I had an old friend who had a very interesting job at a fine museum. His wife worked part time. They lived in a very lovely home and sent their children to a very fancy summer camp in Maine and then very nice liberal arts colleges.
Then I found out that he was an heir to a very nice fortune. Things made a little more sense after that 
Some people believe that your major/career should be something in which you can make good money. Hobbies are for your passions. Others say if you do what you love you will never work a day in your life. That can lead to some starving artists though. Its not easy/simple.
My daugther wants to be an equine vet. Has been told by multiple people that you have to decide if you want to own horses or take care of them because you cannot do both. That is something of an exxageration but there is some truth to it. Equine hospital where she currently has an internship pays residents (people with DVM degree–8 years of college) $25,000/year. And its not a 9-5 job.
Warren Buffet said something about that. He said you are passionate about something doesn’t mean you will make money from it. The same you work hard at something and you may not make any money.
https://twitter.com/jdickerson/status/1394996835270467584
Another article about how to prevent worker shortages, shockingly it has to do with raising wages…
Bank of America said yesterday it will raise its starting wage to $25/hour by 2025.
Big retailers started paying more way before now.
Is that for entry level employees? Will be interesting to see if that actually has a ripple effect up the wage chain or just causes salary compression.
I like seeing companies raising wages on their own TBH. If enough do, others will either join in or get only the employees who can’t find employment elsewhere. Often IME those aren’t the cream of the crop. (There are always exceptions of course.)
There’s an article in today’s Washington Post about how the pandemic is speeding up the push for automation. Among vulnerable occupations are food service and customer service. When I can get a human being on the phone for customer service or reservations, my opinion of that company goes way up. I am really tired of pushing buttons and hearing computer voices.
BoA is saying it will have a minimum wage of $25/hr in 2025. And all of its vendors will be required to have $15/hr minum wage.
My local branch of my bank has been closed since the first COVID lockdown. It has not reopened. I have a safe deposit box at this location. Whenever one needs to access the SD box one needs to make an appointment. Today I asked the acid question ‘are you simply running out the lease with no intention of reopening’? Answer…we are trying to reopen. Had a forced hiring freeze since the department which runs background checks was not in operation for many months. That changed recently. Now they can not seem to find interested people - because the unemployment benefits are to lucrative. Not my words, word of the branch manager…
Will be interesting to see what happens in the states that are cutting off the enhanced unemployment payments from the fed. And unless Congress extends them all enhanced payments phase out the end of September. I also wonder if some employers are biding their time until the enhanced payments end?
An easy answer to a complex situation. I understand people want an easy, simple answer.
We will see, unemployment rules are changing. It will be interesting to see if it changes our employment crunch.
My husband’s division is trying to hire people. It’s a very good paying job with great benefits and no shortage of applicants. There’s a backlog of vetting the applicants and so the process has been stuck for over a month.
Is this because people are making too much on unemployment? No but there is a hitch farther up the line.
Just a small example of how hard it is to staff.
Is it possible to quantify what proportion of the scarcity of people willing to work the jobs on offer is due to enhanced unemployment? Or is it conjecture?
Today, my daughter got her first job related to her field. It’s part time at our museum of art. She will assist in putting up and taking down art exhibits. She will also work on lighting the art and doing some restoration. She’s very encouraged that she got the position so quickly after beginning to look for work. It means she will continue us to live near us for awhile, yay!
There are anecdotes. The benefit amounts to $15/hr. To make it worthwhile an employer has to pay more than that to cover transportation, etc. One guy said to come out even he needs to be paid $25. Not sure small businesses can pay that much. It is too big a jump. They probably can’t pass it on to customers or absorb the excessive cost. Larger companies probably can.
Cedar Point, seasonal amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio, is paying $20/hr this season. They paid $10/hr last season.
Here’s A study about childcare and return to work. How do you link the source? For some reason, I can’t.
“School closures and lack of child care are not holding back the recovery,” said Jason Furman, a Harvard professor who chaired the Council of Economic Advisers in the Obama administration and co-authored the analysis. “And conversely, we shouldn’t expect a short-term economic bump from reopening schools and making child care more available.”
“There’s every reason to do this,” said Abigail Wozniak, a labor economist at the Minneapolis Fed, referring to investments in child care. “But I do think it’s important to be clear-eyed about what we will get out of it. And those really kind of simple statistics about, this just isn’t a very large share of our current workforce, suggests that we’re unlikely to get a massive boost in labor force participation and employment out of this alone.”
This might be the article?
Also will be interesting to see whether employment numbers are affected in any of these states in the coming months.
In Jackson Hole, Wyoming, tourism is up but service in restaurants is reported to be slow and bad. Restaurants can’t find enough workers. Wyoming is one of the states dropping the extra benefits but I imagine workers used to come for summer jobs from other states and as long as they are still getting the extra benefits, there is no need to go to Jackson or other summer job locations to work.
