Mitch McConnell says labor shortage will end when people run out stimulus money

https://www.businessinsider.com/mitch-mcconnell-labor-shortage-end-people-run-out-stimulus-money-2022-7

by pseudolus • 4 years ago

18 26 4 years ago

That could be true on the low end but it’s probably not true on the high end. Software developers, for example, are currently at less than 1% unemployment. On the high end the labor shortage will not end until high end employees are out of work whether by job termination or employer insolvency. So while unemployment is currently low in software there is tremendous opportunity for employers to operate with substantially fewer people provided the immaturity of candidate selection/retention and poor training of the average practitioner.

Bilal_io• 4 years ago

Not sure I understand what you're getting at. How is this related to what McConnell said? He's talking about the direct payments that were spent the moment people got them. The last payment was $1400, 16 months ago. Thinking that is contributing to unemployment is laughable and a sign of him being completely out of touch.

sharemywin3• 4 years ago

and it certainly wasn't enough to live on. I'm sure it play to his base though.

sharemywin3• 4 years ago

the software developer shortage is simple. there's not a large enough pool of people that enjoy coding and are willing to tolerate the corporate bullshit.

ocdtrekkie3• 4 years ago

We ran out of stimulus money the month we got it, Mitch. Send more. ...Like $1,400 is less than one month of childcare for one kid. Talk about blaming a single drop of rain for the flood.

theandrewbailey• 4 years ago

That's what I'm thinking. Who still has their stimulus money?

Assuming that someone qualified for all 3 checks, they totaled $3,200[0] before accounting for dependents. You're telling me that millions of households have managed to live on ~$150 per month for two years? I'm not buying it.

[0] https://www.pandemicoversight.gov/data-interactive-tools/dat...

pjbeam• 4 years ago

3200 isn't even a month's rent for us..

sharemywin3• 4 years ago

do forget the states like ohio that didn't pay all of it out.

vinyl7• 4 years ago

He's probably talking about the PPP loans that executives took as bonuses.

bitshiftfaced3• 4 years ago

Like $1,400 is less than one month of childcare for one kid.

Say you're married and have 3 kids under 6 and 1 kid over 6. With the fully refundable child tax credit, in 2021 your household would automatically receive 1400 x 2 + 3600 x 3 + 3000 = $16,600. That's more then 10% of Americans make a year at their jobs. That's not including any other benefits such as unemployment and food stamps, which you'd certainly be eligible for if you didn't have a job in 2021.

ocdtrekkie3• 4 years ago

So... this is pretty hilarious.

First of all, you picked an arbitrary four kids to pad out your numbers, but... if each kid costs $1,500 plus a month for childcare, it'd cost $6,000 a month, or $72,000 just for childcare. I get a few thousand of that back as a tax writeoff, but... it's not going to break even. So thanks for the $16,600... by your math I'm still over $50,000 in the hole. I make plenty more than $50k a year, but there's also, you know, rent... food... did you know the cost of natural gas has tripled this year? In the winter it's $400 a month to stave off hypothermia.

Second, the child tax credit is... not free money. It's a credit on my taxes, and it's also not new. The only thing that really changed with the child tax credit is that the government allows you to collect it monthly instead of all at once during tax season. Which really just changes the formula between getting a big refund and getting tiny chunks of refund throughout the year. And bear in mind, you have to be bringing in that much taxable income in the first place to actually get anything back.

I'm guessing you don't have kids, or you'd have some idea how the math works out on these. But having kids is... not affordable... in the current economy, even if you're making a solid non-Silicon Valley tech salary. The idea that anyone would pay $70 to fill their gas tank, to spend nearly $100 a day on childcare, to do some restaurant job paying $10 an hour is absolutely laughable.

rbreaves• 4 years ago

That’s funny lol. As if any person hard up on cash would likely still have any of it. Thing is anyone likely to be thrown out on the streets aren’t sitting around waiting for the last stimulus nickle to run dry or it’s already gone & they're borrowing money already.

I’m sure if you want a clear picture of how people are doing you’d just need to talk to loan sharks & listen to families having to loan out money to their adult kids to keep them afloat.

lkxijlewlf3• 4 years ago

He's not stupid. That man is very shrewd. He's playing to his base's paranoid, hateful beliefs.

the_third_wave3• 4 years ago

his base's paranoid, hateful beliefs.

Who do you consider to be his base and what are those paranoid, hateful beliefs they have? If by "his base" you mean "Republicans" I'd consider that to be an example of paranoid, hateful belief.

EddieDante3• 4 years ago

It's not paranoid if they're really out to get you, and sometimes hate is justified. If Republicans want to know why they're hated they should start with a mirror.

frankbreetz• 4 years ago

>Americans built up a huge amount of savings during the pandemic, thanks to several federal rescue packages.

Perhaps Americans built up a huge amount of savings because the weren't allowed to leave their house to spend money on things they normally do.

ladyattis• 4 years ago

I think some folks have their head in the sand with regard to the demographic shift that's happened. First, you finally got some of the younger boomers retiring on time or a bit early. They're flush with cash due to having stuck around with their 401ks and paid off their mortgages. This demographic won't be coming back in sufficient numbers to the work force. Second, the shut downs have forced people to find work where they could as for many their bills didn't pause during that time (barring the rent moratoriums), so folks either started up businesses, side gigs, or whatever they could to pay those bills. Third, many people took the opportunity that the enhanced unemployment benefits offered them to go into more stable industries. I'm sure many code bootcamps saw a marked increase in students. Fourth, some jobs were reshored in the US to tackle the supply chain issue which probably added more jobs than expected. So ultimately, this isn't a one facet problem, it's a multi-faceted problem that comes down to there being fewer people to replace the ones that left the economy (boomers) and this is going to be the new normal for at least a decade I'm guessing. The fact that right wingers refuse to acknowledge this in the US is just... weird. Absolutely weird.

Mitch McConnell says labor shortage will end when people run out stimulus money

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