The Jobs Report is… Disappointing…

The new jobs report has been ‘disappointing’ to those foolish enough to listen to the predictions of people like former Harvard president Laurence Summers, who has never been right, and the rosy projections of those who are looking at vaccination rates, ‘opening up’ stories, and crunching numbers to make the dreams of Summers come true.

The jobs numbers weren’t much of a surprise to me.

Because I’m a genius, who knows more that the most Harvard of Harvard economists, right?

No, I’m just a schmuck with a Macbook Pro and a lot of friends in an industry that has been utterly devastated by this virus, and who sees on social media people looking for vaccination appointments like people looking golden Wonka tickets. All this talk of ‘turning corners’ and ‘what to do after the pandemic’ is lost on many people, the ones with compromised immune systems, who look at the numbers starting to spike again, at the 5,000 reported deaths last week, 50,000 new cases reported in one day. Those cases/deaths are the ones we know about.

The University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation put out a new study, estimating that more than 900,000 Americans have died of COVID-19 in the US country a little more than a year ago. Uncounted deaths make up the difference between what organizations like the CDC have been reporting and what is more likely reality, with the rate of excess deaths in the country, with more than 7 million worldwide.

About that jobs report with the ‘disappointing’ numbers.

Well. A few thoughts here.

Yeah, I seen the shaming signs posted on businesses, those that say ‘Sorry! We can’t give you the service you deserve, oh dear customer, because lazy, lazy people refuse to work. They’d rather sit on their lazy, lazy butts than serve you, so we can’t open/serve/assist you. Blame them. Thank you, The Management’.

Clueless, cruel and not true.

Everyone I know wants to work, wants to see friends, co-workers, bullshit about nonsense, are dying to be fully busy, relied on, part of something bigger than debating what is the best thing on Netflix at the moment.

Here’s the thing for people who say that something like ‘unemployment is disincentivizing people from working’, slapping workers with that favorite word; ‘lazy’. No. ‘High’ unemployment (sorry, never very high) is not the problem, low wages are the problem. You work a job that pays 300 a week, while unemployment pays 400. The problem is not the 400, it’s the 300.

People are afraid of dying. They don’t want to take jobs that will pay poorly for the chance to be stuffed back into an office or workspace so they can work for crap wages and win a chance to catch a still unstopped virus and die. Why would anyone want to do that?

This pandemic has forced many to finally raise their head, look around and say ‘Jesus, what am I doing? I’ve only one life and I’m wasting it here!” Post-pandemic thinking and working is changing, and we’re not even out of it yet. Many things will have to change to meet that thinking, those new/old needs.

Employers loved it when they had the power of the market, now workers are taking it back. So, you get a ton of clueless ‘think’ pieces, and Republicans threatening workers with ‘take these jobs or else’ rules. They act like angry parents with a teenager defiantly refusing to clean up their room: “Take your chance on dying doing this low-paying job we’ll give you something to cry about.”

We already have something to cry about, the world does.

There was a clueless OpEd in the Washington Post this week from the publisher of the Washingtonian, that was read (rightly I think) by the staff as a threat to those who wanted to avoid going back to an office that could easily be a source of spreading the virus. Here they are, working hard to keep the publication on track, working remotely and taking pay cuts and cutbacks only to have the boss hit them with a ‘gee, you know, if you’re not at the office, you might just ‘miss out’, you know, stuff might happen, it might hurt your career…’ essay in a prominent publication where they were all sure to read it.

They staged a virtual walkout. Rightly so.

She apologized. In her defense, the magazine has since rescinded many of the cutbacks and are hiring again (the freelancer budget has been decimated, but there ya go). But this sort of ‘on high’ thinking pervades the ‘lazy workers’ debate, the latest job numbers report is just bubbling it to the surface.

That very jobs report gives a good clue, or should to many business owners about a worker shortage. The report shows the gains made have been mostly among men. By the way of thinking being shown, women must not want to work! No, it’s the pandemic again. Kids not in schools must be cared for and the burden of the child care falls unfairly on women, of course. Which is why Biden considers childcare and eldercare part of infrastructure, because it is. Want people to work, give them child care and help them take care of their elderly. Obvious to anyone caring to look and think. But I digress.

What’s the solution?

Pay them. You want workers? Pay them. I don’t see how this is some mystery. If your business model relies on not paying your workers a wage they can actually live on, you don’t have a business, you have a government-subsidized plantation (because your workers will likely need food stamps and other government help. It’s the business model for Walmart). In an equitable society, this would not be tolerated.

Respect the people doing the work, not just with, say, a table of snacks or something, but respect the loss and fear this trial has infected us all with. I guess I’m saying here ‘empathize’. Shouldn’t be hard, most of us have been though this horrible year, but some of us have had different experiences with it. People are scared, people are angry and people want to be paid a fair wage, these are not mutually exclusive. Again, wages are supposed to be higher than unemployment and business should value their workers and not subject them to possible death to make a buck. That should not be too much to ask.

You want your workers back, ask why they might not want to come back and work from there. Listen to the questions you’re asking and the responses you’re getting. No one is responding to your ad? You’re wrong, silence is a response.

Pay more, treat workers better, improve the working conditions, share power and wealth with the people doing the actual work. No, that’s not ‘socialism’, it’s decency.

Remember we’re all human beings, here for a short time. Don’t try to make others miserable.

Originally published at https://www.tomtalkspolitics.com on May 9, 2021.