Taps Coogan – August 20th, 2021

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As the following chart reveals, via Nick Bunker, the number of hires per job opening in the US, a measure of how hard it is for companies to fill job vacancies, is still hovering near multi-decade lows.

Despite roughly 13 million Americans still receiving unemployment benefits (in many states roughly equivalent to median wages), companies are having just about the hardest time on record getting people to come back to work. For those keeping track, there are now a whopping 1.4 million more job offerings in the US than people on traditional unemployment (excluding the Covid related unemployment options) and yet companies still can’t fill positions.

I think we can now settle the argument as to the whether or not Universal Basic Income (UBI) and other pay-people-not-to-work schemes actually discourage people from working. The not-at-all surprising answer: of course paying people not work will discourage them from working.

Apparently, this was something we had to find out the hard way.

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