By Dave Dahl
SPRINGFIELD – You have probably heard this one: places now are understaffed because people would rather rake in unemployment benefits. University of Illinois labor and employment relations professor Bob Bruno says there is nothing to it.
“It’s a canard,” Bruno says, “that we don’t have – in fact historically, we have never had – a systemic problem of large numbers of people choosing to live off some sort of social welfare benefit as opposed to a full time job that pays at least above a minimum wage.”
Okay, but what about the argument that the Biden administration is overpaying on unemployment benefits and stimuli?
“Part of the business community, conservative individuals, have made the case that any sort of government program suppresses the ability or the interest of individuals to work,” says Bruno. “That’s never been true, that’s not what the data shows, that is not how they operate. In fact, they are a supplement. They help make American capitalism vibrant. They’re not really a drag.”
Bruno says with everything seemingly opening up at once, the worker can be more discerning, and employers with less desirable vacancies ought to up their game.
Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected].
