Quote:
Originally Posted by chizzy
I can agree on the tv thing but worker shortages for beef and fish? Correct me if I'm wrong but weren't these shortages there in 2020 around march when things shutdown? So why use that as an excuse now? Did the prices go up last year or this year?
|
Labor shortages have been for a variety of reasons, but a lot of the reduced demand from restaurants last year was somewhat offset by increased demand as folks stocked up on certain meats and cuts to weather the storm. Remember that there were shortages of chicken, then beef and pork. Then chicken again. Some meat packers got slammed with positive cases and shutdowns. But also used the PPP to protect jobs and reduce the number of layoffs.
But now as restaurants reopened, the types of cuts restaurants desire that had fallen out of favor are back in demand again while people are still stocking up at home. Foreign imports, which account for more than most people think of what's in your grocery store, are coming in slower and at higher costs in some cases due to tariffs as well as higher fuel and transportation costs. And domestic producers are finding it difficult to get applicants.
https://www.dailyitem.com/business/s...67093b465.html
Agriculture jobs, including meatpacking and meat processing have historically been becoming more reliant on temporary seasonal workers who are willing to take the jobs as plants ramp up or down than people realize. There's an immigration component there There's also more competition for labor at higher wages across several sectors that make it just as lucrative to work at a Sheetz or a Chipotle as it was to bust your ass in a packing plant. The wage levels aren't as attractive as they used to be, which mean the locations and conditions aren't as tolerable as they used to be.
There have been large swaths of workers who just flat out left the industries and found work elsewhere. So add those losses to constrained immigrant supply and jobs that traditionally don't appeal to American workers this isn't really all that shocking. When 4 million people in the US quit their jobs in April... just in April, they're not collecting unemployment so to try to make portray those benefits as the primary cause is disingenuous.
There were undercurrents in this sector for years which surfaced due to COVID. Similar to others sectors, there's a slew of reasons why employers are struggling to fill jobs. And as those shortages continue, prices will go up in later months until demand softens or supply somehow finds a way to catch up via either domestic production or import.
I do respect you, Chizzy. I expect you're open to seeing the big picture of the macroeconomic impacts and that I am not saying there's no impact for the unemployment benefits, but there are two or 3 administrstions worth of bad policies at least all coming to a head during a hopefully once in a century event that will fundamentally restructure how American labor goes to work.
