{"id":839829,"date":"2021-10-02T20:44:17","date_gmt":"2021-10-03T00:44:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=839829"},"modified":"2021-10-02T20:44:20","modified_gmt":"2021-10-03T00:44:20","slug":"on-unemployment-joe-manchin-hit-the-nail-on-the-head","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/on-unemployment-joe-manchin-hit-the-nail-on-the-head\/","title":{"rendered":"On Unemployment, Joe Manchin Hit The Nail On The Head"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fon-unemployment-joe-manchin-hit-the-nail-on-the-head%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=839829&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/95DB96EB-7E6C-4B07-AC3D-64A17143A181-scaled-e1633118702173.jpeg?w=1200&amp;h=800&amp;ixlib=react-9.3.0\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Joe Manchin said it best: \u201cWe have 11 million jobs that we haven\u2019t filled, 8 million people still unemployed. Something\u2019s not matching up here.\u201d The West Virginia senator\u2019s instincts are right. Something in the labor market fundamentally changed during the pandemic. Fewer people seem willing to work.<\/p>\n<p>The National Federation of Independent Business has been conducting a monthly survey of small business owners since 1974. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nfib.com\/foundations\/research-center\/monthly-reports\/jobs-report\/\">August results<\/a> were disconcerting. A 48-year record high \u2014&nbsp;50% \u2014 reported job openings that could not be filled. Of those owners hiring or trying to hire, 91% reported there were few or no \u201cqualified\u201d applicants. A record high 29% reporting no \u2014 zero \u2014 qualified applicants. All this despite a record high 41% reporting that they had increased compensation. As a result, another record high \u2014 28% \u2014 identified labor quality as their top business problem.<\/p>\n<p>So, what\u2019s causing these historically bad results?<\/p>\n<p>Conservatives believe the $300 weekly federal unemployment insurance bonus that expired in September suppressed the labor market. That makes intuitive sense and Goldman Sachs\u2019 economists&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/urldefense.proofpoint.com\/v2\/url?u=https-3A__www.wsj.com_articles_states-2Dthat-2Dcut-2Dunemployment-2Dbenefits-2Dsaw-2Dlimited-2Dimpact-2Don-2Djob-2Dgrowth-2D11630488601&amp;d=DwMFaQ&amp;c=euGZstcaTDllvimEN8b7jXrwqOf-v5A_CdpgnVfiiMM&amp;r=kUUgyyEV2SvFHr5qpgCYmPd_ciwpMjMibMYtrcxM-dMpVcUH7z-wGwjkIwWeefpd&amp;m=VSCovfmONdYUoJuJxR0UdGgqQuL3MVdz_3PU9QV2zIc&amp;s=n5kFtLD56WAD-amwm8tHIEzbPC9avK3SpdFJvsn-rqA&amp;e=\">project<\/a> that ending this program \u201cwill account for 1.5 million job gains through the end of the year.\u201d But even assuming that is true, there were <a href=\"https:\/\/data.bls.gov\/pdq\/SurveyOutputServlet\">5.3 million<\/a> fewer jobs in August than when the pandemic began.<\/p>\n<p>Attempting to explain the dismal August jobs numbers, President Biden <a href=\"https:\/\/www.c-span.org\/video\/?514452-1\/president-biden-delta-variant-blame-august-jobs-report-numbers&amp;live=\">blamed<\/a> the Delta variant. But <a href=\"https:\/\/covid.cdc.gov\/covid-data-tracker\/#vaccinations_vacc-total-admin-rate-total\">77%<\/a> of Americans over 18 have had at least one vaccine shot and 68% have had both. About <a href=\"https:\/\/covid.cdc.gov\/covid-data-tracker\/#vaccination-trends\">700,000<\/a> additional doses are being administered every day. Add in unvaccinated individuals with natural immunity and one <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2021\/09\/12\/the-us-is-nearing-immunity-from-covid-19\/\">analysis<\/a> recently found that roughly 80% of the country already has vaccinated or natural immunity.<\/p>\n<p>Bottom line, neither the virus nor the weekly unemployment bonus fully explain the extent of the current labor shortage. To determine if there were other explanations for the slow return to work, I spoke with 10 business owners in the retail sector that I\u2019ve known for years.<\/p>\n<p>While some mentioned COVID and the federal unemployment bonus as concerns, to a person their primary concern was that people seem to have lost the desire to work following more than a year of government support. Their experiences ranged from literally no one willing to work to prospective employees refusing to take jobs that required working full time, weekends, or evenings.<\/p>\n<p>The business owners were all willing to increase pay to get good employees, but believe they are competing with work-free government largesse \u2013 and losing.<\/p>\n<p>While Americans had $400 billion more in savings in July than when the pandemic began, the Biden administration has increased food stamp benefits by 25% and Democrats now want to make the current <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irs.gov\/newsroom\/irs-monthly-child-tax-credit-payments-begin\">$3,600<\/a> per year tax credit for children under 6 \u2014 and $3,000 for older children \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2021\/07\/14\/dem-lawmakers-call-for-permanent-expansion-of-3000-dollar-child-tax-credit.html\">permanent<\/a> rather than letting it expire next July.<\/p>\n<p>The child tax credit is a good example of the growing government support mentality businesses are up against. The very <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/2016\/08\/welfare-reform-successful-statistics\/\">successful<\/a> 1996 bipartisan welfare reform effort required that a substantial percentage of those receiving welfare work, if they were able bodied. Those reforms were good for employees as well as employers looking to hire. They helped struggling parents find jobs, become financially independent and lift their families out of poverty. The labor market grew.<\/p>\n<p>The child tax credit ignores that success. Expressing concern with the structure \u2014 not the substance \u2014 of making this program permanent, Sen. Manchin complained that \u201c[t]here\u2019s no work requirements whatsoever. There\u2019s no education requirements whatsoever for better skill sets. Don\u2019t you think, if we\u2019re going to help the children, that the [parents] should make some effort?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Manchin got that right as well. But, apparently, encouraging work is not his party\u2019s goal.<\/p>\n<p>We all want to lift children out of poverty. We also want \u2014 and employers want to provide \u2014 good jobs and fulfilling careers. But people struggling financially will never find those jobs if the government seduces them into living off what other people produce rather than realizing their potential, accomplishing financial independence, and experiencing the dignity and self-respect that come with a job.<\/p>\n<p>Government dependence is neither the way out of poverty nor the path back to 2019\u2019s thriving pre-pandemic labor market \u2014 where the labor force and real incomes were growing, family income hit a historic high while poverty hit historic lows both generally and for minorities. As for child poverty, it decreased to 14.4%, the lowest child poverty rate since 1973 \u2014 down from 18% at the end of the Obama\/Biden era. The best family welfare program truly is a job.<\/p>\n<p>So, if encouraging work is not the goal, what is?<\/p>\n<p>Increasingly, Biden and the Democrats are attempting to cobble together the socialists\u2019 dream program \u2014 universal basic income with cradle-to-grave government dependence. That should come as no surprise. As Biden acknowledged in May of 2020, progressives have long viewed the pandemic as an \u201cincredible opportunity\u201d to \u201cfundamentally transform\u201d America. With lackluster jobs numbers, the inability of business owners to find workers and a declining work ethic, we have every reason to take them at their word.<\/p>\n<p><i>The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author\u2019s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>Andy Puzder is the former CEO of CKE Restaurants, a board member of the Job Creators Network, a senior fellow at Pepperdine University\u2019s School of Public Policy, and the author of \u201cThe Capitalist Comeback: The Trump Boom and the Left\u2019s Plot to Stop It.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Joe Manchin said it best: \u201cWe have 11 million jobs that we haven\u2019t filled, 8 million people still unemployed. Something\u2019s not matching up here.\u201d The West Virginia senator\u2019s instincts are &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1891932,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-839829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=839829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1891932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}