Thinking about things....

Eeenteresting:  Mass.Guv is sending in the National Guard to serve as school bus drivers.  Seems the company who does the busing contract can't hire enough people to get the students to school.

This presents soooo many questions, but the heart of the matter is one I've been pondering for quite a while.   Labor shortage.

We have any number of shortages on many fronts, but underlying all of them is a lack of people willing to work for what companies are offering to pay. Companies large and small.

Why?  What changed?

Yeah, I get it.  The Pandemic!  AHHHH!!@!!@!@

But seriously, what is the reality here?   January of 2020 we had low unemployment numbers, but people wanted to work and jobs were being filled.   Then March of 2020 came, and we all know what happened the rest of the year.

Fast forward to March of 2021. We have a new president who is... well..... what he is.   We had a lot of business's flat out crushed by the states government's reaction to pandemic conditions.  Unemployment numbers had skyrocketed because business's were closing and state governments were not allowing people to work.  Then, late in 2020, the politics had changed and now business were allowed to exist again.

I thought the number of business failures would mean we'd lost a LOT of jobs, and it would be a while till they came back... if they came back at all.  I thought real unemployment would stay fairly high a while, as people sought jobs that no longer existed.

Huh.... wrong I was.  Companies bounced back with a will.  Lot's a small business's went under, but lot's were started on the rebound.  People that wanted jobs got jobs.

Here is where it all went wonky, as far as I can see.  A lot of people don't want those jobs anymore.  I'll say that again:  A lot of people don't want to work those jobs anymore.

It's become a sellers market for employees.  Compensation offers are rising, hiring bonuses are being offered, and current employees are swapping jobs in order to get better packages.  Despite this churning and upheaval of the old compensation paradigm, employers are simply not getting people in the door.

The people who want to work are working, and they are swapping upwards as fast as possible.... leaving many, many low value and low skill jobs left wanting.  I am unaware of a single restaurant without a 'help wanted' sign.  Not....Even....One.  I'm not dragging on waitresses and line cooks; They are tough jobs.... but people are staying away in droves.

Why? Is it fear of all the viruses?  Is that fear trumping peoples need to earn money for rent and food?

Is it unemployment benefits?  Are people riding them out, figuring even of they don't match a paycheck it's still better that working a crap job for an uncaring and abusive employer?

Did many people check out during the pandemic and smoke themselves into an inability to pass a drug test?

Is it possible the people who were tossed out of their jobs on government whim have decided to use the break to do better for themselves?

In my industry, promised 'Hiring Bonuses' were generally regarded as smoke and mirrors by employees since most companies found ways not to pay them.  Are other people figuring out the scam now too?

Is it all of the above and more?

I suspect this is one of those complicated social movements that will never be accurately pinned down.  The kind of thing where books are written, courses are taught, and careers are created from vapor.