Employers baffled as US benefits end, jobs go begging

Bloomberg

Emergency unemployment benefits in the US expired two weeks ago, but employers who expected an increase in job
applications are still largely waiting for them to roll in.
Federal programs that had offered an extra $300 per week for jobless Americans, provided extended benefits for the long-term unemployed and gave special aid for the self-employed expired on September 6. Economists and companies expected a wave of interest from workers as the financial lifeline was pulled away, hoping it would provide the incentive to get back into the workplace. That hasn’t happened, according to employers across industries.
“People who have been on the sidelines have by and large stayed on the sidelines,” said Richard Wahlquist, president of the American Staffing Association, the country’s largest recruitment-industry group. “Nothing has changed in regard to the benefits that have fallen off and the need for people continues to grow.”
Even Wahlquist is struggling. He’s looking for 10 temporary workers to help at the organisation’s conference in Denver at the end of the month, paying as much as $25 an hour. So far, he could only rustle up two.
Across the country, staffing firms and businesses have yet to see a marked uptick in employees. Goldman Sachs Group Inc economists forecast that the expiration of the federal program this month, which affected about half of US states after the rest ended benefits early, would add 1.3 million people to payrolls by year-end. Other analysts said an end to the federal program should increase labour supply.
Jobless claims for the week ended September 11 showed an increase in people seeking benefits, though the effects of Hurricane Ida affected the data. In the meantime, the great labour shortage isn’t letting up, with a record 10.9 million job openings in July.
Applications increased about 10% in the two dozen states states that ended emergency benefits early — but that was also a boost that lasted only a few weeks, she said.
In the company’s offices in California, the most populous state with recently ended benefits, managers told her there is a slight boost in inquiries for administrative work but “it’s too soon to tell.”
In the restaurant industry, job applications have declined about 3% to 4% each week for the past nine weeks, including the period following the expiry of boosted benefits, according to Restaurant365, a restaurant-management software company.
The reasons for the missing workers are many: childcare barriers, a skills mismatch, health concerns — particularly for service-industry jobs and a mass reallocation of work as people reconsider careers.
“As people look at their bank accounts and realize we’re coming to the holiday season, we hope people have more incentive to come back,” said ASA’s Wahlquist.