That’s the 3.4M. The 3.7 unemployed are still part or the labor force.
The drop in participation rate is smaller for “prime working age” (25-54 – not my term) than for older folks. So I suspect some people said fuck it and retired.
Lemme guess, he’s also living with his parents and he’s not going to throw money away on rent when he can just save money and buy something eventually.
Some of that, but the other problem is my metro area’s public transportation sucks. He’s in an inner ring suburb, he’d have to bus or ride his bike to downtown and then catch a bus out to the distant suburb where the Amazon warehouse (and many others) are. The commute alone would be over 2 hours one way. Just not reasonable. He’s considering working at one of the local brew pubs as business begins picking up and there’s not much else he can do easily. He doesn’t have his degree yet - covid interruptus put his plans on hold.
I mean, I get the math. If you get free room and board, moving to an apartment closer to the Amazon job is hard to justify economically. lol
Especially when you have learning disabilities and rent near the Amazon job is $1400+ a month. Don’t be a troll, please.
OMG, did you mention already he had learning disabilities? You just said he was just about to complete a degree. I’m sorry for any insult.
My. guess is that employers aren’t offering enough compensation for what those who are looking for jobs are demanding.
The learning disability does not affect his qualifications for the warehouse job so, no, I didn’t mention it. However, your ending of “lol” indicates that you are willing to put down those whose situations you do not understand. Please don’t go there.
I’m sorry, I was maybe being a jerk maligning the upcoming generation. Frankly though, tossing your friend’s learning disabilities in my face isn’t so cool either, my friend.
Apologies for the double reply. The first reply wasn’t meant to be snarky. I really do wonder why all these various employers, whether restaurants lacking waitstaff, hospitals and nursing homes lacking nurses, building contractors lacking laborers, delivery companies short on truck drivers, chicken slaughterhouses short on chicken processors, etc. don’t raise the pay they are offering for their open positions. Isn’t that how capitalism is supposed to work?
It’s an issue for him moving out of his parent’s home. It would be very hard for him to find a roommate to split apartment rental costs because, frankly, he’s hard to live with. But I do know him to be a reliable, hard-working guy.
The troll reference I gave you is because it is very much frowned upon to do that on this board, except in the BBQ Pit. I’ll take your reprimand if you’ll take mine in the spirit it was meant.
I meant no offense. It was really just a “kids these days” thing. Sorry.
Many of them have. The fast food place around here have increased their wages 14% and others much more. Parton the problem is that wages are sticky so if they start paying $30/hour for a burger flipper and the unemployment supplement expires (and it was what was causing people to not take jobs) then they have to either cut people’s pay or fire and rehire large chunks of their staff. That’s hard on a business even one that is used to high turnover. Until business are convinced that this new economy is here to stay they will be reluctant to raise wages. We’ve seen several here offering sign on bonuses for minimum wage positions that way they pay the $10k to get an employee today but if workers become plentiful they aren’t stuck paying more for their employees.
Just remembered a chat I had with a guy who used to work at my favorite Mexican restaurant.
Another reason why people may be hesitant to return was the on again, off again cycle of closures and reopenings in 2020. I don’t think we will see lockdowns in any state going forward but I can imagine how frustrating that is and why workers may still fear yet another round of lockdown
Also, his restaurant was even worse as they tried to stay open for just delivery and takeout, but apparently couldn’t make enough to justify staying open. So much of their money came from alcohol sales, tableside Guacamole and other things that weren’t getting sold much, and that’s with alcohol take out being legal.
Don’t forget that it takes time to hire people. Sure it is a bit faster in the lower-paying parts of the workforce, but there’s still lots of hoops and paperwork to wade through. Even on a job that has “immediate openings” it can take up to three weeks to go through the process.
Yes, that’s how it’s supposed to work but the owners/employers have had the upper hand for so long they they are shocked - shocked! - when capitalism makes demands on them. Shocked when the underpaid overworked workforce starts saying nope, they’re not going to do it anymore. Shocked at the notion that they might have pay more labor and maybe profit less themselves.
In the spirit of this message board, I should note that kids these days get a lot of “kids these days” type comments, but what their elders often miss is that it really IS a lot harder to get ahead in this country today than it was when many of the scoffers got their start. Rent is up, you have to put a higher percentage down to buy a home and the house itself is also more expensive, the cost of education is through the roof, inflation has driven up the price of most goods and services… and wages, especially for service or entry level jobs, simply haven’t kept up.
I’m a year younger than you, and worked in restaurants from age 14 to age 30, I’ve never seen anyone slap a waitress’ ass (or a waiter’s, for that matter) but yeah, I did see inappropriate behavior, usually by drunks, and a couple times had customers say inappropriate things to me. One of them got a group banned (because it wasn’t the first time he’d done this to somebody) from the hotel banquet facility where I worked.
And then there was that man I dated who asked the Village Inn waitress for her phone number right in front of me…she didn’t accept.
I think the reason why a lot of unemployment is happening is that a lot of people don’t want to work jobs for the current minimum wage; especially retail and customer service ones.
I was going to respond to Flik but you did it better than me. Some people have a cartoonish view of capitalism and don’t know about all the nuances of owning a business. Not all owners are evil greedy bastards.
Something else that should be mentioned is that restaurants generally get by with razor thin margins. Raising pay will probably require raising prices. How much can prices be raised before customers stay away? It’s a balance that takes time to get right.