It’s not a labor shortage, it’s a wage shortage (with Heidi Shierholz)

Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer

Civic Ventures

Business, Government, News, Politics

4.8 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 25 May 2021

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

You have no doubt seen the scary headlines warning of a “labor shortage” caused by the additional pandemic unemployment insurance payments. The coverage of this story is widespread, even though most economics reporters can find no credible evidence linking unemployment checks to a labor shortage. EPI economist Heidi Shierholz joins us to explain why UI and stimulus payments aren’t causing a “labor shortage”, and why the answer to this made-up problem is so clear: it’s the low wages, stupid. Heidi Shierholz is the Senior Economist and Director of Policy at the Economic Policy Institute. Twitter: @hshierholz Show us some love by leaving a rating or a review! RateThisPodcast.com/pitchforkeconomics Unemployment benefits are not creating a worker shortage: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/worker-shortage-unemployment-benefits_n_609056c3e4b09cce6c21a850 Is unemployment insurance behind the fast-food labor shortage? https://prospect.org/labor/is-unemployment-insurance-behind-fast-food-labor-shortage/ Restaurant labor shortages show little sign of going economywide: https://www.epi.org/blog/restaurant-labor-shortages-show-little-sign-of-going-economywide-policymakers-must-not-rein-in-stimulus-or-unemployment-benefits/ U.S. Labor Shortage? Unlikely. Here’s why: https://policydialogue.org/opinions/worker-shortages/ It’s not a ‘labor shortage’. It’s a great reassessment of work in America: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/05/07/jobs-report-labor-shortage-analysis/ The Myth of Labor Shortages: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/20/briefing/labor-shortages-covid-wages.html Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com/ Twitter: @PitchforkEcon Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics Nick’s twitter: @NickHanauer

Transcript

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0:00.0	There's always in the background employers complaining about not being able to find the workers they want, but it's particularly loud today.
0:09.8	No doubt you've all seen the headlines recently about a so-called labor shortage.
0:16.7	The thing that I always suggest that people say is when they hear an employer say, I can't find the workers that I need always add the phrase,
0:25.6	at the wage I want to pay.
0:32.7	From the home offices of civic ventures in downtown Seattle, this is pitchfork economics, with Nick Hanauer,
0:39.0	the best place to get the truth about who gets what and why.
0:48.5	I'm Nick Hanauer, founder of Civic Ventures.
0:51.8	I'm David Goldstein, senior fellow at Civic Ventures.
1:00.0	No doubt you've all seen the headlines recently about a so-called labor shortage striking the American economy these days.
1:10.9	Everybody's all lazy on unemployment or something, and so nobody's taken any jobs.
1:16.2	Yeah, absolutely, and the story is everywhere, employers complaining about not being able to find workers,
1:22.0	and Goldie, I think that there's always in the background employers complaining about not being able to find the workers they want,
1:29.7	but it's particularly loud today, and there's good reasons for it as the economy accelerates.
1:38.6	Virtually everything is in short supply, including lumber, and people are scrambling to fill the spots.
1:46.8	They laid off or fired workers going into the pandemic, and now everybody's scrambling to get them back.
1:53.3	But the most harmful part about this narrative is that it's not true.
1:59.2	Well, is that the unemployment benefits that people are getting paid are making everyone lazy and not wanting to work?
2:10.3	And if we just kept people poor and more desperate, everything would be better for everyone.
2:18.5	That is the thing that's just a ditch annoying out there, and is mostly nonsense, of course.
2:27.0	Yeah, the underlying message is that people aren't suffering enough, and that if only the American people suffered more, companies would be easier for a little higher.
2:36.0	Exactly. It would be easier for corporations to exploit people.
2:40.4	This narrative about people not suffering enough, and therefore it being bad for businesses, super widespread,
	...

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