Paying workers to sit on their asses: $300 weekly Fed unemployment bonus hurts job numbers
April unemployment figures were supposed to show 1 million jobs added, but thanks to unemployment subsidies only 266,000 people actually went back to work
April jobs numbers were dramatically lower than expected, with only 266,000 jobs filled in an economy Joe Biden’s so-called experts expected to create over one million jobs. (Photo Illustration: America’s Conservative Voice)
Biden’s experts blew it. Big time. Only one quarter of the jobs they expected to be filled in April materialized and the jobless rate increased by a tenth of a point.
The recovery of America's job market came to a screeching halt in April as many businesses — from restaurants and hotels to factories and construction companies — struggled to find enough workers to catch up with a rapidly strengthening economic rebound.
Just 266,000 jobs were filled in April, sharply lower than in March and far fewer than Biden economists had expected. Biden’s economists claimed the U.S. would add one million jobs last month. But outside of Washington, D.C., multiple economists were warning that the continuing $300 weekly unemployment subsidies were going to damage the job market.
Obviously, it was the latter group that was right.
The negative report exposing his poor prognostication came just two days after he significantly misstated estimates on how many jobs would be created through the implantation of his "American Jobs Plan" during a speech Wednesday in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Biden claimed there would be 16 million jobs created. The Office of Management and Budget puts the figure at only 1.5 million.
Biden Friday insisted the economy is on the right track and that his policies put it there. He made those ludicrous statements despite the dismal job numbers, saying the jobs created last month is evidence the economy is on the rebound — noting the nation has added 1.5 million jobs since he took the oath of office.
Left out of his remarks was the fact President Donald Trump created five times that many jobs from June to December 2020. Biden’s cabal in the White House has a wide variety of false suppositions and claims regarding the reason his jobs prediction fell flat on its face. Their first “go-to” is their unfounded contention that nearly three million people are reluctant to look for work because they fear catching the virus.
Nearly 15 percent of the country has had the CCP virus and another 50 percent have been vaccinated. That means — despite the blatantly false information coming out of the CDC and NIH — we have long since passed herd immunity.
Next, Biden’s minions want to assert more women dropped out of the workforce last month, ostensibly to care for children. That is utter nonsense. Some women have balanced caring for families and being essential workers such as doctors, nurses, police officers and EMTs throughout the pandemic. Other women have been forced to work from home in order to care for family members while still keeping their jobs
Women are not leaving their employment when their employers can accommodate them in order to keep them on the job.
Finally, Biden’s “experts” blame a parts shortage, the result of clogged supply chains leading to slow producttion in April for construction companies and manufacturers, abdespecially automakers. That’s true, those shortages have hurt those industries. But the number of workers idled by parts and supply-line shortages is nowhere near the numbers of jobs that seemingly disappeared from under Biden’s nose.
No, none of that is why the number of jobs created was just 25 percent of what was expected. The reality is the $300-a-week federal jobless subsidy is discouraging a large number of the unemployed from returning to work — mostly those in the service sector, which is now a whopping 85 percent of the U.S. and the world economy,
Biden was torched by Republicans and conservative media after his April jobs prediction of one million new jobs failed to materialize. Employers were only able to fill just over a quarter million jobs last month. (Photo: Reese Jegens/Washington Examiner)
Companies have added jobs for four straight months, the Labor Department said Friday, though the government lowered its estimate of job growth for February and March by a combined 78,000, owing to additional unemployment numbers coming in from rural areas.
Additionally, Labor spokesmen said the resumption of hiring has encouraged some Americans to start looking for jobs, which means they are newly counted as unemployed if they don't immediately find work. That statistical reality is partially responsible for what happened in April. It caused the unemployment rate to uptick from 6 percent to 6.1 percent.
Employers are now posting far more jobs than they did before the pandemic, and "help wanted" signs dot many restaurant windows. Other tell-tale signs of labor shortages have emerged as well: Average hourly pay rose 0.7 percent in April to $30.17. The average work-week also rose, evidence that companies are asking current employees to work more.
"Demand is outpacing supply," said Daniel Zhao, senior economist at Glassdoor, a job listings website. "That's something that is occurring across the economy, from semiconductors to lumber, and we're seeing a similar crunch in the labor market."
Steven Tamasi, CEO of Boston Centerless, which makes parts for medical devices and aerospace equipment, said his clients in January expressed belief it would take nine months to return to pre-pandemic sales levels.
"Well, it only took three months," he said. "It happened so fast, people were caught off guard."
Tamasi wants to hire 10 workers to add to his staff of about 114, which would give him a larger workforce than he had before the CCP viral outbreak. He is quickly dusting off old contacts at state labor agencies and community colleges.
Some candidates disappear after an interview or even after accepting a job. Biden would have us believe that is because they get hired elsewhere. If that were true, the number of jobs created would have gone up. As we already know, they didn’t.
Tamasi told America’s Conservative Voice (ACV) he is considering raising entry-level pay — currently averaging $12 an hour at Centerless Centerless — and accelerating pay raises for new workers to attract more applicants.
Concerned the $300 per month federal unemployment subsidy is a main reason behind April’s stunningly disappointing jobs report, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce called for an end to the benefit Friday. (Photo: Hani Mouresh/Los Angeles Times)
With most state unemployment benefits and the federal unemployment subsidy, the supposedly unemployed make $15-$17 an hour. Why would they take a job for $12 if they can sit on their asses and do nothing for what is effectively $5-$7 more an hour? They have a “job” — collecting money you, the taxpayer, gives them to sit on their asses.
The extra $300 a week in federal unemployment benefits comes on top of state payments that average $320 a week. The combined benefits mean that anyone earning less than $32,000 a year can receive more income from unemployment than they can from going back to work. That would include nearly the entire service industry — restaurants, customer service call centers and small manufacturing plants like Tamasi’s.
One Los Angeles area restaurant worker, Marie M. — who asked ACV no to use her full name so her comments wouldn't affect her job prospects — said she was juggling shifts at two separate restaurants in the fall of 2019. When the CCP virus took hold, she lost both of those jobs. She collected around $30,000 in unemployment last year, about the same amount she made working in 2019.
In July this year she plans to start looking for restaurant work again. This time, she feels more confident she will be able get the hours she wants and needs. Restaurants are already reaching out to her about jobs, so she can afford to be more selective.
"Unemployment benefits have been like collective bargaining," she said. "They made a union out of all of us."
Optimism about the economic recovery is growing, but Biden and the Fascist Democrats in Congress will have to put an end to the unemployment “bonuses,” or at least let them expire this summer. Otherwise workers will not be interested in filling the millions of open positions out there.
There is no reason for lawmakers to be hesitant We have reached herd immunity, thanks to 15 percent of the population actually having had the CCP virus and another 50 percent so far getting vaccinations. Yet Fascist Democrats continue to speak of making the subsidies permanent. Doing so would do grave damage to the job market.
Employers need workers, as many Americans are flush with cash after having received $1,400 federal relief checks. They also have built up savings after cutting back on travel, entertainment and dining out over the past year during the CCP virus outbreak.
Congress continues to talk of making a federal unemployment subsidy permanent but pressure is mounting from U.S. businesses, populists and conservatives to put and end it as it appears a strong contributor to poor jobs numbers in the first four months. Photo: Stefani Reynolds/Getty Images)
Millions of consumers have begun spending their extra cash on restaurant meals, airline tickets, road trips and new cars and homes — putting pressure on the service industry that desperately needs its worker to return.
From month to month, though, the gains in the job market could prove choppy, as Friday's jobs report suggested. As Americans release pent-up demand for entertainment, business is soaring at amusement parks and other venues.
On Tuesday, at the Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg, Virginia, customers for the indoor water park and hotel were plentiful. Yet job-seekers for the company's hiring open house were relatively scarce.
Nick Licastro, general manager for the lodge, said customer demand is running higher than the company can accommodate because it's still limited to roughly 50% of its capacity by state rules. He said he expects business to return to pre-pandemic levels by summer if capacity restraints are lifted.
Licastro would like to hire about 100 workers — lifeguards, kitchen workers, hotel cleaners and others. That would enable him to meet the demand lining up at his front door. For now, the company has about 400 on staff, most of whom it recalled after it was allowed to reopen in September. The company had about two dozen interviews scheduled for Tuesday, along with some walk-ins.
"We'd love to have more, if you know of any," Licastro told ACV. "It's becoming an increasingly competitive market."
Other entertainment venues are also staffing up for summer, including Busch Gardens, all of the Six Flags locations, Kings Dominion and Colonial Williamsburg. Nationwide, Great Wolf wants to hire 2,000 employees across 16 locations.
David Earl, who worked at Great Wolf for three years until he left to focus on his college classes just before the CCP virus struck, was among those applying for a job Tuesday. For now, Earl, who is 27, is working at a grocery store chain but said Great Wolf pays more. He tells friends that Great Wolf is hiring, but some claim they are fearful about catching the virus.
Earl believes it is more likely they are comfortable sitting at home and collecting $32,000 a year in unemployment benefits.