Are You Working?                    #192         

By Hank Silverberg  

Are you working?  The jobless rate dropped to 4.8% in September, with payroll employment increasing by 194,000 jobs. Hourly earnings were up just 0.04%.

You hear these statistics all the time, but they don't always tell the whole story. 

For example, I'm not included in those statistics because technically I am retired, even though I am back in the classroom, and like my students, wearing a mandatory mask and teaching Communications at Northern Virginia Community College again. It's a part time "retirement job" as they say, because very few people can really afford to completely retire these days.  

Millions of others are working out of necessity and not choice, in what is called the "gig" economy where they take a series of temporary jobs and often have periods where they have no work at all. 

The Bureau of Labor Statistics keeps track of all this, but the numbers don't give the full picture. 

Current Employment Statistics - CES (National) : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (bls.gov)

We are of course, still in the grips of a pandemic which eliminated millions of jobs or has increased the health risk for many people who never stopped working.  

Yet there is a labor shortage. You will see the "We're Hiring" signs almost anywhere these days, as businesses large and small struggle to re-open or stay open. 

Conservatives have argued that the current labor shortage is tied to the extra $300 a week in benefits  that the 8 million unemployed people had been getting during the pandemic. That ENDED on Labor Day, and they say people will now be forced to go back to work.  Well, so far that hasn't happened, and it probably won't because many people really want to go back if there's a job they are qualified for.  

I am not a trained economist, but it's pretty clear the depth of the current employment outlook is more than just the number of people out of work and the number of jobs open. 

Just take a look at two major professions.  There has been a nursing shortage for years, and the pandemic has made it worse. If you are a nurse there are lots of jobs out there for you. But the stress levels of nursing have gone up because of the pandemic, and many who have been working are frankly burning out and leaving. Why some of those workers in health care won't get the vaccine is extremely hard to understand but will leave that discussion for a later blog. If you  are called to nursing, a noble profession, and decide to become one, that's admirable, but it could take several years and a college degree to get there.  

It looks like there are a lot of jobs in nursing, but that is not going to help someone who used to be a waiter or a salesman or a construction worker who was laid off during the pandemic. 

Another area where there are lots of jobs open but few takers are drivers of long-haul rigs and school buses. We have all heard about shortages at the supermarket or the car dealership because there are not enough truck drivers to get the goods from the docks or factories to consumers. And school districts have been forced to double up driver's routes or beg parents to transport their own children to school because of the bus driver shortage. 

In both cases, special behind-the-wheel training, a clean driving record and other skills are needed. The pay is not great for either job and the working conditions are not attractive for many people. 

Statistically these are "open" jobs, but no one is running to fill them. 

How do we solve this?  First, no more nonsense about the need for a vaccine. We will never get rid of COVID-19 until much of the WORLD population is vaccinated--and I mean in the 95% range. That's priority number one. 

At the same time there needs to be more retraining available for adults who were displaced when their job disappeared so that they can fill the jobs that are open. That needs to start now.  It needs to be a joint government- private industry effort with the government providing the financial incentive for the industries seeking workers to provide on-the-job training for open spots. And corporations need to stop nickel and diming their workforce. If your company wants good employees who will stay for a while and perform well, then you must provide good pay,  more opportunity for in-company promotion with pay increases and a good working environment.  And yes, that can exist even if your company has now adapted to function with a remote workforce. People will take jobs faster and keep them longer if they don't have to re-locate. 

For several decades the trend in industry has been pro-company and anti-workforce. Labor unions are part of the problem. Traditionally they spend all of their time trying to preserve existing jobs that may be outdated instead of looking ahead to what training their members need to get those open jobs and keep working. Maybe turning those trends around can be a positive result of the pandemic. 

Mars Lake?

Life on Mars? It's been a question for centuries that has gained potential since a NASA rover landed there earlier this year. Now, the team behind NASA's Perseverance spacecraft say they may have evidence of ancient Martian life. 

Images of sediment taken by the Mars Rover from 

(The photo from the landing in  February, Courtesy of NASA)

a large ancient river bed inside the Jezero Crater  has what appears to be signs of significant flash floods.  

The photos were taken during the Perseverance landing on February 18. They indicate the now barren river delta had "late-stage flooding events big enough to have carried  large boulders and other debris to the banks of the crater."  In a news release, NASA says there have been long planned missions to visit the delta leading into the crater believing there was a potential that it may contain fossils of ancient microbial life. 

Perseverance rover finds evidence of ancient flash floods on Mars (yahoo.com)  

The study suggests that billions of years ago, Mars had a thick atmosphere that could support large quantities of water. 

Sanjeev Gupta, from the Imperial College in London and co-author of the study, says the findings "could provide insight into why the entire planet dried out" and what happened to the microbes or other possible life.  

NASA now has plans to send a spacecraft to Mars to collect rock samples and bring them back to Earth. 

Dumbest Quote of The Week:

 Another repeat offender in Senator Ron Jonson (R-WI). 

Here's the quote:

"We do not have an approved (COVID) vaccine in America...the Pfizer vaccine available in the U.S. is not approved by the FDA." 

Totally wrong Senator, and anyone who wants to check this out can do so easily on the internet. There is NO excuse for this dumb comment. The Senator was appearing on the Tucker Carlson show on Fox News, one of the biggest purveyors of Fake News in the United States when he made the comment.  

For the record, the Pfizer vaccine was given full approval on August 23rd, 2021, and it had been given emergency approval for its use in December of 2020. It's dumb comments like this from elected politicians and others which continues to drive the anti-vaxx movement and resistance to the vaccine, which in turn prolongs the pandemic.  

(Your suggestions and comments are welcome)

(Copies of my latest book "The Campaign" can be purchased at the links below. Or you can buy a copy by emailing me at:

HankSilverberg@gmail.com
for instructions on how to get a copy at a reduced price and with a signature)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B084Q7K6M5/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-campaign-hank-silverberg/1126429796

•