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Comment by jyrkesh | Hacker News Reader

I'm seeing a lot of "just raise wages" in this thread. The traditional GOP response on something like this is to get rid of the extended and special unemployment insurance programs, and you'd see folks re-enter for minimum wage jobs.

I'm not an expert in this field, but that naively seems like it would achieve the same result. Obviously there's a conversation to be had about fair wages, and whether a minimum wage is livable, but is there something else here that I'm missing about why that wouldn't also mitigate the current labor shortage?

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Extended unemployment has already been eliminated in many states and that had no effect. This might be an opportunity to review why these ideas about labor markets appear not to match what actually happens.

So then how are people paying to survive?

Ending the extended unemployment benefits only reduces the weekly unemployment payment. In my state that was an extra $300/week. Our Governor got rid of that, but the labor shortage remains.

But eventually the standard unemployment will run out too, right?

Yes.

I read an article[1] about workers suing states to restart extended unemployment (and are winning, at least in Maryland and Indiana so far). This would have an effect on the job market.

[1] https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/when-unemployment-en...

My answer is that for me (and I'm assuming a lot of people) it would just be too immoral to do that. It's like forcing people to work against their will.

Your solution could definitely work, it's just less humane, so there are fewer people who naturally want to advocate for it.

You might ask yourself why you want to stop at cutting unemployment benefits, when there are even more effective ways to coerce people into working.

Well...I personally wouldn't want to stop at unemployment benefits, but I'm not trying to make that case here because I understand there's a lot more moving pieces and it's much tougher case to make.

Well, it's not a "labor shortage" because, as others have explained, there is an ample supply of workers if an employer is willing to pay for them.

> is there something else here that I'm missing about why that wouldn't also mitigate the current labor shortage

- 600k+ dead people.

- Increased hiring competition from more remote-friendly jobs.

- Workers who don't want to return to employers who laid them off at the beginning of the pandemic or required them to work in unsafe conditions as "essential" workers.

First one is totally valid, and honestly a bit chilling. Not sure why that wasn't obvious to me.

The 2nd one seems dubious to me: in my experience, people are moving to remote-friendly jobs from within the US...it doesn't explain why we have a shortage of people making pizza.

The last one is the one I'm struggling with: I don't knock people at ALL for making those choices, but if they're struggling to survive and (as others have noted in response to me) unemployment insurance has ended, what are they doing instead of taking a job?

Unemployment insurance hasn't necessarily ended. The extended benefits have in many case though. Those extended benefits included things like more money per week and benefits for longer.

Regarding increased competition for people working from home, you're right. It might not be a huge factor, but I know two people who used to work in IRL service roles pre-covid who now work for call centers from their homes. So it is a possible factor even if it's a small one.

The last one is definitely a factor, but #1 is hard to believe since the vast majority of the dead were well past retirement age. Similarly anyone in the running for a pizza tosser position is probably not also considering a remote software development job.

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