First time unemployment claims have hit A new pandemic low 376 000 new claims were filed for the Week ending on june 5th Those numbers come on the heels of the Labor department reporting a record 9.3 Million job openings in april But despite the positive numbers many Employers are struggling to fill open Positions Cbs news correspondent omar via franca Explains At greenville avenue pizza in dallas Business Is cooking but owner sammy mandel can't Hire enough workers Ads weren't working so he's offering Something extra So now we're doing 200 after they've Completed six weeks of work we actually Just gave out our first check In a post-pandemic economy employers are Having to offer Creative incentives waste management now Offers workers and their families Academic scholarships new employees for Omni hotels Can get a signing bonus and three free Nights at a hotel of their choice If they stay through labor day the Long-term decades-long trend where The employer held so much power that Dynamic is shifting Cbs news business analyst jill
Schlesinger says new employee incentives Might become the new normal With child care workplace health safety And additional Unemployment benefits as reasons for the Slow hiring You can get food from over here and eat Here yes you do phil romano is the man Behind restaurants like macaroni grill And fud ruckers His latest venture here in dallas is Stalled because he can't find enough Workers to staff it Just having a job for him used to be in The senate he's now offering One thousand dollar educational Scholarships for certain workers after 60 days Romano says he could always rely on Young workers to fill Jobs but he worries they could be left Out if the industry adapts This industry is going to adapt it's Going to adjust we don't need help Anymore There's going to be technology these Guys going to be out of a job this Restaurant spent Five thousand dollars in ads just to Tell people that they're hiring The owner tells me 95 percent of the People who applied Didn't even show up for the interview Lana
Very interesting omar thank you for more Let's bring in joe minarek he's a senior Vice president and director of research For the committee for economic Development he was also the chief Economist for The office of management and budget for Eight years under president clinton Joe great to have you back on the show Let's talk about some of these Unemployment numbers These claims are at their lowest point Since the start of the pandemic First of all just what does that say to You about the country's continuing Recovery efforts and the current state Of the american economy There's no question we've bounced back Fairly strongly from The worst of the pandemic and of course Many people Many economists would tell you it was Not as bad As they feared clearly policy From both the federal reserve and the Congress and the president was extremely Aggressive in trying to bring us back And i think you'd have to say that that Policy has been successful The thing that is really troubling at This point Is just how strong and unusual This economic downturn was you know We've never
Really had the kind of Health care pandemic driven economic Downturn that we've seen here you know You'd have to go back a hundred years to Come close to it And what that has done is it's had a Very strong Impact on particular segments of the Economy we talk about Leisure and hospitality and dining and Traveling and so forth That segment of the economy has been hit Very hard It's trying to come back but It's important to understand that there Have been Big hits in certain other parts of the Economy as well Among them health care is down A quarter of a million workers education Is down a half a million jobs Manufacturing is down a half a million Jobs So parts of the economy that where we See the kinds of Issues that you've discussed in your Piece Are very prominent and people walk down The street and they see Hiring signs in front of restaurants but There are a lot of other Institutions that are looking for were Looking for Employees as well and some of them are
Going to have a hard time coming back Let's dig into that difficulty that They're having because Uh last month the u.s economy created 559 000 new jobs and in april we saw 9.3 million job openings but as you Heard Many business owners say that they Simply cannot find people to work and You You just laid out several industries Beyond just Where we see necessarily those those now Hiring signs Explain this disconnect please Even before the pandemic If you had asked employers Who were looking for specific skills Uh you know we always hear about welders Plumbers but in the transportation field In construction employers back then were Saying that they had a hard time Finding employees now here we are After the pandemic some of those Businesses have taken a big hit A lot of those businesses are trying to Hire workers All at the same time so one of the Issues here Is the the employers in effect Clogging the doorway trying to get Through To get to the workers and they're Getting in each other's way
And you're talking about an attempt at Hiring a lot of people very fast And that's a process that isn't Necessarily going to go all that rapidly Hiring Takes some time it takes time to find The appropriate people For the particular jobs and again many Of these Employers for particular kinds of skills Would have told you two years ago that They were having a very hard time in That job market That's a really interesting point joe Because There's a lot of people who are trying To understand why why we're seeing Such difficulty trying to hire people With with still High levels of unemployment um even Though they're comparatively better but We haven't ever really had that that at Least in my lifetime Situation where everybody is hiring at The same moment because our country is Opening Back up at the same moment which is Which is a very important point to help Understand this Other people have blamed obviously some Of this problem on unemployment benefits And next week 25 states are going to end Supplementary federal unemployment How do you expect that that might affect
The number of unemployment claims and How difficult it is then for These employers to hire There probably are some people who are Sitting back and for who would prefer Higher unemployment benefits than Uh the wage that they would get for Going back to work Those benefits were going away in September anyway The people who are looking in that Position have got to be at least a Little bit concerned That the day will come when they're Going to need a job and If they hold back too long they're not Going to find The job that they're looking for because Other people will be in line in front of Them So that's taking a risk and i do suspect That for many people that kind of risk Is not attractive Which is part of the reason why i think It's not necessarily The most important answer it's probably Somewhere on the list but it's not a big Part of it But think about the connection number One how many people Are afraid to go back to work because of The pandemic and the possibility of Becoming sick Uh think about the fact that another one
Of the industries we're talking about Where there Is an extraordinary loss of jobs is Education And what that is saying is that for a Lot of parents Uh their uh the child care That they rely upon is not necessarily Available either and you can't leave the Children at home alone Uh and go back and take the job in the Restaurant So this is a multi-faceted problem it's Extremely Uh unusual you know i've i've got more Lifetime than you do And i haven't seen it in my lifetime Either so Uh we really are in a situation that we We uh we've never seen before And uh in particular where you have Single working parents and you have a Lot of Uh two worker couples uh where child Care Is a necessity and it's not available And schools are not open yet To uh direct to in-person education It's making life very difficult And so it's also important to note that Even as it feels like the pandemic is Over for so many of us That that for those of us with young Children they're
Still not able to be vaccinated and so There is still A level of fear and hesitancy That has to continue gentlemen rick Thanks so much for joining us and Helping Us to explain happy to be here
