Where Have the Missing Workers Gone?

4.3 million workers are missing and U.S. jobless claims reach a 52 year low. Justin and Lance discuss three potential options to solve the labor shortage issue in the United States.

tags: tsou, justin weller, lance jackson, politics, labor, immigration, money, capitalism, automation, jobs, career, worker, unemployed, hiring

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Today on the State of US.Four point three million workers are missing?
Where did they go? US joblessclaims reach a fifty two year low.

(00:25):
Welcome to the State of US.I'm your host, Justin T. Weller,
joined of course, today by ourfriendly redneck liberal, mister lance El
Jackson. Many economists are expecting thelabor shortage to last for years, and
some think it could be permanent.You heard right, there's four point three
million workers missing. So where didthey go? Well? US jobless claims

(00:50):
are at a fifty two year low. That's right. Initial claims for jobless
benefits fell last week to one hundredand ninety nine thousand, the lowest in
fifty d two years. So thingshave got to be great, right,
Well, we'll find out. Butbefore we dive in, our friendly redneck
liberal I'm sure has the word ofthe day. Well, we need to

(01:11):
expedite this problem. And that's theword of the day. Expedite three syllables,
E X, P, E,D E. It is a transitive
verb and it means to speed upor make easy the progress or action of
So we need to figure out asolution quickly. We need to expedite it
and get the economy back rolling again. So there you go. I've already

(01:36):
given it away. There is aproblem and we need to fix it,
at least in my humble opinion.Oh okay, I was gonna say,
the show's done, folks. Minuteand fifty seconds. We nailed it.
It's over. I don't have togo on and on and on. I
mean, I can back it upand tell you, okay, I mean,
you don't want to wait for things. We need to get more workers.

(01:57):
You need to you want cheaper prices, and you don't one inflation.
We need more workers. How dowe get more workers? Well, that
wasn't the question. The question wasis this a problem or not? That
everybody's leaving? Okay, And soI'm saying I'm saying it's a problem because
people don't want to They're not wantingto wait as long, Customer service is
not as good as people would likeit to be, and inflation is up,

(02:21):
and I all three of those thingscould be improved, in my opinion,
if there were more workers in theworkforce. How you get those people
back in Oh that's a that's awhole nother question. But your first question
was is it is this a problemor not? And I think for those
three reasons, it is a problem. Well, and the big question we

(02:42):
let off is where did they go? These people that are missing because they
stayed home. The data tells usthat the share of the population sixteen years
or older either working or looking forwork is right now far below where it
was in February of twenty twenty.That was a level of sixty three point
three percent of the population. Asof September of this year, it was

(03:05):
sixty one point six percent of thepopulation. So a smaller portion of the
population is either working or looking forwork than was looking for work in February
of twenty twenty. So we talkedabout a lot of people early retired.
Right they're gone, done, outof there. But the other thing is

(03:25):
it's important to keep in mind thatworkers are quitting at or near the highest
records on record, the highest rateson record in sectors like manufacturing and retail,
trade, transportation utilities, as wellas professional and business sectors. Because
right now, and we've discussed thisbefore, the labor market is favoring the

(03:47):
workers because of as Lance pointed out, everybody is once faster service, better
service, and that means that wegot to hire more people and we ideally
got to try to hire good people, but a lot of companies have to
settle for just a warm body becausethey've got to have something over nothing.

(04:08):
And that's where this challenge comes in. Of the workers have leverage, but
there's only so many people right thatcan actually or are willing to work,
and that is a smaller percentage ofthe current US population than it was in
February twenty twenty. And that's wherewe talked about I don't know a month

(04:28):
or two ago, Lance, right, there's ten million open jobs and only
some seven million unemployed people, andpart of that gap is these four point
three million workers who have vanished.But as we've talked about, that unemployed
workers are different than people who areout there who could work, because to

(04:49):
be an unemployed worker that means youhave to be looking for a job by
the government standards exactly. So whatwe have here is that you have a
an issue here that we need toexpedite in some way, and that is
that for many young parents, theyhave childcare issues. And as we've seen,

(05:15):
unfortunately in the United States, wedon't pay a lot of money to
childcare workers. And so with theopen job market, if I can make
ten dollars an hour twelve dollars anhour taking care of somebody's young children at
a daycare center, and I cango to Amazon and work in the warehouse

(05:35):
and make eighteen dollars an hour.I'm not going to be taking care of
young children if I want to advancemyself economically, And so then what happens
is, on one hand, youhave a shortage of daycare workers who are
turning away families, and therefore thenthe number of positions available means that it's

(06:00):
gone down, which means then thecost goes up, and then you start
to get to the point where asthis one young mother from Riverside, California
says, she goes it's not worthit. I was working in public relations
for a church at about thirty onethousand dollars a year, but her husband
got a new job. They're makingmoney. The high cost of childcare,

(06:24):
they decided that it was better forher to stay home with their three year
old and one year old until atleast they reached school age, because she
couldn't make enough money working part timeto even cover the expenses of the childcare
and you know, clothing and theextra food and eating out more and all

(06:44):
of that, and it's what peopleare, you know. So there's just
the childcare perspective of where all theworker's gone well. And they give another
example of a husband whose wife hasa really good job and she picked up
a few more extra a few morehours, and he stayed home. What's
going to be for like a threemonth period is now turned into eleven months

(07:05):
because he's found out he likes spendingtime with his new child and doing the
cooking and the cleaning and the groceryshopping, and his wife likes her job
and she's okay to work a littlebit more. And so it's like,
I don't you know, he said, I don't know if i want to
go back into the job market becauseI'm enjoying the time I have with my

(07:26):
family that I never knew I couldhave. So there's a I mean,
how do you want to break thatdown? There's four or five different pieces
in there just with the childcare issueof where the workers are going well,
and you have this conversience I thinktoo of a unique phenomenon in American history,
where like in August this year,four point three million people quit their

(07:46):
jobs, which is a record.There's never been that many people that quit
in a single month dating back toDecember of two thousand, So you have
four point three million people quit.But then we also get report right that
in November jobless claims have a fiftytwo year record low. So even though

(08:09):
we set a record for the numberof people that quit their jobs, we
also set a number of people arecord for the number of people who were
job less, i e. Avery small number, just one hundred and
ninety nine thousand were added. Sothe thing there that tells us, right
is there's a lot of people thatquit, but a lot of those people

(08:30):
turned around and got another job,apparently right away. They didn't stay out
of the labor force very long.What's not reflected in those numbers, and
this is the bigger issue, rightis some of those people that Lance talked
about, which are they actually theyquit, right but they didn't end up
going back at all, and they'renot looking to go back, so they're
not counted. And that's where thatpercentage of the population number that I mentioned

(08:54):
at the beginning is really important tounderstand because that's a better reflection. It's
the percentage of the populace who areeither working or looking for work. Right
February of twenty twenty, that wassixty three point three percent of Americans.
We're who are sixteen years or older, we're either looking for work or we're
actively employed. But in September oftwenty twenty one, it was sixty one

(09:16):
point six percent. Now that doesn'tsound like a massive difference, but that's
four point three million people, right, and well, a case in point,
I'm sixty years old, and formost people, they would still be
working. I know my you know, my brother in law and sister are
the same age as my wife andme, and they're both still working.

(09:37):
Well, I'm retired. I'm notlooking for work. Do I sometimes work?
Do I sometimes want to do somethingto make some money? Yes?
Am I doing a lot of volunteerstuff? Yes, I'm doing that,
But I'm not actively seeking employment.And my wife is talking about retiring this
May, and she'll be this May. She won't be sixty yet, but

(09:58):
she's going to retire. So we'regoing to be, you know, in
our late fifties early sixties, andwe're both going to be retired. When
in the same situation, my brotherin law and sister same ages as we
are. I mean, we're worinless than a month birthdays for both of
us. They're still going to beworking and planning on working for another five

(10:20):
to seven years. So I'm notunemployed. My wife won't be unemployed,
but we're both going to leave theworkforce because yeah, we're going to slow
down our lifestyle and we're not goingto be able to do as many things.
But we want to be able to, you know, go for a
walk in the morning, cook ameal, eat in the middle of the

(10:45):
day if we want to, takea nap, read a book, live
life at our pace instead of aworkpace. So and I mean, how
do you entice people like me backinto the work Well, that was exactly
going to be my question as youwere talking, because I think, I
mean, who better to ask andthe people that are leaving, right And
you know, obviously your wife's notyet an example of that, but is
to your point, probably soon goingto be an. I mean, the

(11:09):
two of us have five to sevenyears of good work left in us at
least at least at least right,you know, because I mean there's plenty
of people who are In fact,some of the clients for True Chat are
above that classic sixty five years oldwho are absolutely still working now. Has
how they're working changed? Sure?You know? Are they are they putting

(11:31):
in eighty hour weeks? Probably not, you know, but I think the
situation where it also calls for andthat's where we talk about the advantage of
being shifted to the workers, right, getting a better understanding of how do
you get a Lance Jackson back intothe workforce? You know, what does
an employer have to do to makethat happen? Because you know, it's

(11:54):
it's a basic it's a basic additionand subtraction issue. Right. There are
ten millillion jobs and at the moment, there's only about seven million people looking
for jobs. And you can't plugthe seven and we've talked about that a
lot. It's not a perfect onefor one. You can't say, oh,
well, we just need to findthree million more people, no,
because you know, the seven millionpeople can't just take seven million of those

(12:16):
jobs, because not all of thosejobs are a one for one. They
may not be qualified, you know, but you know, hypothetically, assuming
that forty percent of them could getone of the ten million available jobs,
we still need to find some sixmillion, you know, workers that we
don't have at least, So howdo we find six million workers? Well,

(12:37):
unless Star Trek comes around and weyou know, create replicators and clone
people, we have to either bringpeople back to the workforce that have left,
or we have to get more people, right, I mean, those
are one of those things has tohappen, or we have to reduce the
number of jobs available. We haveto do one of those three things.

(12:58):
So which of those three things andhow might we go about one of those
three things? Well, find outkeep it here on the state of US.
We'll be right back. The UnitedStates jobless claims are at a fifty

(13:24):
two year low, and at leastfour point three million workers are missing.
Where they go. Well, aswe talked about in the first segment,
many of them have left the workforce. They're done, they're out of here,
you know, because for lots ofdifferent reasons. Lance describe some of
them, childcare being a good example. You know, there are things that

(13:46):
people have decided they would rather dothan work under the system as the system
is currently designed. The challenge thatthe economy is now facing is we have
an economy that would like to grow, that is actually trying to grow,
and consumer demand sort of flying inthe face of the way that our economic

(14:07):
recoveries usually takes shape. Like ifyou look at the you know, post
two thousand and eight, it tooka number of years before consumer demand just
return to where it was, andnow we actually have consumer demand outpacing where
it was, and arguably the pandemicis not over, you know. So
we have robust demand, we haveless workers, and so we have companies

(14:31):
that are less able to fill thedemand. And regardless of whether or not
we think those people leaving the workforceis good or bad, the reality is
it poses a pending economic issue.It's a wonderful thing to have, you
know, the demand that we have, but failing to meet the demand can

(14:52):
spell a disaster all its own.So the question is, and that's what
we're looking at today, what arewe going to do do about this?
We understand there's a lot of differentreasons people may have left, but the
first part of that is we talkedabout there's three things we can do.
Right. We can say, youknow, decrease the number of job openings,

(15:13):
we can bring people back who left, or we can find new people.
And looking at finding new people,so how could we find new people
well, we could increase the birthrate, right, But the problem is
that's a very delayed effect, youknow. I mean we got to wait
sixteen years at least, even ifwe drastically increase the birth rate today before

(15:37):
that's going to have any measurable impacton the workforce. So unfortunately that's not
a near term fix. The otherway we could find new people lance,
right, is we could allow peoplefrom other places to maybecome fill some jobs.
Well that you took down, youmust have been rendow over my shoulder,
because I might The one way toexpedite this issue is to allow immigrants

(16:02):
to come in and that's something thatwe've done in this country since we were
colonies. You know, we needpeople to chop down trees and build ships
so we could sell supplies and rawmaterials back to England and to get to
finish products that we needed here inthe colonies. And we brought in Scandinavian
and German lumberjacks to do the workbecause there weren't enough people here to chop

(16:23):
down enough trees and enough skilled craftsmento build the ships that were necessary to
ship all the raw materials back toEngland, so that the colonists can make
money. So we brought immigrants in. We've done it in most of the
twentieth century because we can't find enoughAmericans who are willing to work out in
the fields, especially in the westernpart of the country as well as here

(16:45):
in the Midwest in different places,to pick the vegetables, to pick the
crops and to harvest them and toget them to market. And so we've
had this long running affair with Centraland with go in Central America to bring
workers or seasonal workers in to pickour fruits and vegetables because there aren't enough

(17:07):
quote American citizens who are willing totake those jobs for the wages that are
paid. And the one thing we'veall we've heard since the age of Donald
Trump is well, we're going tostop these immigrants from taking American jobs,
folks. I don't never did agreewith that statement. But in this case,
nobody else has taken the jobs.Well, and if every American that

(17:30):
wanted a job had a job,we would still not have enough Americans to
fill the jobs. I mean,just because we're talking about people that want
a job, right, I mean, there's the other issue that you brought
up of the people who are notlooking for a job. But if we
just take you know people who atthe moment have their hand up and say
I would like a job. Youknow those people who are I am willing

(17:52):
to work if I can have ajob. If we put every one of
them into a job, we stillwould not have enough people to fill all
the job exactly. And you know, I've been retired for seven years and
I've worked off and on, andso now what you need another solution is
a paradigm shift in American business,and that is how do you get people

(18:15):
back. Well, for me,it is part time work in with the
pay commiserate to my level of educationand ability. And when I've gotten that
or close to that, then Ihave been teased back into the workforce for
shorter periods of time. And likefor my spouse, when she retires,

(18:38):
she wants to go into the workforce, but she wants to work when she
wants to work, and so thereare a couple of opportunities that she's going
to have where she hires in asa substitute secretary, and when there are
jobs available in the areas where shewants, she gets to pick the areas
that she wants and when jobs areavailable, she gets contacted and she gets

(19:03):
to decide whether or not she wantsto take it. So that's a paradigm
shift because for the most part,employers in the last two years, according
to the people that I'm talking to, are telling me that they want full
time workers, and so there needsto be a paradigm shift and say,
well, instead of four full timeworkers, maybe I'll hire ten part time

(19:26):
workers because I can't find four fulltime workers. But I have somebody who
wants to work three hours a day. I have somebody who wants to work
on Thursdays only something. And sonow it's that paradigm shift on business to
recreate the jobs that they have availableand how they're going to fill them.
Or hey, here's one. Howabout develop a consortium of businesses who provide

(19:48):
childcare services. Okay, McDonald's,Wendy's, RBS, whoever. I know
they're owned by different people. Let'sjust say they all go together and there's
an empty building in town and theyall say, we're going to give this
much money and we're going to setup a childcare center that can take care
of this many children. And now, hey, you get a job at
McDonald's and you work at least twentyfive thirty hours a week, we will

(20:14):
provide childcare service for you, willman it. It's part of your pay.
You know, you're only making twelvedollars an hour. Fourteen dollars an
hour will also then your childcare isfree. You still don't have health insurance,
you don't have There's a lot ofother things that I think need to
be done as well. But againyou're talking about how do you solve the
problem. Well, my company,I'm too small. I can't afford childcare.

(20:37):
But if I go together with otherbusinesses in my community and we rent
a building out and we hire qualifiedstaff, and then we offer it as
a extra for working at our business. How many single parents and young families

(20:59):
would you get who say, hey, childcare is an issue for me.
But now childcare is going to betaken care of the businesses. And if
you're a big factory, you're likeAmazon, why don't you open your own
childcare service? Why don't you takepart of that warehouse and develop it and
people can bring their kids to workand drop them off. I know that
professional sports teams do this. Theyhire staff and the players and the players'

(21:26):
spouses can bring the children to theworkplace, to the arena, to the
ballpark, and then they're taken careof by professional childcare workers. And it's
a perk of the business and itmakes and there have been people who have
made decisions based on that, saying, I will sign a contract with this
team because they provide that service.Well, why can't big businesses like an

(21:48):
Amazon or a Walmart or or aTesla do something like that. If you're
struggling to find workers, offer childcareas a perk of getting the job.
If it's continue to become, youknow, a larger and larger consideration,
I think childcare is huge. Imean if if you have children. You
know, obviously, if you don'thave children, that doesn't do very much

(22:10):
unless you're planning to have children soon. But if you have children, it's
a major time consumer, and notjust time but money. Right, we
talk about frequently with the Youth Centerin Urbana. One of the reasons,
one of the main reasons cited byparents that they miss or do not show
up to work on time is childcarerelated issues. It's like the number one

(22:33):
reason that they do not show upon time. They're late or they don't
come at all because of external factorsaffecting childcare. Right, my child gets
sick, the babysitter is not available, daycare is closed today, whatever it
is. You know, something comesup that doesn't have anything to do with

(22:53):
their ability to work, has everythingto do with I have to now go
take care of this problem. Soit's a I think it makes business sense
to say, you know, ifwe can address that, and to your
point, especially with large businesses,if we can centralize that to you bring
your child to where you're already coming. There's also trickle benefits to that,

(23:15):
right as well. I mean oneof the trickle benefits is you're not spending
so much time on the road becauseyou don't have to drive to where your
child is taken care of, thendrive to work, then drive there,
then drive home. You go toone place, and if you wanted to
go see your child during your lunchhour, just to say hi or to
check on them, you could gobecause the daycare center would be at the
work site. And then oh waita minute. So now I'm a happy

(23:37):
worker because I know that is safe. I'm a productive happy Now I'm a
more productive worker. So and ifwe talk about other benefits for companies.
Right, It probably improves company loyaltybecause right, I mean, it's a
consideration where else can I get this? They make friends, Your child makes
friends, right, so yanking themout to go take another job is now

(24:00):
a new consideration. So there's aworker retention component as well that I would
imagine would be beneficial to companies.And I'm sure people that are far smarter
than Lance and I can do themath to tell us, you know,
just how much of an additional returndoing this would generate for companies. And
I'd be surprised if some of thesecompanies aren't looking at it already anyway because

(24:22):
of the current issue with workers.But the thing that came to mind we
were talking about worker mobility that Iwant to throw out there is the amount
of time and money that is wastedwith companies on new hire, paperwork,
onboarding, etc. Because operating companies, even small companies, the amount of

(24:42):
paperwork to bring a new employee onand the processing that goes with that and
the setup of payroll. When wehave worker mobility the way we do,
if you only stay at a jobfor three or four months, that company
almost has assuredly taken a loss onyour position. The cost of bringing you
on board was greater than the returnthat you generated for the company over that

(25:04):
two to three month period. Butcompanies don't have much of a choice because
they got to fill the position,so they fill them and you know,
you leave, and it is whatit is. But a thought I had
was something that again, people smarterthan I should look into, I think,
would be examining a way to andit seems counterintuitive, but improve worker
mobility because it will save companies moneyand workers are doing it anyway. Right.

(25:32):
There are entire departments at large companies, the beloved human resources that their
whole career is mainly devoted to findingpeople processing the paperwork and when people leave
processing the paperwork. And that's apotential area where if we can cut back
on the number of people that haveto do those jobs, maybe we could

(25:53):
move some of those people we don'tneed into jobs that we have to fill
to better serve cuts well in thesavings that you get from not having that
then can be directed to other partsof the company. Healthcare made that exactly,
I mean, right, that's whatI was thinking. And I think
the other thing is it's counter intobecause you might say, well, if
I'm a company, why would Iwant to improve worker mobility making it easier

(26:15):
for them to get onboard and makingit easier for them to leave. Well,
one of the things that we weretalking about before the show is the
human tendency to resist control. Right, if you don't feel like the company
is controlling you, you might actuallybe more likely to stay. So,
even though it's counter to what mayrun as basic logic of you know,

(26:36):
well, i want to make ithard for people to leave, and you
know, we're going to make surethat onboarding is a thing that way.
You know, it's more difficult becausepeople have to go through all this training
and stuff, they're not going tobe as likely to leave. And it's
like, well, it'd be interestingto see what if we make that easier.
You know what if we make itsimpler and shorter and less obtrusive paperwork
wise, if people don't feel likethey're being forced to stay, they might

(26:57):
be more likely to stay, youknow, if for no other reason than
that natural human tendency to you know, well, I'm in control. You
know, the company is not.They're not making me do this. I'm
doing it because I want to doit if you feel like your company is
like you know, if you're nothappy here, then we think you should
find a different job. But ifyou are happy here, then we'd love

(27:17):
for you to stay. I thinkif more companies had that approach, it
would be interesting to see from adata standpoint how that would play out,
you know, in productivity and alsoworker retention. So what else could be
done? We've talked a lot aboutexisting workers. We talk some about returning,
getting workers back into the workforce,but really, what are these people

(27:37):
that are fifty, sixty, seventyyears old who have left the workforce.
We've identified some of what they need, but how do we fit that in
with what companies can realistically do Well, there's more to talk about. Hopefully
we'll find some answers. Keep ithere on a state of us We'll be
right back. So Lance said,part time jobs here and there if it's

(28:11):
a good return based on my skillset. So how do companies meet that
demand and need? Because Company Ais sitting here and they say I need
a full time person, you knowto do X Y Z, Well,
I can't find a full time verse, but there's three part time people who
could fill this job, and wejust talked about in the last segment.
One of the goals would be toreduce new hire paperwork. So an issue

(28:36):
for companies would be, it's alot more expensive for me to hire three
part time people to do one jobthan it is to hire one person to
do that one job. One ofthe ways I think we can balance that
is what I ended off the lastsegment with, which is reducing some of
those complexities of hiring new workers.And I get, you know, we
want the data, we want thereporting. I'm people know if they listen

(28:59):
to this show, I like thedata. At the same time, I'm
wondering at what price should that dataand reporting come at, you know,
because the reality is, if thatdata and reporting is the difference between Lance
taking a job and being part ofthe workforce or him not taking a job
and being part of the workforce,I would think we would all be on
the side of we would we wouldwant him to get the job because we

(29:23):
don't have enough people, you know, And if you're not of that opinion,
then you need to be okay withletting more people into the country.
I mean, I don't know,Lance, is there another Is there another
solution? Here that I'm missing.You're either okay making it easier for people
who have left the workforce to comeback into it, primarily people who have

(29:45):
either retired early or just retired generally, or you have to be okay letting
more people into the country because thoseare the only two immediate ways to address
the issue. Well, there isa third in but it's it's a it's
tends to to be people would likefrown and this is what we want to
do. But like the whole hotelindustry has been discussing eliminating the hot breakfast

(30:10):
and other food and beverage services becausehey, we don't have enough people,
and also asking guests to request dailyroom cleaning rather than automatically providing it.
It says, you know, wedon't have to clean the room. I
mean we cleaned it before you camein, change the sheets. We'll clean
it every five days unless you askfor it. That then means we can

(30:33):
take fewer people and have them dothings. If we don't offer food and
beverage services, we can then takethat personnel and put them into other jobs.
Since we're having trouble finding this andhotels have seen a drop of about
seventeen percent, and they're paying theiremployees thirteen percent more than they were before

(30:56):
the pandemic. Then there are restaurantswho are having customers and making money,
but they don't have enough people tostay open, so they start to cut
back on the days that they're open, or they cut back the hours that
they're open because they can't find peopleto work to keep things open. So
that's not necessarily a positive to theeconomy, but it is a way that

(31:21):
people are dealing with it. Ifwe can't provide all the services that we
used to provide, well, we'regoing to find ways, then, to
your point, to spread the workersthat we have to be more efficient.
And I've seen that happen. Right, I'm going by. I know that
coaching basketball. I have a game. I'm running late. You know,
it's nine thirty ten o'clock and I'mon the way home. I'm gonna pick

(31:42):
u some deep restaurant closed, closed, closed, closed. I'm like,
I can't even pick up a sandwich. I can't pick up a burrito.
I can't you know, I can'teven get a pizza. Pizza place is
close. Why because they don't haveenough workers to stay open. Oh well,
even though over time has doubled sincethe pandemic. Used to be about

(32:07):
two hours a week the average workerwas working in the food industry over time.
Now it's a little bit over four. So the people that are working
are working. But the way thata business will do it is that,
well, we'll just cut services,even if we're making money. That's the
only thing we can do. Wehave to either shut down or you have
longer wait times. So there's anotherway to solve the problem. I mean,

(32:30):
it's not just immigration or bringing inbut if we want to work,
if we don't like that option.Hence the opening of the show when I
said, I think it's a problem. Most of us are upset that it
takes longer, it's more expensive,service is not as good, it's not
as convenient for us. Well,the only way you solve those problems is

(32:51):
to get more workers. And ifyou don't find that solution, then these
will continue to occur to the pointthat then they become the norm. Right,
because I'm so old, I rememberwhen places didn't stay open until nine
and ten o'clock at night. Ifyou wanted to eat out, you were
done by eight o'clock. Because that'sthe time schedule that everybody was on.

(33:15):
But then as we expanded business andwent to more around the clock workplaces,
the restaurant industry responded by staying openlonger. But if you want to run
that second shift now at your business, you need businesses to be open so
that those workers can have the opportunityto live their life as well. And

(33:37):
I think for the other thing thatcomes into play that we've been covering this
year is automation, right, Imean, especially in service level jobs where
things can be automated. We talkedabout was it it was Rallies that is,
you know, looking at automated deepfryers, you know, the automated

(33:58):
fry cook that can pick up thethe uh that was that was white Castle.
White Castle Rallies had automated order yeasthey're the company, you know,
the computers taking the order, notthe person in the store. And so,
uh, you know, I raninto that one place where their machine

(34:20):
was down, and so even thoughthere were workers in the store, the
manager couldn't override the system, sothey couldn't take orders for twenty minutes while
they were waiting for the computer toreboot, reinitialized, to run the to
run the order taking. Yeah.Crazy. So people are in the store,
but they can't take your order becausethe computer system is down that they
used to take the order, sothat they don't only have to have people

(34:42):
there to make the food, theydon't have anybody there to take orders.
So I mean, and that's theother way that companies are combating this problem,
right, is increasingly looking at howdo we eliminate these jobs altogether.
And that can be a reduction inservice, but it can also be you
know, if you're going to McDonald's, you expect French fries. So McDonald's
probably not going to cut the Frenchfries, but they might be able to

(35:05):
get rid of the person that makesthe French fries. And to Lance's point,
that is one of the ways yousaw the job, because you know,
if you were making French fries,they probably assign you to something else
to help fill in what they can'tfill in otherwise. Because the other thing
is, you know, we're seeinga lot of companies raising wages. We've
been talking about this for years andI think I think Lance and I you
know, we'll both tell you thisis great because this is capitalism doing what

(35:28):
capitalism does. Right. It isdemand is greater than supply, so what
is happening. The cost for thatsupply is increasing, ie wages are going
up. The issue is that itdoesn't increase supply right. All it does
is make you more competitive to attainyour supply to attain the workers you need,

(35:52):
because it doesn't create generally speaking,it doesn't create more workers. Now,
it may some of those retired peopleback in. You know, Lance
may not be exactly the person you'dhire to be the greeter at Walmart,
but there are people I'm sure Lance'sage, who have retired. Who's saying,
you know, if I get paidfifteen dollars an hour to say hi

(36:13):
to people at Walmart, well,shoot, I'll do that for a few
hours a week. When it reachesthe level of compensation that the individual is
comfortable with, commiserate to their skillsor whatever it is they're looking for,
whatever standard they said, then they'llcome back a I can do it.
Be it's part time, I'm gettingpaid to do it, and it fulfills

(36:34):
that need to see other human beingsthroughout the day, and those are the
things that you have to fill.Whatever it is within that individual. You
know, you can expedite the problem. And hey, isn't it great that
all these time years we've talked aboutraising the minimum wage and we're seeing the
minimum wage go up now because throughcapitalism. It's not the good I mean,

(36:57):
the government hasn't raised the minimum wage, but businesses are having to offer
more money. So does that meanthat it's kind of an esotery minimum wage
hike? And oh but now whatdo we have? Oh? Inflation?
So I'll just leave it with this. You don't like inflation. But you're
all still saying, well, Idon't want immigration. You're going to get
one or the other. Think aboutthat. So what do you think?

(37:21):
Send us an email podcast at theSTATEOFUS dot org. Maybe you've got a
solution that's not one of the threethings that Lance and I came up with.
But why do we have this conversationtoday, Lance, Well, it's
because you're at true Chat. Wehave a mission to educate people by providing
honest, open and respectful conversations.And hopefully you've enjoyed today's show and you
share the thoughts and you have discussionswith your friends and if they say,
well where can I listen to thisshow? This sounds pretty good? I

(37:43):
want to hear it from myself.Tell them They can find us as a
podcast on Spotify, Overcast, Stitcher, Apple Podcast, and everywhere podcasts are
found. You can hear The Stateof Us Tuesdays and Thursdays as a podcast
and on the weekends on traditional AMand FM radio across the country. This
of Us on True Chat and Urbana, Ohio. I'm justin t Weller.
I expedited a victory for to nothingthrough a shout out today, I'm Linace

(38:07):
Jackson Special thanks to our producer misterBradley Butch, and thank you all our
audience for keeping the true score inyour heart. We'll see you next time,
be the change. Be sure tocheck out our website, the State

(38:29):
Offus dot org for books, articles, and all the ways to tune in
the State of Us dot org.