A lot of companies are not receiving applicants. Jeff Aznavorian, the company owner of a metal company in Detroit, is surprised because there should be a lot of people looking for jobs in Detroit. Or so he thought because Michigan's unemployment rate is up to 8.7%. Some believe companies are experiencing these hiring troubles because of the $600 per week benefits for being unemployed. Households are using this money to pay rent, buy groceries, and other things that would be harder to pay for if they had a job.
Do you think the unemployment benefits are discouraging people from searching for a job?
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/10/business/economy/unemployment-benefits-hiring.html
I think that the high unemployment benefits could be keeping people content with buying their needs. I think that it is also possible that a lot of the people unemployed are high skilled workers who do not want to be under employed working a low skilled job.
ReplyDeleteI feel that a lot of people are not applying for jobs because of the impact the unemployment checks are making. Some people are making more money by either working reduced hours or not working at all. I know in my experience, many of my friends took reduced hours at work to receive unemployment. They are making more with the unemployment combined with reduced hours than working full-time.
ReplyDeletePeople may not be applying for jobs because they are still concerned with the coronavirus and their safety. They may have kids in school where the kid may be completely online, or in person, or hybrid, or any number of school systems being done that is making it difficult to go back to work. Or as Ethan mentioned, they may not want to be under employed by working a low skilled job. I could go on with scenarios, but the point I want to make, is that receiving the high unemployment benefits may have let people sit back and wait to go back to work until they felt the time was right. This is not the case for everyone, but I believe it has helped drag out the high unemployment because people are unsure what the future holds. Now that the benefits have been lowered, I wonder what unemployment will look like, if it will give people a push to return to work or not.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the high unemployment benefits are playing a role in people not wanting to search for jobs; but, I also think there are a lot of other factors. Some people may be or live with someone who is high risk and the possibility of passing coronavirus could be a big deterrent for finding a job. Also due to great deals of uncertainty people who have children may not be able to go to work due to online or the possibility that they move to online learning. While all of these are valid reasons, the ability to make more money by not working as opposed to getting a full time job is very appealing. As benefits begin to go back to normal it will be interesting to see the shift in unemployment rates if fear of the coronavirus continues.
ReplyDeleteI think the benefits do deter the workers. People will take the extra money as long as they can get it. Some people do have valid reasons to still be unemployed but others not so much. Is it the fact that there are no jobs where these people are looking or are they unqualified? Are there specific industries that are hiring or are people just being more picky? I think when all the benefits stop it will be interesting to see what happens with the rates or if workers become discouraged.
ReplyDeleteYes, I think that when unemployment benefits are too high it can deter unemployed people from searching for work. Ethan made a good point about high skilled workers not wanting to take a lower skilled job. There's a chance high paid individuals were fired during the pandemic and now there are very few companies willing to pay high salaries.
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