Oso planning to go pro
Is the jizz mopping program still solid?
NY Times asking “where are the workers?” It turns out the enhanced unemployment and stimulus checks allowed people to not go back to work. Though what will happen when the cushion runs out?Thanks to pandemic stimulus programs during both the Trump and Biden administrations, many families have received multiple checks from the federal government over the past 18 months. Those stimulus programs also increased the size of unemployment benefits. Over the same period, home values and stock prices have risen, too.As a result, many households have more of a financial cushion than they used to. If anything, the recent increases in savings have been larger at the bottom of the economic spectrum than at the top:With this cushion, some workers — especially those in service industries disrupted by Covid-19 — have decided that they did not like their old jobs enough to return. Others have simply quit their jobs.
I think there's a very real (if hard to measure) effect of "working class" type people who were ground up and spit out during the pandemic just kind of deciding being treated like garbage by their bosses and being treated like garbage by their customers just isn't worth it for trash wages anymore.Or maybe some proportion of these people, who by and large did not have the luxury of working from home and thus were more likely to contract covid, are now either dead or long covid sufferers who are physically limited in the kind of work they can perform.But, ultimately, I'm certain the labor shortage is the result of multiple factors, and anyone saying they have the one and only answer is probably just trying to sell an article to a publisher.
I agree with this analysis. From personal experience as someone working in a field dubbed “important”, certain segments of the workforce saw unsustainable growth during the early stages of the pandemic. Expectations weren’t adjusted post-covid (or post-lockdowns) and burn out factor is real
"What if - and believe me this is hypothetical - but what if you were offered some kind of a stock option equity sharing program. Would that do anything for you?""I don't know, I guess. Listen, I'm gonna go. It's been really nice talking to both you guys. Good luck with your layoffs, all right? I hope your firings go really, really well."
In other words, lots and lots of the 55-and-over crowd, who actually WERE flush with cash (but not from unemployment benefits), have simply said, "Screw it. I don't need to work anymore." They might have been thinking they'd work for another year or 3 or 5, but after the pandemic hit, they decided not to. This was a significant part of the workforce, as many economists have noted, and it created a domino effect.
Add me to the +1 on this. There's a push to explain the worker shortage amidst increasing wages with dollar-by-dollar breakdowns of exactly how much the extra unemployment benefits have been worth, how much wages need to increase, how much the average working class person has in savings. That's a necessary exercise becuase there are absolute dollars and cents thresholds that will eventually bring folks back to the table.
To add to this, the stock market run up may have gotten that 55-and-over crowd to where they wanted to be in that 3-5 years now. So no need to work.I know others (in the 30's-40's) that had decent cash on the side that invested heavily after the crash. They made out great, and in some cases then decided they didn't need two incomes, especially if one was risky and had crappy pay (e.g. day care).An extra $1k, when inflation has led to rent increases approaching 40% in some markets, is having no effect. Those thinking this is still about extra unemployment benefits months ago are clueless.
Every time I see a video of a free range Karen tormenting a retail worker I think back to when I worked a gun club in the summer between Freshman and Sophomore year. The club had a bar. Strict rules that you couldn't shoot after you started drinking. I'm scoring for a league and a guy comes up with his shotgun broken and on his shoulder, eyes just a hair glassy, voice just a hair soft--not bombed, but given my own year on the semi-professional circuit in McCormick I was certain he'd hit the bar before shooting. Now, technically, I was supposed to stop him from shooting. He asked me which position he was shooting in, and I realized then and there that $8/hr did not buy me enforcing that rule in that situation. I pointed him to position #2. You want me to confront tipsy old men who are armed? Well, I'm not sure what the going rate for that is service, but it's more than $8/hr.The "put up with the dregs of humanity" cost keeps going up, but retail employers don't want to/can't absorb those costs. I've got no suggestions here, but I can honestly say I don't blame anyone for deciding trash wages isn't worth being abused by the worst of our society's impulses.
How much of the theoretical labor market is delivering packages?
https://www.reuters.com/business/meat-packers-profit-margins-jumped-300-during-pandemic-white-house-economics-2021-12-10/INFLATION FROM GOVERNMENT HANDOUTS!!!
You still sticking with the “inflation is transitory” talking point?
If the logistics/supply chain issues get leveled out and companies stop inflating prices by their own choice...ya.
The last guy on a sinking ship is never who you want to be but to each his own.
Retailers have not even begun to pass the correct price increases onto the consumer. Logistics costs have barely been passed on and cost of goods from SE Asia continue to increase. I think after the holiday sales we are going to see an uptick in pricing on consumer goods. IMO, inflation is here for awhile and it might get ugly. Our clients are facing logistics issues, labor shortages, increased cost of goods and inflated wages. Our clients range from small startups to NYSE companies and everyone is facing these problems.