Are The Jobs Gone Forever?
In my previous post, I linked to a Tyler Cowen post that quoted Betsey Stevenson:
The problem is that old jobs are long gone for the vast majority of those who remain unemployed.
In a narrow technical sense that may be true. But according to Yahoo, this is also true:
More signs of labor shortages emerged, with employers scrambling to find qualified workers to fill positions and meet surging demand during the post-pandemic recovery. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that job openings soared to a record more than 9 million in April. And a separate new sentiment survey showed a record 48% of small businesses reported that they had unfilled job openings last month.
Meanwhile, the BLS says workers are suddenly quitting their jobs at record rates.
And yet unemployment is still 5.8%, far higher than in 2019. This is a really weird labor market.
PS. I wonder if the quit rate is linked to recent reports of some companies offering considerably higher wages? Workers may be shifting from one job to another. If so, the wage increases may spread.
PPS. Today, I’m even more skeptical of UBI than I was last year.
PPPS. I recently spoke with a college student who within the past 5 weeks received $3800 in stimulus checks. Summer job? Not this year.