WBJ Editor Brad Kane
Updated: June 7, 2021
Letter from the Editor
Don’t blame the extra $300 unemployment
Wow. Just wow. In less than a year, employers went from holding hands with their employees saying, “We’re all in this together,” even as companies were laying off their workers begging them to understand, to now employers saying, “People are just lazy and entitled.”
Companies want to ramp up their operations by hiring more workers, but are having a hard time finding the right people. While multiple factors to blame, the overwhelming sentiment in the business community is the extra $300 in weekly unemployment benefits is the cause.
This narrative has two villains: Big bad government providing too much money for people to do nothing, and the workers, who would rather sit around than provide meaningful benefit to society. As Jeffrey Turgeon, executive director of the MassHire Central Region Workforce Board, points out in the “Workers needed” story from the June 7 edition, this characterization is overblown, but the narrative from persists.
Frankly, this finger-pointing is so insulting, it borders on enraging. Nevermind the countless reasons for the labor mismatch: parents have to care for children, a job might require skills a potential employee doesn’t have, the pay is too low compared to a worker's previous job, Massachusetts is still in a state of emergency. Nope, it took all of about two weeks for employers to say, “Laziness and big government are ruining businesses.”
Can’t we all just remember that initial phase of the pandemic when everyone was frightened and confused, but understanding of the difficult positions businesses and employees were in? Businesses ended up getting $800 billion in Paycheck Protection Program money to stay afloat. Laid-off workers got an extra $600 per week, initially to encourage them to stay at home, and then $300 per week as they were caught in a freefalling economy with unemployment nearing Great Depression levels. We were all understanding a year ago; we can be understanding now.
People aren’t inherently lazy. Sometimes, a $15-per-hour job is the perfect fit, while other times a full-time job whose annual earnings are only $5,000 off the federal poverty level for a family of four is untenable. As businesses struggle to find workers, they need to remember the struggle isn’t necessarily over for everyone.
– Brad Kane, editor
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