the women, who can't afford to work for $7/hr., and pay for child care at $10/hr.  Is that malingering?

Y'all capitalists are outbid by reality, not greed.  That's the point.

That's one reason they don't work. 1000 a week working is less money than staying home for 600 watching TV.  

Fook TV. It's reality. The Burger King and McDonald jobs pay minimum wage, and moms are charged more than that for childcare. Do the math, numb-nuts.

Original Quill wrote:

Maddog wrote:

That's one reason they don't work. 1000 a week working is less money than staying home for 600 watching TV.  

Fook TV.  It's reality.  The Burger King and McDonald jobs pay minimum wage, and moms are charged more than that for childcare.  Do the math, numb-nuts.

I do math all day dickhead.

My clients are banks.

Go fuck yourself.

Any questions?

Maddog wrote:

Original Quill wrote:

Fook TV.  It's reality.  The Burger King and McDonald jobs pay minimum wage, and moms are charged more than that for childcare.  Do the math, numb-nuts.

I do math all day dickhead.

My clients are banks.

Go fuck yourself.

Any questions?

Your banks should fire your ass. You know as much about economics as a donkey.

Original Quill wrote:

Maddog wrote:

I do math all day dickhead.

My clients are banks.

Go fuck yourself.

Any questions?

Your banks should fire your ass.  You know as much about economics as a donkey.

Have I told you to go fuck yourself lately?

"The employment gain is understated in part because of the generous largess from Washington," said Sung Won Sohn, a finance and economics professor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. "Short-staffed restaurant owners are working overtime, truck drivers are impossible to find even after a hefty increase in hourly wages and loading docks at warehouses are keeping trucks idle as there aren't enough workers."



This isn't about fucking McDonald's. But unfortunately posters don't want to fucking read shit. All they want to do is type and opine.

Breakdown in family has a lot to do with why some people can't work.

If a single mother is bringing up two kids, a minimum wage job isn't (like Maddog said) going to pay for child care, never mind anything else.

If a man is estranged from his family how can he pay maintenance if he doesn't earn enough to  even support his own lifestyle living in a bedsit or on a rundown council estate.?

Add to that minimum hour contracts, when some people cant plan their bills because their hours can be cut from one week to the next.

At least benefits are regular and claiming unemployment has a knock on effect for other benefits, especially when someone has children.

Syl wrote:Breakdown in family has a lot to do with why some people can't work.

If a single mother is bringing up two kids, a minimum wage job isn't (like Maddog said) going to pay for child care, never mind anything else.

If a man is estranged from his family how can he pay maintenance if he doesn't earn enough to  even support his own lifestyle living in a bedsit or on a rundown council estate.?

Add to that minimum hour contracts, when some people cant plan their bills because their hours can be cut from one week to the next.

At least benefits are regular and claiming unemployment has a knock on effect for other benefits, especially when someone has children.

It's not even minimum wage jobs. A lot of progressives tout 15 per hour as the magical cure for poverty (its not). That's 600 per week (before taxes). Folks are making that sitting at home and can do so for several more months..

Throw in the costs to work even if you don't have kids and you need to make 18 bucks an hour. This isn't about some 20 year old McDonald's workers not wanting to work for 7.50 an hour (which doesn't happen anyway). It's about warehouse people, cooks waiters, retail workers knowing that they can do better than 15 an hour staying home. Especially if they have kids.  Compound that with some areas  not doing in person schools and even those that want to work, can't justify it.

Minimum wage here is just under £9 ph for over 23's. £360 pw before tax and NI.
If 2 parents are earning even minimum wage it's manageable...obviously a single parent is different, child care is expensive.


"How much does childcare cost?
The UK, the average cost of sending a child under two to nursery is:

£138 per week - part time (25 hours)
£263 per week - full time (50 hours).
The average cost for families using an after-school club for five days is £62 per week.

But there is help you can get with childcare costs, for example with tax free childcare you can get up to £2,000."




Even with the tax free grant it's still a big chunk out of a low budget.

Syl wrote:Minimum wage here is just under £9 ph for over 23's. £360 pw before tax and NI.
If 2 parents are earning even minimum wage it's manageable...obviously a single parent is different, child care is expensive.


"How much does childcare cost?
The UK, the average cost of sending a child under two to nursery is:

£138 per week - part time (25 hours)
£263 per week - full time (50 hours).
The average cost for families using an after-school club for five days is £62 per week.

But there is help you can get with childcare costs, for example with tax free childcare you can get up to £2,000."




Even with the tax free grant it's still a big chunk out of a low budget.

Yeah, there are all sorts of programs here for childcare too. Single parenting is difficult. Of course unless one parent is dead, it shouldn't happen, regardless of if mom and dad are together. We all know that it does happen more often than not when the parents spit..

My daughter is part of a big sister program in Dallas. She mentors a young boy who has 4 other siblings, from 4 different men, none of which are around. Mom is the same age as her and hasn't worked in years. With 5 kids, she really can't.

Why she has 5 kids, from 5 different men is a topic for another thread I guess.

Maddog wrote:

Original Quill wrote:

Your banks should fire your ass.  You know as much about economics as a donkey.

Have I told you to go fuck yourself lately?

It's amusing when you lose...you turn into a blubbering fool.

But, back to the subject...

Maddog wrote:"The employment gain is understated in part because of the generous largess from Washington," said Sung Won Sohn, a finance and economics professor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. "Short-staffed restaurant owners are working overtime, truck drivers are impossible to find even after a hefty increase in hourly wages and loading docks at warehouses are keeping trucks idle as there aren't enough workers."

Professor Sohn is talking about viable restaurant jobs.  I'm not saying all restaurant jobs are substandard.  Many waiters and cooks, etc., make good money.  I know, I live in one of the great restaurant cities in the world.

Maddog wrote:This isn't about fucking McDonald's.  But unfortunately posters don't want to fucking read shit. All they want to do is type and opine.  

Yes, it is about McDonald's.  You're the one who brought up the subject in the OP, and of the man in Florida who owned McDonald's restaurants, who couldn't get employees.  Own the discussion when we begin to talk about it.

If you look at employment as a market, the plain fact is your man in Florida can't market those jobs because there is little demand for substandard jobs.  Those jobs perpetuate poverty, when there should be no poverty at all in the wealthiest nation in the world.

We’ve all got to realize that there are costs associated with taking one of those jobs, one of which is you commit yourself to a life of poverty.  Just because one poor sod accepts poverty, doesn’t mean that the rest of us will accept poverty.  So…the childcare preschool doesn’t accept less than $10/hour, when mom can only make $7.25/hour (the US minimum wage).  Anyone who says that is a good deal needs his or her head examined.

One may do better eventually, but that job still equals poverty.  As long as someone takes the job—as long as that substandard job exists—poverty is perpetuated in the economy.  Just as substandard steel or aluminum shouldn’t be legally marketed, so too, substandard employment shouldn’t be legally marketable.

Maddog wrote:

Syl wrote:Minimum wage here is just under £9 ph for over 23's. £360 pw before tax and NI.
If 2 parents are earning even minimum wage it's manageable...obviously a single parent is different, child care is expensive.


"How much does childcare cost?
The UK, the average cost of sending a child under two to nursery is:

£138 per week - part time (25 hours)
£263 per week - full time (50 hours).
The average cost for families using an after-school club for five days is £62 per week.

But there is help you can get with childcare costs, for example with tax free childcare you can get up to £2,000."




Even with the tax free grant it's still a big chunk out of a low budget.

Yeah, there are all sorts of programs here for childcare too. Single parenting is difficult. Of course unless one parent is dead, it shouldn't happen, regardless of if mom and dad are together. We all know that it does happen more often than not when the parents spit..

My daughter is part of a big sister program in Dallas. She mentors a young boy who has 4 other siblings, from 4 different men, none of which are around.  Mom is the same age as her and hasn't worked in years. With 5 kids, she really can't.

Why she has 5 kids, from 5 different men is a topic for another thread I guess.

The big sister programme sounds good, and yeah, we have families like that too obviously, latch key kids with several brothers and sisters and no one to call dad.

Charitable organizations (NPO's) are a piss-poor substitute for what should be a government program...like schools and/or a military.

NPO's are too weak, and not sustaining over the long-term. They are basically wishes and whims. Certainly, not something you want to build an economy, or a nation on.

Original Quill wrote:Charitable organizations (NPO's) are a piss-poor substitute for what should be a government program...like schools and/or a military.

NPO's are too weak, and not sustaining over the long-term.  They are basically wishes and whims.  Certainly, not something you want to build an economy, or a nation on.

Will the government take a kid out to play video games or watch a ball game?

The government writes checks. There are other voids to be filled.

Drove to Houston and back to today to see my grand daughter.

This place is a gigantic gas station. You need zero skills to work here. Minimum wage in Texas is $7.50. Check out the starting wages.

Maddog wrote:

Original Quill wrote:Charitable organizations (NPO's) are a piss-poor substitute for what should be a government program...like schools and/or a military.

NPO's are too weak, and not sustaining over the long-term.  They are basically wishes and whims.  Certainly, not something you want to build an economy, or a nation on.

Will the government take a kid out to play video games or watch a ball game?

The government writes checks. There are other voids to be filled.  

Of course. The government cannot fill all needs. But, whatever material needs are needed, the government should be there to help.

There's no substitute for a mother's love, or a father's protection and teaching. But government shouldn't withhold whatever can be provided, such as healthcare or care for the infirm, based on some ideology like the social theory of the RW, that starvation builds incentive and character.

Original Quill wrote:

Maddog wrote:

Will the government take a kid out to play video games or watch a ball game?

The government writes checks. There are other voids to be filled.  

Of course.  The government cannot fill all needs.  But, whatever material needs are needed, the government should be there to help.

There's no substitute for a mother's love, or a father's protection and teaching.  But government shouldn't withhold whatever can be provided, such as healthcare or care for the infirm, based on some ideology like the social theory of the RW, that starvation builds incentive and character.  

The government should take care of children, the elderly and the disabled. Everyone else needs to take care of themselves or ask for charity.

Maddog wrote:

Original Quill wrote:

Of course.  The government cannot fill all needs.  But, whatever material needs are needed, the government should be there to help.

There's no substitute for a mother's love, or a father's protection and teaching.  But government shouldn't withhold whatever can be provided, such as healthcare or care for the infirm, based on some ideology like the social theory of the RW, that starvation builds incentive and character.  

The government should take care of children, the elderly and the disabled. Everyone else needs to take care of themselves or ask for charity.

Charity is insufficient.  It's dependent on the mood or will of the giver. There is no certainty to it, and where there is no certainty, there is no reliability.

Government is just a means, in a social world.  You tout individualism so much, yet I have never met an individual who lives completely without some semblance of sociology, or community.  Even some loner in the winter in far-off Alaska, has the clothes on his back, a knife forged by others, perhaps a gun made by a gunsmith, a cabin made with help, a stove, and generally, a Stihl chainsaw, a snowmobile, etc.

We live a social existence.  Individualists should think about that as they speed down the interstate freeway, in their manufactured SUV's and pickup trucks, heading to town to buy manufactured goods, with a means of exchange (money) provided by the surrounding society.  Once you accept that we are a social species, it's just a matter of organization, with equity and efficiency.

Government is just a rational way to organize the social existence, whichever form it takes...democracy, autocracy, etc.  Sure, we had a period 400-years ago, in which we rebelled against absolute, arbitrary institutions—the Roman Empire, the Roman Church, European monarchies—and we came to the conclusion that we would rein in all that authority, go slow, and make sure every exercise of power is justified.  The individualist ethos was born at this time: government must be justified, otherwise leave it to the individual.  But that doesn't change the fact that we need rational organization.

If we abandon organization completely, as anarchists and libertarians would have us do, some random sort of power will take its place. Some random dictator, or random system, will take over.  We will end up in the same predicament we had in the age of empire, church and absolute monarchy: power in the hands of some deranged Caligula.  Personally, I'd rather have organization be an intelligent and conscious choice, rather than a random, unguided missile.

Original Quill wrote:

Maddog wrote:

The government should take care of children, the elderly and the disabled. Everyone else needs to take care of themselves or ask for charity.

Charity is insufficient.  

Tough.

Unless you're a child, disabled or elderly like you, I don't care.

Maddog wrote:

Original Quill wrote:

Charity is insufficient.

Tough.

Unless you're a child, disabled or elderly like you, I don't care.

I know. That's the logical position of libertarians: I don't care. That's why the philosophy feeds into perpetual selfism. That is, libertarians are saying government should be all about me, fook the rest of you...I don't care. That's why capitalism and libertarians are hand-maidens, btw.

I think we can do better. If we do what the libertarians want, we will end up with another empire, church or absolute monarchy, demanding me, me, me! That's how that system got started; are we just going to repeat history? Or, are we going to take our god-given intelligence and make something better?

Original Quill wrote:

Maddog wrote:

Tough.

Unless you're a child, disabled or elderly like you, I don't care.

I know.  That's the logical position of libertarians: I don't care.  That's why the philosophy feeds into perpetual selfism.  That is, libertarians are saying government should be all about me, fook the rest of you...I don't care.  That's why capitalism and libertarians are hand-maidens, btw.

I think we can do better.  If we do what the libertarians want, we will end up with another empire, church or absolute monarchy, demanding me, me, me!  That's how that system got started; are we just going to repeat history?  Or, are we going to take our god-given intelligence and make something better?

I think you should do better. You have time and resources.

Maddog wrote:

Original Quill wrote:

I know.  That's the logical position of libertarians: I don't care.  That's why the philosophy feeds into perpetual selfism.  That is, libertarians are saying government should be all about me, fook the rest of you...I don't care.  That's why capitalism and libertarians are hand-maidens, btw.

I think we can do better.  If we do what the libertarians want, we will end up with another empire, church or absolute monarchy, demanding me, me, me!  That's how that system got started; are we just going to repeat history?  Or, are we going to take our god-given intelligence and make something better?

I think you should do better. You have time and resources.  

Thank you. I expect we will do better - on the Humanist scale, not the Stock Exchange. As it appears that Republicans are in shambles, there is no opposition. Look forward to two years of catching up to the American people.

Original Quill wrote:

Maddog wrote:

I think you should do better. You have time and resources.  

Thank you.  I expect we will do better - on the Humanist scale, not the Stock Exchange.  As it appears that Republicans are in shambles, there is no opposition.  Look forward to two years of catching up to the American people.

Who is we?

Do you have a mouse in your pocket?

I'm saying YOU need to do better as a human being.

Syl wrote:Minimum wage here is just under £9 ph for over 23's. £360 pw before tax and NI.
If 2 parents are earning even minimum wage it's manageable...obviously a single parent is different, child care is expensive.


"How much does childcare cost?
The UK, the average cost of sending a child under two to nursery is:

£138 per week - part time (25 hours)
£263 per week - full time (50 hours).
The average cost for families using an after-school club for five days is £62 per week.

But there is help you can get with childcare costs, for example with tax free childcare you can get up to £2,000."




Even with the tax free grant it's still a big chunk out of a low budget.

All the above is exactly why mass immigration of 3rd world scum bags and majority of EU migrants is fundamentally flawed!!!


They cost the taxpayer more in benefits and childcare benefits and costs of school places etc, than they pay in to the system through taxes on whatever earnings they may make... And many of these don't work at all anyway!!!


Plus their numbers here are drastically pushing up the cost of living for everyone else and detrimental to the standard of living of everyone else.

https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-immigration-survey-idINDEEA0603G20140107

Tommy Monk wrote:

Syl wrote:Minimum wage here is just under £9 ph for over 23's. £360 pw before tax and NI.
If 2 parents are earning even minimum wage it's manageable...obviously a single parent is different, child care is expensive.

"How much does childcare cost?
The UK, the average cost of sending a child under two to nursery is:

£138 per week - part time (25 hours)
£263 per week - full time (50 hours).
The average cost for families using an after-school club for five days is £62 per week.

But there is help you can get with childcare costs, for example with tax free childcare you can get up to £2,000."

Even with the tax free grant it's still a big chunk out of a low budget.

All the above is exactly why mass immigration of 3rd world scum bags and majority of EU migrants is fundamentally flawed!!!

They cost the taxpayer more in benefits and childcare benefits and costs of school places etc,  than they pay in to the system through taxes on whatever earnings they may make... And many of these don't work at all anyway!!!

Plus their numbers here are drastically pushing up the cost of living for everyone else and detrimental to the standard of living of everyone else.

Nonsense.  You are cherry-picking the facts in order to paint a bleak, but myopic view.  Look at the wider picture: Child care builds the economy, as it frees up workers who would otherwise be at home taking care of the kids.

Right now, in America, we have an over-employment situation.  That is, we have more positions than we have workers to fill them.  As was pointed out above, the substandard job market cannot even find enough workers.  They are starting to issue bonuses for new employees, they are so desperate.

America has a wealthy, perpetually booming economy.  Immigration has always been there when we need employees to fill out the compliment.  With the Republican war on immigration, we are choking off that source, to the detriment of the economy.

Conservatives need to stop disguising their bigotry as economic arguments.  They are literally hurting the economy. If you believe in your convictions, be open with them.