Unemployment Insurance Vs. Work

Unemployment Insurance Vs. Work


Coincidental with making a mental note for a post for my blogsite as I waited in a coffee shop for my flight to Newark at Frankfurt Airport 8/10/10, was to pick up that day's issue of the Wall Street Journal left on my table by someone and read an article that dealt with the very thing I was thinking about. It dealt with the firms that were struggling to hire and finding it difficult to fill vacancies. Many of the positions required specialized skills that the companies were willing to train new hirees for free of charge.

An excerpt from the article reads, "Since the economy bottomed out in mid 2009 the number of job openings has risen more than twice as fast as actual hires.... The disparity is most notable in manufacturing which has had among the highest increases in openings. But it is also appearing in other areas such as business services, education and health care.

"If the job market were working normally - that is, if openings were getting filled as they usually do - the U.S. should have about five million more gainfully employed people than it does, estimates David Altig, Research Director at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. That would correspond to an employment rate of 6.8% instead of 9.5%."

Would all this be happening if unemployment benefits that are now being offered for two years and will probably expand further under this current nanny administration if the people receiving them are content to stay on these "paid vacations" instead taking the jobs that are available???

There's a Dunkin' Donuts in my hometown who has had its "Now Hiring" shingle out for months. That job, of course, could not possibly compete with unemployment insurance. I've seen several trailer trucks on the road with signs on the back mentioning that the company is offering employment and that they are willing to train free of charge.

Entitlements, if not properly administered, can be like drugs. Everyone needs a "leg up" once in awhile but if help is too extravagant and to the point where people are disincentivized to take employment when it's available it can lead to the demise of the nation. Every Republic in history went under, primarily because its people became consumers rather than producers.