95% of workers are considering quitting

Eric

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It's almost like the housing market, right now there are a lot of jobs out there for anyone who wants them. I know I've had a hard time finding qualified candidates for my department at my company. One thing that I think we should all agree on is that unemployment for those unwilling to work needs to stop, it's designed for those who are unable to find a job, not those who refuse. Now that we are protected there's no longer an excuse for this.
 

SuperMatt

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It's almost like the housing market, right now there are a lot of jobs out there for anyone who wants them. I know I've had a hard time finding qualified candidates for my department at my company. One thing that I think we should all agree on is that unemployment for those unwilling to work needs to stop, it's designed for those who are unable to find a job, not those who refuse. Now that we are protected there's no longer an excuse for this.
Are there any states that offer unemployment benefits without proof of looking for a job? I know such rules might have been changed during the pandemic, but have those protections lapsed?

Also, one thing to note: the overall job market is sometimes different than the market in certain sectors. I wonder if the service sector has fully recovered or not. For those without a higher education level, or for those who have chosen that field (chefs, etc.), I doubt the jobs picture is as rosy as the “greater” job market might indicate. I know a lot of restaurants shut down permanently during the pandemic, and I haven’t seen a lot of new ones popping up to take their places.
 

Eric

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Are there any states that offer unemployment benefits without proof of looking for a job? I know such rules might have been changed during the pandemic, but have those protections lapsed?

Also, one thing to note: the overall job market is sometimes different than the market in certain sectors. I wonder if the service sector has fully recovered or not. For those without a higher education level, or for those who have chosen that field (chefs, etc.), I doubt the jobs picture is as rosy as the “greater” job market might indicate. I know a lot of restaurants shut down permanently during the pandemic, and I haven’t seen a lot of new ones popping up to take their places.
Yeah I'm sure it depends on your area, here in California now that restaurants are back open they simply cannot staff up because they're unable to hire enough people, so most are having to limit their service as a result. Even Home Depot and Lowe's are having a hard time, they've been holding open job fairs advertising higher wages and same day hiring. It's crazy right here right now.
 

tobefirst

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I switched jobs during the pandemic last year, going from a company I'd been at for 16 years that developed a toxic culture for a variety of reasons to a job that I like so much more. It isn't my dream job, though, and I told myself that I would never stop looking again. I just don't want to miss anything. So, while I'm happy, I'd still be counted among the 95%.
 

Chew Toy McCoy

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I think this is a rare time in history when it's an employee's market which includes better pay. It will be short-lived and eventually people will realize they have bills to pay as those better job openings start to dry up.

But I also think "dissatisfaction" currently goes well beyond your job and a good part of that is the internet and social media with a billion different opportunities to distract and alarm yourself. Read another article sighting a study that determined creativity is at an all-time low for related reasons.
 

Joe

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There are a lot of people that are refusing to work or even looking for jobs because they are being paid to sit at home and collect unemployment and getting extra food stamps. At least that is what I am seeing in Texas. That is one issue I agreed on with Governor Abbott when he ended the $300 extra per week in Texas last month. There is just so much fraud going around with it. It is supposed to be for those that are actively looking but cannot find anything, not those that are just too lazy and doing nothing. My brother owns a small restaurant and he and his restaurant friends pay above minimum wage and cannot find employees because they straight up tell them they are getting paid to sit at home with unemployment. Then they get crazy amounts of food stamps and they sell them for cash. It's a cluster. This is probably one of the few issues I agree with conservatives on. Get these lazy mofos back to work.
 

Chew Toy McCoy

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I honestly don’t have a problem with the people not working just because of the expanded unemployment. It’s not going to last forever and they’re far from the millionaires who make more money during a night of sleep than a large percentage of the population makes in a year of full-time employment. In the meantime people who are finding new jobs are getting paid more and available jobs will dry up for those who are taking advantage of unemployment. If you’re mad about it, don’t worry. They’ll get their payback. Why are you so bothered that they don’t want to rush back to low-wage jobs or want to take an extended vacation that they will probably never get to experience again?
 

SuperMatt

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I had zero problem with the government paying people to stay home during the pandemic.

The fraud from people wanting an extra $300 a week is peanuts compared to the fraud perpetrated by business recipients of PPP loans.

If we focused on nailing the rich people using fraud to get free stuff from the government, we’d get a lot better return on our enforcement dollars, IMHO. Granted, they will lawyer up, so maybe that would cut into things a bit. Going after somebody for whom $300 a week actually makes a difference would be easier since they won’t lawyer up, but how many people like that do you have to go after before it even becomes a drop in the bucket?
 

MEJHarrison

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One thing that I think we should all agree on is that unemployment for those unwilling to work needs to stop, it's designed for those who are unable to find a job, not those who refuse. Now that we are protected there's no longer an excuse for this.

I was unemployed for a while after the .COM crash. As my mother-in-law put it, "you can go get a job at McDonald's". Sure, I could have. But then I would have been employed and I would have lost my unemployment benefits. I'm a computer programmer. I couldn't pay the mortgage on McDonald's wages. I made WAY more sitting at home with unemployment than just taking any job available. I didn't enjoy sitting at home. But I also couldn't afford to simply "take any job". Sometimes things are more complicated than they might appear.
 

Joe

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I was unemployed for a while after the .COM crash. As my mother-in-law put it, "you can go get a job at McDonald's". Sure, I could have. But then I would have been employed and I would have lost my unemployment benefits. I'm a computer programmer. I couldn't pay the mortgage on McDonald's wages. I made WAY more sitting at home with unemployment than just taking any job available. I didn't enjoy sitting at home. But I also couldn't afford to simply "take any job". Sometimes things are more complicated than they might appear.

That is a different situation though. At the time there weren't millions of people flooding your state's unemployment system. So they were able to validate your case and get you the help you needed at the time.

The problem with Covid19 is that states were so overwhelmed they started to just send money to anyone that applied, and that information quickly got around. So, now you have people filing fraudulent claims at a high rate. I can't speak for other states, but I know Texas has a lot of fraud right now. There are people that will literally tell you to your face they are not looking for employment because they are happy with the unemployment they are getting by sitting at home. The jobs are there, they just refuse to apply for it.

Then there are other cases of fraud. My sister, who has been working the entire pandemic as a nurse, received an unemployment letter in the mail, and she was never on unemployment. So someone filed in her name. The whole thing is a cluster fuck.
 

SuperMatt

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That is a different situation though. At the time there weren't millions of people flooding your state's unemployment system. So they were able to validate your case and get you the help you needed at the time.

The problem with Covid19 is that states were so overwhelmed they started to just send money to anyone that applied, and that information quickly got around. So, now you have people filing fraudulent claims at a high rate. I can't speak for other states, but I know Texas has a lot of fraud right now. There are people that will literally tell you to your face they are not looking for employment because they are happy with the unemployment they are getting by sitting at home. The jobs are there, they just refuse to apply for it.

Then there are other cases of fraud. My sister, who has been working the entire pandemic as a nurse, received an unemployment letter in the mail, and she was never on unemployment. So someone filed in her name. The whole thing is a cluster fuck.
It will be harder to cheat the system as the numbers go down. It’s hard to hide in the crowd once it starts to disperse. Plus, there is a maximum amount of time you can receive the benefits, and now that the pandemic exceptions are gone, that will be kicking in soon. I have a feeling the situation will resolve itself soon.

As for it being a mess, that also badly hurt a number of people who rightly needed the benefits when this all began. Most unemployment offices aren’t set up to handle a massive amount of claims at once. I listened to a story on the radio about people waiting months for their benefits because the local unemployment offices simply couldn’t keep up.

The systems need to be improved. Hopefully they learned something from this experience.
 

Scepticalscribe

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Yeah I'm sure it depends on your area, here in California now that restaurants are back open they simply cannot staff up because they're unable to hire enough people, so most are having to limit their service as a result. Even Home Depot and Lowe's are having a hard time, they've been holding open job fairs advertising higher wages and same day hiring. It's crazy right here right now.

I am willing to wager that if they - restaurants - paid people properly and treated them with respect that they would not have much difficulty finding staff.

From what I can see, the labour/employment model that is currently under threat is that appalling one whereby many businesses thought that they could get away with offering minimum wage (or, marginally above minimum wage) jobs, and the pandemic has put paid to that.

I'm European, not American, and I see nothing wrong with paying (let us imagine) restaurant staff a proper living wage, not just a minimum wage, (or expecting them to live on or off tips), and, if a business cannot afford to do that, then, perhaps, it should not be in business.
 
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MEJHarrison

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That is a different situation though. At the time there weren't millions of people flooding your state's unemployment system. So they were able to validate your case and get you the help you needed at the time.

Fair enough. I think I read that wrong. Still, even in good times, when you loose a good paying job, it really sucks when someone "solves your problems" by pointing out that McDonald's is hiring!

As for the people taking advantage of the system, I'm sure that's just a way of life. Some people have no problem going from one scam to the next. And I'm ok with it. It sucks. But it's not like they driving fancy sports cars around with the money they've scammed because only a select few probably have the intelligence to turn it into a good living. Too many good people did good things this past year to get too hung up on bottom-of-the-barrel people. They'll always be there and will never go away, so I choose to ignore them.
 

SuperMatt

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Fair enough. I think I read that wrong. Still, even in good times, when you loose a good paying job, it really sucks when someone "solves your problems" by pointing out that McDonald's is hiring!

As for the people taking advantage of the system, I'm sure that's just a way of life. Some people have no problem going from one scam to the next. And I'm ok with it. It sucks. But it's not like they driving fancy sports cars around with the money they've scammed because only a select few probably have the intelligence to turn it into a good living. Too many good people did good things this past year to get too hung up on bottom-of-the-barrel people. They'll always be there and will never go away, so I choose to ignore them.
It is frustrating when you are struggling to get by and you see people working the system. I was talking to some older immigrants who came to the US in the 1980s. They saw people getting the best house in the neighborhood because they were on welfare and had lots of kids and got it through a government program. Meanwhile, they were working their butts off, barely getting by, and making just barely enough that they weren't eligible for a lot of handouts. Their overall assessment is that if you’re really poor, America is great because they will take care of you. If you’re really rich, America is great because the government doesn’t take your money away. If you’re in the middle class, it’s not that great.

Again, that is their perspective immigrating from a communist country. They do admit the middle class here is still a pretty decent life.
 

Eric

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I get the political side of this but it still doesn't justify paying these perfectly capable people to stay at home now that they can work again. At first it was justified and understandable. We all want to go out and eat and it's sad to see these small businesses suffering like this through no fault of their own and I don't want my tax dollars paying for that any more than I do padding the pockets of billionaires.
 

SuperMatt

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I get the political side of this but it still doesn't justify paying these perfectly capable people to stay at home now that they can work again. At first it was justified and understandable. We all want to go out and eat and it's sad to see these small businesses suffering like this through no fault of their own and I don't want my tax dollars paying for that any more than I do padding the pockets of billionaires.
Is that happening? What states is it happening in?
 

Eric

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Is that happening? What states is it happening in?
Yes, I'm not sure about other states but it's definitely still happening in Oregon and Washington. In many cases people are being paid more to stay home than to go back to work and it's the main reason for the employee shortage. It's all over the news here as well but I can't speak about other areas of the country.
 

Joe

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Yes, I'm not sure about other states but it's definitely still happening in Oregon and Washington. In many cases people are being paid more to stay home than to go back to work and it's the main reason for the employee shortage. It's all over the news here as well but I can't speak about other areas of the country.

Same in Texas
 
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