Last Friday’s jobs report, showing employment rising by 559,000 in May, continued a steady march back from the depths of the pandemic, far better than the last recession recovery, albeit not as sizzling as anticipated. The main problem appears to be a large number of unfilled job openings, about which everyone in America seems to have an opinion.
Conservatives believe that comfortable lifestyles on the dole are to blame for workers declining to take low-wage positions that were recently COVID death traps. Liberals blame a lack of child care holding back mothers and fathers from re-entering the workforce, or lingering fears about contracting the virus making workers hesitant to return. Or you can just see this as a period of adjustment: People found other things to do during COVID-19 besides subsist as a reserve army of the unemployed; they needed to be with kids who were in school remote from home; and it’ll take time to bring things back to speed.
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