MECHANICAL CHAIRMAN’S MESSAGE

Unemployment 2021: A Man-Made Debacle

by KEITH KREHEL

Let’s look at the present situation. COVID-19 is finally getting under control, and life is beginning to return to normal. However, many people are choosing to stay on unemployment rather than return to work. Personally, I knew this situation would develop a long time ago when the Federal Government got involved and added to the state unemployment benefit.

Many employers are struggling to hire new employees as many people choose to stay on unemployment. Employers are truly competing with unemployment for workers. I am presently running ads with several sources to no avail.

Some suggestions to correct this situation and prevent it from recurring:

1. Unemployment should be capped, and total benefits should be significantly less than being employed. Sixty percent or so seems reasonable; otherwise, many people will stay out of work. In short, a job should always be more rewarding than staying at home, and it is not right to run up a tab for someone else to pay later when there are jobs available now. 2. The length of time someone can collect should be shortened. People should take jobs that are available at the time and continue their search for their “perfect job” while employed, like I did. I recall a friend’s brother who came to me for a job (at his brother’s repeated insistence) after being unemployed for over nine months (despite living a mere couple miles away from my shop). 3. Employee contribution rates should be higher for the habitually or seasonally unemployed. I was told years ago that I should consider myself lucky that I had never collected unemployment, but I still maintain luck had about as much to do with that as my grades in college. Despite working steadily for 48 years, my contribution rate is the same as someone who collects every winter when laid off. Not fair. Companies that frequently lay off workers are assigned a higher contribution rate than those companies with infrequent layoffs, and so should employees. The rate an employee would be assigned to pay could be asked of prospective employers and would be another reason to get and keep a job. Also, those of us who work for decades without collecting should pay a significantly lower rate than the frequent collectors, much like car insurance. Many of us know drivers who pay higher rates for insurance simply because they are a poor risk based on their driving history. 4. Those collecting should be available to work (at least part time) at various rudimentary jobs as needed and be looking “in state” for work while collecting. It’s hard to believe one is searching for employment while out of the country in the Cayman Islands. By the way, working for a state labor force to receive unemployment benefits has been tested and has been dramatically successful in reducing claims in those states that have tried it. 5. Benefit rates should be based on past employment history, and those frequently unemployed should collect less because they have contributed less. Common sense, anyone?

From what I have read via multiple sources within the US (as well as data from other countries), people are amazingly “lucky” finding a job within a short period after their benefits run out.

After graduating high school in 1975, I spent a month driving across the country in my ’68 Firebird, camping and sleeping in a tent (I was broke) to see the country. I remember chatting with a married couple in a nice RV (which was high-end compared to sleeping on the ground). They were also touring the country, but they were staying two to four years in an area until they “pulled up stakes” and moved on to see another one. His trade was auto mechanic. He said he never had trouble finding a job wherever he went. He did not mention luck either, but he did mention that he had a skill that was sought after and allowed him to live his dream lifestyle. This chance meeting had a lot to do with me choosing the auto repair trade to work my way through school and later become my whole career.

In closing, I remember my father telling me years ago (more than once) that government rarely does things well and usually “screws things up.” Private enterprise works better. I think my dad was right.