Crane's Corner: 8-31-21 Pandemic Profit Plundering

Crane's Corner

America’s collective work ethic is being put to the test--and so far, we’re grading around a D and an F isn’t out of the realm of possibility. Thanks to our government--federal and state government, America has replaced the word “enterprise” with “entitlement”. Once upon a time, a walk through a suburban business district might offer an occasional “help wanted” sign. Now, it’s a rare business that isn’t looking for help and putting the need on display. Nugget is hiring, So is Costco. CVS wants to give you a job. DoorDash needs delivery drivers, Uber needs ride share contractors. Amazon claims it has jobs for those who have got used to working at home. The giant retailer says in some cases, they’ll allow it. The wanted signs, the “we're hiring” banners seem to be everywhere. But the online recruiters, your INDEED.COM’s and Glassdoors and Zip Recruiters are brimming with digital opportunities. They’re looking for doctors and CEO’s, drivers and technicians.
Recently American Airlines during a day of summer thunderstorms had to cancel hundreds of flights. Weather was just partly to blame. The carrier which cut cockpit crews when CO CID infected the travel industry, learned the hard way it didn’t have sufficient pilots to fly it’s schedule when delays cut into the maximum number of hours the FAA allows pilots to guard against the kind of fatigue that could lead to an in flight mistake. The Airline had to cancel hundreds of flights and residual delays impacted the airline’s schedule for a few days after the weather improved. American’s bean counters are still trying to figure out the economic balance between bringing all those furloughed pilots back or be faced with the task of grounding them again as the Co Vid variants are infecting more people, in some cases even if they’ve been previously vaccinated.

Restaurants which went into a Co Vid recession early are trying to come out of it, but labor shortages are forcing many to cut back business hours, or as a last resort, raise their prices to stay open. Last week, seeking a mid afternoon meal, I stopped by a restaurant I’d heard good things about. The goods did not include the sign that left me hungry. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays until further notice. Resume.com has been trying to figure the trend out. 22 percent of workers were previously laid off and either found another job or tapped into generous Pandemic relief payments, which made their unemployment payment higher than anything they could make waiting tables or cooking retail cuisine. 31 percent say a fear of contracting the virus is keeping them home, and to resume.com’s dismay another 22 percent are taking early retirement, either too intimidated to polish up their resume or convinced that able bodied workers in their early 50’s aren’t very marketable in this tech driven world. Others say child care expenses and 4 dollar a gallon gas are keeping them home. There are exceptions to the rule, but labor experts say Millenials, having a mid life crisis before mid life, are checking out and pocketing pandemic relief dough while they figure out their next move.

Unless Washington cranks up the currency printers, The gravy train goes out of service September 4th. The federal dollars to support state pandemic relief payments will stop flowing. By Halloween or maybe Thanksgiving the out of work but doing fine crowd will morph into the out of work and out of options crowd. Even the 20 percent planning to open their own business should stock up on Rolaids. Between the worker shortage, the online shopping habits we’ve all acquired and yes--the chance of another virus related shutdowns any new small business will inherit big problems. The jobless rate--less than 4 percent pre covid is close to 5 and a half percent now but falling. That's about the same jobless rate as the chinese report, even with a worker pool of close to a billion people...more at www.edcranescorner.com/blog-page/