Off message this week: Secretary of Labor Marcia Hultman, who tells South Dakota News Watch that pandemic unemployment benefits are not the primary cause of South Dakota’s labor shortage and that yanking those benefits won’t solve the problem:
Some South Dakota employers and politicians have pointed to the extra federal unemployment benefits provided during the pandemic as a major factor in the worker shortage, but Hultman said that is far from the primary cause.
Labor department data show that fewer than 1,500 people in South Dakota are receiving the extra unemployment benefits.
“Many people think once those federal benefits end, it will solve the issue,” Hultman said. “It’s not going to solve the issue. It’s not the sole contributing factor. The numbers don’t support it” [Danielle Ferguson, “Worker Shortage in South Dakota Could Raise Wages But Deer Economic Growth,” South Dakota News Watch, 2021.06.17].
South Dakota’s chronic worker-recruitment problems—low wages, lack of good housing and community amenities, inferior higher education, uninviting physical and cultural climate—are only being exacerbated by the cultural shift caused by the pandemic, which SDSU economist Joe Santos says has prompted lots of workers to rethink their priorities instead of rushing back to the salt mines:
There are also social and cultural aspects to the shortage. The pandemic was a time of reflection for many workers. Some are shifting careers, leaving current jobs or going back to school. Many either chose to or were forced to lead a different lifestyle, such as staying at home to care for family members.
A lack of housing or affordable childcare can limit some communities from accepting new workers or prevent some people from returning to work.
“A lot of those features are coming together to create a situation where, clearly in the state and nation, we just don’t see the kind of reattachment to the labor force that we expect to see,” said South Dakota State University economics professor Joe Santos. “A bunch of jobs are now open and a bunch of people are waiting to get jobs, but the matchmaking has not occurred” [Ferguson, 2021.06.17].
That mass rethink is getting press as “The Great Resignation” and “The Big Quit.” Driving that phenomenon are workers who have dealt with over a year of anxiety and hard decision-making—Can I keep my job? Will my family get coronavirus if I keep going to the office? Should I send my kids to school or try teaching them at home?—and now expect some payback for their sacrifices:
Despite employers touting the wellbeing of their employees as a top priority in the midst of a once-in-a-lifetime health crisis, many workers continue to suffer. In a recent study, the HR platform BambooHR found that 78% of remote workers believe their career development has been negatively affected over the past year, while the average employee in the U.S. estimates they lost out on nearly $10,000 in raises and promotions.
And there are differences in the experiences according to demographics. BambooHR also found that 38% of Black, 37% of Asian and 33% of Hispanic remote workers who felt burned out in the last year said it was due to juggling responsibilities outside their job descriptions, versus 22% of white employees. While 61% of Gen Z and millennial employees say they’ve had to put in more effort to prove their worth, compared to 44% of Gen Xers and 43% of Boomers.
It’s a global phenomenon. A study by Workplace from Facebook found that workers in the U.K. are demanding a new style of leadership from their bosses and 58% are willing to leave their jobs if they don’t get the empathy they feel they deserve. And 69% of the 1,330 people polled said company leadership is key to their personal wellbeing and happiness at work [Tony Case, “The Big Quit: Employee Burnout and a Robust Job Market Have Workers Eyeing Greener Pastures,” Digiday, 2021.06.14].
Resignation rates plummeted during the pandemic as workers “sheltered in place”, figuring that amidst all the other mortal uncertainty, they were better off keeping their paychecks coming rather than going job-hunting in Covid-Land. Now with vaccines and competent federal leadership, workers feel safer acting on their desire to seek better employment.
South Dakotans’ pandemic experience may incline them to join The Great Resignation even more passionately. A lot of employers in this state felt political and cultural pressure not to cross the Governor by implementing strong pandemic-prevention measures. They went easy on employees who took the Kristi Noem line on resisting masks and poo-pooing science, leaving pandemic-conscientious employees uncomfortable. Like the Governor, those Noem-leaning employers sent the signal that their workers’ lives were less important than the employers’ profits. Many South Dakota workers may be yahoo-fine with that attitude, but a lot of workers aren’t. Those conscientious workers will remember their own sacrifices—skipping weddings and funerals, canceling vacations, not eating out, going to the grocery store only once a week, always wearing a mask outside the house—and they will remember the actions of their employers that seemed to disrespect and negate their sacrifices—”recommending” masks but never saying a word to coworkers who refused to mask up or get vaccines when they came out, refusing to allow conscientious workers to go remote and instead forcing them to remain at their desks across from maskless colleagues who continued barhopping and going to ball games every weekend and sharing articles about hydroxychloroquine as a wonder drug or calling the coronavirus fake news.
The careless attitude of some employers during the pandemic, like the cavalier posturing of our Governor, has broken the loyalty some workers felt toward their workplaces. Workers aren’t looking for big unemployment checks; they are looking for employers who care whether they live or die. Even if a majority of South Dakota workers share the Governor’s feeling that coronavirus is no big deal and that staying Open for Business is more important than preventing the spread of a deadly disease, the minority (?) of workers who were trying to do more to protect themselves and their families from this real threat will now head for the exits in greater numbers, leaving South Dakota’s employers facing even greater difficulty in finding good workers.
Thanks, Corey, for the superb analyses.
While anecdotal, the experience of this retired 27 year old furthers the living choices analysis.
Having 2 million can allow for an annual $80k income from 4% dividend payouts – without touching the principle.
People want to own their life.
https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/comments/o2yuy4/officially_retired_at_27/
Very interesting stuff is going on in the labor market. Employees in some fields are actually in the driver’s seat, or out of it, as commuting to the office took a dive during the pandemic. I have friends who got called back to the office after a year of working virtually. They are thinking of quitting, because it turns out, they hate being in the office. One is negotiating for a one day in the office compromise. They were much more comfortable and productive working from home, and can’t understand why they have to be chained to a desk. A couple of friends are looking into freelance work to allow themselves the freedom to work from home. These aren’t all people with kids at home. They are older workers with no kids at all.
Our county government is asking employers to not call workers back to the office, if they can do their work from home. It makes rush hours more bearable for those who have no choice but to commute for work. It cuts down on pollution, too.
Where Liz used to work (an insurance company) before retiring, they were already far down the road to unloading the office. Now the parking lot is nearly empty, but the company still has the same number of employees. Most are working from home.
This morning’s Opening Rant will be delivered by a guest speaker, a prominent businessman here in Rapid City. I am told it is entitled “Get Thyself Back To Work” and is a humorous look at the lazy among us.
My Minnesota employer is offering a $4000 referral award to present employees and a $4000 signing bonus to new employees to try to attract the new workers they need as one part of their business (heavy haul trucking) is expanding.
Me – for the first time since I’ve worked here, have had thought of quitting. Will probably last the Summer season though.
grudz – working smart is not = being lazy.
Grudz thinks from his gut, like most Republicans. You have to feel sorry for them.
I did not write nor deliver this morning’s Conservatives with Common Sense Breakfast Opening Rant, so tone your rage at grudznick down just a notch.
And happy Father’s Day.
The young, productive workers of SD are asking themselves, “Why should I contribute to a state where the majority doesn’t care a hoot about what I’m going through and instead just wants to label me lazy?”
Answer is, “You shouldn’t.”
Take your productive years and raise your children in MN or CO., where you’ll be a vital part of something new, fulfilling, and worthwhile to America.
Let the grudznick negativity fall where it should. On the deaf ears of those with something important to contribute.
The point of forcing employees to go back to an office to work is to justify the need for middle and upper management. That’s why they seem bent on getting workers back in the office. There was an increase in productivity of frontline workers who worked from home. It was found workers don’t need that close of supervision, and companies may not need all that middle management. Companies are finding their greatest waste is at the top, where essentially they get paid huge salaries to be meeting specialists.
Looking forward: The 2020 US Census told us that for the first time since the Census was taken in 1790 the number of folks of working age (20-54) declined. The number of children declined too. Both these changes are amplified in New England, the Midwest and here and there elsewhere in the US. Places like Sioux Falls, with growing numbers (for now) of younger folks are poaching them from other places and still aren’t keeping up with the growth in available jobs. Places like Rapid are growing primarily because empty nesters and retiree are moving there. Much of the rest of the state is losing all ages except the elderly.
Businesses and elected “leaders” in SD can’t tweet or pundit their way out of this reality. Maybe they’ll deal with it with intelligence and grace. Then again, maybe not.
I’ll guarantee that once marijuana businesses get underway, they’ll experience little difficulty hiring workers.
What does that tell you about enjoyable and fulfilling employment opportunities in SoDak?
“Many people think once those federal benefits end, it will solve the issue,” Hultman said. “It’s not going to solve the issue. It’s not the sole contributing factor. The numbers don’t support it”
Yeah, but, it fits magat talking points and generates the most negative buzz, even from the brainless morons on the right that receive this help. Magats simply cannot stop cutting off their noses to spite their faces simply because they can’t/won’t think for themselves.
Housing Co-ops might be a solution to a “lack of affordable housing” in South Dakota. This type of housing, if done correctly, could fit in well with today’s more mobile workforce.
Republicans in general, but MAGA’s more specifically never have needed fact to back up their bumpersticker philosophy. Just as those projections becoming definitively false doesn’t stop them from repeating them (and the dedicated followed still believe). Trickle-down economics, Mexico paying for the wall, elections being stolen . . . Elitism and nativism keep that tribe fueled; even when the supporting masses are NOT part of the elite class, they still chant along and toe the line against their own interests.
Well…I think one thing that’s happening is that older workers, fellas who could retire but prefer to keep on working just to get out of the house, have decided during Covid that home isn’t too bad after all…they’ve made a fortress out of the garage and have their own social circles going and have decided going to work just isn’t worth it. There are fella who just hated the idea of retirement, they were valued employees at work and generally underpaid, so, after experiencing the freedom of retirement they’ve decided to make it permanent. They will be hard to replace.
Two often overlooked cause of SD worker shortage:
1. The majority of the citizens are mean and disrespectful to Mexicans, even if they have fully legal green cards.
2. There’s too much unnecessary drug testing of workers where testing isn’t essential.
It’s done for employer dominance over workers, to hold them down and under the fear of the boss.
Who cares if the burger flipper at Sonic is getting high at night, in his/her home?
Mr. Lansing, all three Sonic restaurants here in Rapid City are clean, and would not let burger flippers be high the day before their shift. If these fellows are home toking the demon weed or getting all wild-eyed on heroin and roaming the neighborhoods, I am quite sure the Sonic would not employ them. Sonic, my good sir, makes up a pretty swell meal and delivers it to your car as if by magic, and I’d say it borders as good of a meal as what you might cook up on a good day.
Well grudz I can assure you that heroin does not precede roaming the neighborhood. The vast majority of the lazy comes from trust fund babies, but you already know that, what else can I enlighten you on? I’ve had a great fathers day by the way, talked to my son for an hour and my daughter was called into work but she sent me a book which I got Saturday on Hilma af Klimt whos abstract painting, huge over 10 ft tall were painted five years before the supposed inventor of abstract painting Kandinsky and the are so much more powerful. She kept them to herself and said that they shouldn’t be shown for 20 years after her death. Its rather amazing, because it also calls into question the marketing of art, but thats another story on capitalism for later.
I appreciate that you are willing to share your knowledge of heroin, Mr. Anderson, its effect on neighborhood roaming.
Glad I could enlighten you grudz.
Instead of a baby boom, perhaps we’ll have a small disruptive business boom.
Note to spell-checher: Hilma af Klint, Swedish. No relation to the Austrian Klimt.
“South Dakota’s chronic worker-recruitment problems—low wages, lack of good housing and community amenities, inferior higher education, uninviting physical and cultural climate—are only being exacerbated by the cultural shift caused by the pandemic.”
South Dakota thinks it can compensate for the above with proper messaging and image peddling, as though the latter were the only missing elements required, as though it’s a perception problem. Well, it is a perception problem, although the problem is on the part of those who think it’s nothing but that.
“The vast majority of the lazy comes from trust fund babies”
Oh snap.
Grudz – what the hell does cannabis have to do with Heroin?
The cannabis community will become the heart and soul of SD (hint, it already is) .. you can still be the a-hole. Both are required, and interestingly enough .. both benefit from paper products.
That is all.
Well..I don’t think folks should be so unkind to Grudznick…it is a market place of ideas after all…his “Conservatives with a Conscience” seems like a group a bit turned off by the knee jerk Trumpites and he is much more moderate on some issues than the Trumpites I have to put up with…totalitarian, selective Libertarians, with unmet needs resulting in bursts of racism and violent intolerance….Grudz has South Dakota’s hide bound ideas about the economy and the supposed nobility of the wealthy, but he’s coming around.
“violent intolerance” – do you have a photo of this violent intolerance? Was there any contact, or are we talking about harsh words for election thieves?
Grudznick should be nicer to himself by setting more reasonable goals. It is not possible to disagree with everybody. :)
DaveFN, South Dakota has long had a problem with mistaking image for substance. Current prime example: Kristi Noem.
Let’s think about what Donald said about the impact more working from home would have on traffic. In every city, nothing congests the roads more than rush hour, people coming to and leaving from work at the same time in cars. (Interestingly, evening rush hour is the most dangerous time of day on the roads, while morning rush hour is the safest.) If more people work at home, we reduce highway congestion and wear and tear on the roads. The people who get to work at home gain productivity, since they waste less time commuting. The people who still have to go to the office gain productivity, because they’ll experience fewer traffic jams and thus enjoy a faster commute. Emergency services will have faster response times. Truckers will be able to get through the city faster and deliver more goods on time.
Bringing workers back from the Great Resignation by offering more flexible work hours and work-at-home opportunities will make roads a little safer and help everyone use their time more productively.
Of course, if workers can spend less time traveling to and from work, they’ll buy less gasoline, which means a dip in gasoline taxes, which means a dip in funding for our roads. Dang—we’d better hurry up and pass President Biden’s infrastructure plan so we can rebuild all the roads now to last for years so we don’t need to charge as much gas tax to fix those roads for a decade or two. ;-)
Arlo, I’d be curious to see just how many new and perhaps formerly resistant retirees have experienced the mindset shift you discuss. Indeed, the forced time off that many may have experienced during coronavirus, combined with the mortal risk posed by the pandemic and the loss of friends and family that many hae experienced (due in many cases to the recklessness of our Governor) should be cause for a lot of hard thinking.
Perhaps the Great Resignation is a victory for “family values”: Americans are seeing that being there to help your kids and your parents, to protect your family’s health, to do things together at home instead of rushing off to work and running around town shopping, is more important than maximizing one’s work hours and paycheck. The pandemic is providing an object lesson in what we can live without and what we can’t live without.
“Open for Business™” isn’t really a family-values campaign slogan. Somebody should get on that messaging.
Republicans want to expand the Plantation and slave owners values here. Restrict the vote. No high wages. Pandemic welfare for businesses, no pandemic $300 extra wages for those who worked hard.
To over throw the Plantation here, you got to elect 60% Center Left Democrats with spines, or if we don’t have that, a Progressive Party like Bernie Sanders.
The Dem Party website is a throw away. Why aren’t they out in public with Daily or twice daily Messaging against the Plantation and for a Democracy for all? Too busy with a Sioux Falls rush, no vision at all to take over Pierre for the next 50 years.
Corey, that’s where cooperatives can come in and be a solution to fulfilling services to our communities instead of other types of businesses that maximize profits as their number one priority over the welfare of their workers and consumers.
Arlo: There are many grudznicks on the blogs. The one that pollutes our minds (on Cory’s blog) spells his name with a small “g”.
-“You are correct about people’s mindset shift.
Sick of leaving home to work for a “grud-snick” with stinky breath and a bigoted approach to the simple?”
Then, freelance:
From The BostonGlobe, today
-After the pandemic, expect more work for freelancers- BostonGlobe
– Sixty percent of 700-plus US business leaders surveyed would prefer to “rent, borrow, or share talent,” and 60 percent anticipate a core workforce with fewer full-time staff.
Co-ops cut across political lines. Member-owners, like myself, of cooperative businesses encompass citizens from across the political spectrum. “Cooperation” to meet the economic needs of providing essential services to our members in our communities is the essence of “Cooperatives”. One of the seven Co-op Principles is: “Commitment to Community”. Not one of the 7 Co-op Principles is: “Maximize Profits over Community”. Corey discusses the “Great Resignation” and I did some further research on this proposed movement from the worker community. Why not dovetail it with the emerging “Co-op Movement” that has been growing throughout Rural America these past several years? The Co-op Movement is helping to create more community friendly co-op businesses across rural communities in many neighboring states, like Montana. If it can work there, it can work here in South Dakota. The problem right now is that South Dakota does not have a committed statewide center for cooperative development like Montana and other neighboring states. South Dakota’s center is called the Center for Value Added Agriculture in Pierre and they receiving a chunk of their funding from USDA Rural Development. However, I do not see it committed to “cooperative business development” like the center in neighboring Montana. There is a USDA grant: Rural Cooperative Development Grant (RCDG) that each center can compete for and they have to use it for cooperative business development. In a nutshell, that means they go out and find rural communities that want to start co-op businesses and assist them in forming a legally structured co-op. I have much more to say on this topic because I learned a lot as a communicator in how to educated and inform people about cooperative businesses. Co-ops are a much better place to work and thrive because every member is an owner and invested in that business and every member has an equally say in the governing of that business. I really believe if there is a “Great Resignation” brewing, then now is the time to look toward types of businesses that can really make a difference in addressing all the labor concerns of a “Great Resignation”. I believe co-ops are that type of business that we can form more of in an effort to restructure our economic system to better meet the needs of both workers and consumers.
.Grudz has South Dakota’s hide bound ideas about the economy and the supposed nobility of the wealthy, but he’s coming around.
Just like Covid 19 came around?
Johnny Rabbit Hole tries to be disagreeable with everyone.
[Quick reminder to new readers trying to submit their first comments: you need to check your email and respond to my system’s confirmation message before your comment escapes the moderation queue.]
Mr. Dale, you have a very good point.
Mr. Blundt, thank you for your sensitivity to my feelings.
Mr. Lansing, there are three grudznicks on this blogging place alone.
Cory–there’s three fellas in my coffee group who inspired my comment…one is well beyond retirement age but operates a big Caterpillar bull dozer for a construction company…says he’s the best Cat operator in several states but oldsters often overestimate their skills…anyway he’s in demand and usually works through the construction season…not any more..he bought a few cattle that he’s going to speculate on…the other two worked “part-time, full time, “filling in” for people on vacation and sick leave at their old jobs…they were paid less than they had been making but enjoyed the work and “got out of the house”..now they’ve started to travel more and do more fishing…a lot of South Dakotans work into their 70’s just because they’ve worked all their lives and are at a loss as to what else to do.
Arlo, when my wife and I walk the beach at dawn, we see several old men out with metal detectors. Its sad that the must have a working reason to be at the beach in the morning isn’t it?
Dave, you are correct, Hilma has no relation to the Austrian decorator. She was Swedish and she did show with Munch so at least she was Scandinavian.
From Axios….
The latest census is expected to show the first decline in history for the nation’s non-Hispanic white population, according to an analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data by the Brookings Institution’s William Frey.
Why it matters: The U.S. is rapidly moving toward a majority-minority population — with the racial and ethnic diversity most apparent in younger cohorts. “This really is moving in a direction that’s going to favor the issues and the political agendas of these younger people,” Frey told Axios.
“Republicans are going to have to awaken to this.”
By the numbers: The official 2020 census population estimates that include race and ethnic breakdowns for the prior decade have yet to be released. Yet looking at the recently published annual numbers gives demographers reliable insight into what those figures will show.
The number of non-Hispanic white people in the U.S. declined in each of the past four years — by more than 1 million altogether. That’s enough to offset the small growth in that population during the first six years of the decade.
White population growth has slowed in recent decades, largely because of falling fertility rates as Americans wait longer to have kids and have fewer of them.
State of Misery cut unemployment benefits to lazy arse workers and discovered it hasn’t resulted in massive hirings as expected. What else are magats wrong about?
https://www.rawstory.com/in-blow-to-gop-narrative-missouri-cut-to-jobless-benefits-not-boosting-hiring/