Workers where there is no work + Work where there are no workers

Yesterday IPLawGuy forwarded me a link to an Axios story exploring the problems of the hard-core unemployed in a time of record low unemployment. This jumped out at me:

  • And for the first time in the nation's history, big numbers of Americans have stopped moving for work. Even when there are jobs in another city or state, they have been unwilling, for reasons no one has been able to decisively explain, to pick up and start a new life.
It surprises me that people don't move for work, but maybe it shouldn't. This piece focuses on low-wage labor, and people in or seeking those jobs often don't have the resources to make a move-- it can be expensive! The transaction costs of just switching apartments can be overwhelming.  And often people would have to move away from support systems that they rely on to make life work: for example, being near a parent who provides free child care during work hours.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Barr Report on the Mueller Report

Megan Willome wrote a nice little haiku about the Mueller report yesterday: Dear Mr. Mueller, You could've summarized the whole in a haiku. She's right, too. I've got some thoughts on the Mueller Report (in addition to what I have said here  and here ): 1)  Regarding a conspiracy with Russians to influence the election, it seems clear that Mueller found insufficient evidence to recommend charges or impeachment. That's not totally surprising. From what we already knew, it seems that events like the Trump Tower meeting the Russians approached people in the Trump organization, talked about some stuff, but the Trump people never agreed to participate in the activity in any active way-- and that agreement is the essence of conspiracy. Sure, it turns out that the Russians went and did stuff to help Trump on their own, but that does not make it a conspiracy. 2) On obstruction, there is the legitimate question of "obstructing what?" I may disagree with the Barr analy
Read more

A Cart for America's Drunkest Golfer

Image
I'm not a huge golf fan. I think the use of land for golf courses in some places (ie, Los Angeles) is pretty ridiculous, and it drives me bananas to see it on TV, with the whispering announcers and tracking shots of a tiny white ball someplace against a herky-jerky sky. Still, I have to admit that it does have some fascinating personalities floating around. For the last three decades one of them has been John Daly, who was just approved to ride a cart for the PGA Championship, drawing a rebuke from Tiger Woods, who recalled that he walked the course (and won that tournament) on a broken leg. Daly has a variety of ailments that make walking difficult, and I don't begrudge him the cart (though, again, I don't know much about this sport and its traditions, so I probably should not have an opinion at all). Daly is a character: probably the only pro golfer to be arrested for public drunkenness in the parking lot of a Hooter's restaurant, he claims to have lost over $50,000,0
Read more