I got my first “real” job when I was a junior in high school. As a youth, I picked up a few bucks shoveling snow and raking leaves. But as my high school career progressed, our family hit some rocky times, so I took a job bussing tables at a restaurant in a department store. It wasn’t for pocket change; my family needed the money. So I would leave school, change into my busboy uniform, which consisted of a second-hand dress shirt, black vest and slacks made of bulletproof polyester. I’d bus tables from 4:00 to closing, which was around 9:30. In addition to nights, I worked weekends and holidays. And believe me, if you want an experience that will haunt you until the day you die, try working a Mother’s Day buffet.
I wasn’t any working-class hero, I just did what I needed to do. And there was a certain pride in contributing and knowing that if worse came to worse I could support my own backside. From then until about 2014, I was never without a job. Some jobs, like wildland firefighting and radio, were cool. Others, like filling hand sanitizer dispensers, were miserable. But I was even more miserable when I was out of work for a stretch. I felt useless and, to be honest, a bit like a leech. So maybe I am showing my age if I can’t understand why the number of job openings is greater than the number of job seekers.
Around half of the small business owners recently queried said that they have had problems finding qualified workers. In fact, it’s estimated that there are one million more jobs than unemployed people. Unemployment claims dropped last week, and yet companies still cannot get all hands on deck due to a shortage of hands. So why the drop? In some cases, employers are laying fewer people off just to keep the doors open and do the best they can. Fraud may play a role in some states. In others, people who are self-employed may have had to file for unemployment when their businesses tanked during the pandemic and were denied benefits. So they may not be trying that route again. And if you have ever filed anything with any government agency, you have my condolences. You know the meaning of the word frustration. So the numbers may not be as positive as they appear at first blush.
According to Business Insider, the plethora of vacancies may be due to a lack of available childcare, relocation during the pandemic, and people not finding the jobs they want. Not finding the jobs they want? I didn’t want to be a busboy. I did not want to fill hand sanitizer bottles. And I did not want to work as a telemarketer. It was never a question of what I wanted, but what I needed. Which was a job. And of course there are those who are making more bank as voluntary wards of the state than they might make actually earning their daily bread. Why put down the video game controller or that box of donuts when that check is in the mail? I know it is fashionable to cite Orwell these days, but maybe we should be paying a bit more attention to Huxley.
But who will step up? If 10 million jobs are out there for the taking, who actually wants them? The answer may surprise you. The Daily Caller talked with some illegal immigrants who are here courtesy of the current administration, and they said they plan on getting jobs. They wash dishes and do carpentry and other work that seems to be beneath some citizens. Some said they plan on studying to improve their lot in life. One stated: “You need to suffer for it. You need to sweat for it.” You know, things Americans used to say and do. Ironic isn’t it?
That is not to say that illegal immigration is not a problem. Yes, there are the cartels, the coyotes, the crime, the infrastructure pressures, and the added strain on the healthcare industry. Not to mention the spread of COVID-19. But it would seem people are coming to do the jobs Americans won’t do, which right now appears to be most of them. I’m sure that more than a few plan on milking the system for benefits, but that just means they will fit right in.
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