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Aired on February 10, 2021, Bill English and Carmen Laberge discuss the labor force participation rate and why it is declining. We also discuss teachers returning to school and why they are not in the classroom teaching children face to face. We also discuss the attempted unionization of workers at an Amazon fulfillment center in Bessemer, Alabama.
Show Notes:
On Female labor force participation rate:
- Yes, the participation rate is the lowest for women since January of 2001.
- This is not significant by itself.
- All groups are down – men, women Hispanics Asians and blacks – all are down to very low levels – all are close to record levels.
- The overall labor force participate rate is an all-time low in April of 2020 at 60.2%. January of 2021, it is at 61.4%. In January of 2001, it was at 67.1%
- Why is it dropping over a 20 year period? More people retiring and fewer workers taking their place – this has been predicted several times over the last 10-15 years
- Results:
- Overall à less revenue to the government.
- Those who are working bear more of the increased income tax liability on a per worker basis
- Built-in incentive for those who don’t work to vote for programs which give them stuff from the gov’t
- The value of work is less appreciated by a larger swath of our society – work is a gift from God – work also has societal benefits which are less now than ever before
On teachers going back to school to teach in a classroom:
- This might be one of the single-most important factors to get women back into the workforce
- Parents saying three things:
- In-person learning is better than remote
- The psycho-social effects of being with others in school is equally important
- When kids are in school, I can concentrate on my job or go back to work
- We know enough about this virus now that we ought to be able to open up school safely
On the first vote to unionize a warehouse is Bessemer, Alabama:
- This will be Amazon’s first location that is unionized.
- In the early years, unions were necessary to curb the onerous and often dangerous work environments greedy owners expected employees to work in
- Today, roughly 7% of the workforce is unionized, down from a high of nearly 30% in the sixties
- Employees home, by unionizing, they can collectively bargain for better work conditions, increased pay and so forth
- What I don’t like is how the process pits employees against the employer
- You don’t help the employee by hurting the employer – collaboration gets lost quickly
- Unions would have never been needed had business owners followed God’s Word and treated their employees with dignity and respect.