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June 2021 #13263 Page #100
Has the American Worker Lost the Desire to Hustle? By Gary Fleisher
Today, thoughts of working on a modular home factory production line isn’t the job many younger Americans want to grow old in. They also do not want to work in many other jobs where “hustle” is a requirement, like restaurants or construction. About 6% of the population or 9.7 million Americans are unemployed and actively looking for work. But many businesses say they are finding hiring extraordinarily hard. Of the small businesses surveyed, 42% said they “had jobs they couldn’t fill,” compared with an average of 22% since 1974. Fear of contracting COVID is clearly part of the problem. But there is also concern that workers have lost the desire to hustle. Instead of returning to their pre-COVID jobs, some workers are telling employers they are “better off unemployed.” I’ve seen that firsthand at one of the restaurants I visit. A couple of their younger (under 40 years old) waitstaff will take time off when a new stimulus check arrives or they see their unemployment checks increase, although their excuse is that they fear catching COVID-19. At the beginning of the pandemic, enhanced unemployment payments made some sense. Now, though, those payments — many months of extensions and a $300 weekly supplement — are keeping workers from taking jobs.
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