From child care to COVID, rising job market faces obstacles
WASHINGTON – A surge in hiring in the United States last month – 916,000 added jobs, the most since August – coincides with growing confidence that a blistering pace of job growth will continue as vaccinations increase and federal aid fuels economic growth.
The most optimistic economists even predict that between now and year’s end, the nation could produce as many as 10 million more jobs and restore the labor market to its pre-pandemic level.
Maybe so. Yet even in normal times, it would be hard to regain all those jobs so quickly. And these aren’t normal times.
Many people who’ve been thrown out of the labor force remain fearful of the coronavirus and reluctant to take face-to-face service jobs. Millions of women are still caring for children attending school online – and can’t take jobs because they can’t find or afford child care.
Extended unemployment aid has meant that some employers might have to pay more to attract workers, which they may feel unable to do. And some people will need new skills before they can land a job to replace the one they lost.
While few doubt that the trillions in federal money flowing through the economy will help accelerate hiring, the challenges are sure to endure. Here’s a look at some of them:
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HEALTH FEARS
For now, a sizable majority of Americans remain unvaccinated. And after weeks of sharp declines, the number of daily infections is creeping back up. Recruiters say that trend is discouraging some of the unemployed from taking jobs.
“People are afraid to come to work – there is some of that,” said Tammy
Browning, president of KellyOCG, a staffing agency.
Eventually, ongoing vaccinations ought to gradually reduce such fears, although a portion of Americans remain hesitant to get vaccinated. Browning also suggested that employers will need to become more creative about making workers feel comfortable on the job. Many of her firm’s clients are manufacturing companies. On many hot factory floors, their employees have to wear masks and gloves for eight or more
hours a day.
Companies should consider providing more break times, Browning said, and allow workers to remove their masks outside or in socially distant break rooms.
As a single mother, Jennifer Knapp of Augusta, Maine, worries about what a return to work would mean for her and her children’s health. A year ago, Knapp, 44, lost her job as a receptionist at a hotel and spa, a place she described as a “hub of germs.”
“There is work out there, if you want to put
yourself at risk,” she said.
But the open jobs she sees are typically temporary and offer low pay. Right now, Knapp is living off savings, child support payments from her ex-husband and unemployment aid. Like many parents, she’d like to find a workfrom-home job, ideally in her field of psychology and social work.
“The goal,” she said, “is to get back out there and work, as long as my kids are doing OK.”
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