Here is a sign of the times: HELP WANTED! One of the big stories these days is that employers across America can’t find enough workers. Like other shortages during the pandemic (toilet paper, computer chips for cars, building supplies, etc) there is likely some rational economic explanation, but we just don’t know what it is yet. With the toilet paper shortage, it turned out the paper companies needed time to shift from making commercial TP for offices to making more TP for household use. But with the labor shortage, economists are saying that they cannot rely on their usual models to pin down a main cause.
I just know that the Starbucks down the street from my folks’ house in Arkansas has a “NOW HIRING” sign- and they are looking for 8 additional workers! That of course also means the employees Starbucks does have right now are working like crazy to keep the place open.
Possible theories that might explain the worker shortage include the following:
Workers who got furloughed during the pandemic don’t feel like they need to go back because they got check after check of COVID relief money (which they saved- saving money in America went up for one of the first times during the pandemnic) and they are still getting unemployment checks, free COBRA coverage for their old employee health insurance plans, and suspended student loan payments.
Workers don’t want to go back to work for a variety of reasons. Some Americans may feel like they have to take care of their kids now instead of going back to work. Maybe Americans are just sick of being cooped up and have a kind of psychic need to go on vacactions this summer.
Whatever the reason, the job opportunities are really good right now for anyone who wants to get in on the action, especially at entry level positions. Apparently there is a boom of teenagers finally getting into the job market this summer, while that number had been going down for decades. I used to be able to find summer jobs when I was in high school; I sweated it out as a golf course maintenance man. You may have to be willing to do manual labor, but it’s a way to solve the old paradox of needing experience to get a job, while not having a job yet to get experience.
In the TV show Friday Night Lights, the classic place to get a summer job was the “Alamo Freeze” (a burger joint not-so-loosely-based on Tastee Freez or Dairy Queen). Alamo Freeze is not the sort of place you’d want to spend your entire career in, but it helped the characters Smash and Matt when they needed work. Coach Taylor gets Smash in Season 3 to aspire to something higher than Alamo Freeze- a college football scholarship. But Alamo Freeze the employer served an important role in the community because it was just that- an employer.
One of my few complaints about the incredible show that Friday Night Lights was is that everything seemed aimed at getting into college and out of Dillon. Much in the show urges you to root for the students to get out of the small Texas town for the allure of a big city. The compelling Mrs. Taylor serves as guidance counselor and helps the kids get into college. The scene at the end of season 1 when Coach and Mrs. Taylor are looking out over the beautiful Dallas skyline and contemplating how nice it might be to move to Austin comes to mind:
But there’s alot of great people and things to appreciate about Dillon as we learn in the show. And, it should be added, going to College does not automatically set you up for life. The partying, laissez faire environment of the modern day College campus can actually mess some people’s lives up more than if they had never attended. Part of that lesson is shown by Matt’s disillusionment with college in Season 4 and his subsequent apprenticeship with the rural metalworker artist, but I would argue it even more strongly. In 2021, if people have to move back to places like Dillon and take jobs at places like the Alamo Freeze- there is no loss of dignity for that.
N.B.- Special thanks to my Dad, Greg Wolfe, who helped me write this blog post; this is a Father’s Day production.
Always good to bring in Friday Night Lights. Glad to hear about "the boom of teenagers" being hired. Work is such a great Educator. As are good shows like FNL.