Key Points
- Currently – workers are leaving their positions because of a lack of increase in pay.
- The President is working on correcting the labor shortage and facilitating easier ways to get people back to work.
- Benefits include childcare options and still keeping those costs down for the consumer.
Whatever reasons Americans choose not to get back into the workplace, since the pandemic, it seems time for them to get themselves back into the work routine.
The White House is working on trying to make it easier to do just that, and Annie Linksey from The Wall Street Journal also had that in her report. Those that are part of the Biden administration want to start pushing out policies such as eldercare benefits, or childcare benefits, that can make the option of working reality and make it more sense economically to people.
Brian Deese, who heads up the White House National Economic Council, was telling the journal, “We’re finding the right places and balance to improve productivity, reduce costs for the general consumer, and mitigate the price pressures we see in the economy” He also went on and said, “this is how we build out our prioritization schedule and our areas to focus on”.
Deese also touched on the Federal Reserve and its continuous battle against high inflation, but that Americans are already feeling the pressure, and there may be actions straight from the executive branch to help curb this specifically related to housing.
He didn’t get into the details on what happens from the economists powering this from the White House after these initiatives. Still, he reinforced the discussion about how important it was to enable childcare. The exit of the workforce came from women taking care of their children, causing an increase in the labor shortage.
Deese goes on and says, “Our progress areas are clearly visible when it comes to helping parents to work in every way possible. With child care that is affordable and yet remains high quality, this helps to eliminate a massive cost that families were facing and getting them to work again.”
Yet this won’t be easy for the Biden Administration to push through because it will most likely have to go through Congress. Since the House is currently under Republican control, this will be a big ask. There was an attempt when the Democrats were in control of Congress to try and get eldercare and childcare clauses through Biden’s Build Back Better agenda, but they ended up having to be taken out.
Why Aren’t Americans working?
Core workers between the ages of 25 through 54 decided to leave the workplace as far back as February 2020. Those that were older simply started retirement sooner. So childcare may not be enough to bring people back.
Mr. Deese also believes that there are few opportunities for people to grow, making it another reason for people not to work.
“I keep hearing about infrastructure projects, but to get there we’ll need a stronger training system and model to get people who want these careers with high growth potential, while at the same time getting the right skills training and possibility to actually get these positions.” Deese said.
A survey that was done by McKinsey and Co back in July stated that of the 12,000 workers surveyed, 41% said the main reason they left was upward mobility limitations.
The researchers also mentioned that “The Pandemic has had people consider what’s important to them in general, from life to career to everything, and that’s why many are leaving the path that’s been seen as a more traditional path”
The Boston Fed had similar results in their report, which found the male labor force for the better part of four decades was in decline due to those men that are of working age not having a college degree. As a result, they have decided on no work or career instead of being shamed for their status due to a low paycheck.
Even with employment looking healthy in the US, it still appears that it’s not going to rebound back to where it was due to immigration levels being down, workers retiring or not working, and other considerations.
