Pat Stuart

To work or not work, that is the question.”

Paraphrasing Shakespeare seems oddly appropriate in this post-COVID time. Talking to local employers who are seeking help, jacking up the salaries on offer, and still not finding takers, I get the impression that a fair number of the unemployed must be asking themselves this question and answering in the negative. Maybe, some might be thinking, ‘tis better to suffer the slings and arrows of unemployment than to take pay in the sea of employment ... etc.

As in, if you don’t have to work, why do it? This has been a prevalent human attitude since hunters sat around and watched their women going about their endless chores. They could have pitched in to cook or tend the babies, but no.

They spent their days using their time as they wished until the camp meat was down to nothing, then they picked up their weapons and went out to kill something.

Historically, women have not had that luxury. But some things do change and, now, once the kids are in school, a high percentage of women can enjoy much the same choices as their menfolk ... and they are.

Which is an oversimplification, of course. The point is, if society makes it easy for some of its members to not engage in the work of the time, they will. Which doesn’t mean they’re doing nothing. 

It’s ironic, isn’t it, that two-three years ago, employers said they couldn’t afford to pay a living wage, and we thought we were heading into a period when people would need to retool from old skills to new ones in order to compete for a limited number of well-paying jobs. The situation for job hunters looked grim. 

Then came COVID with its lockdowns, business closures, and people thrown out of their offices or out of work. Those newly unemployed or working from home were cast onto their own resources, perforce, changing their habits and their expectations. They came to realize, perhaps, that owning their own time could have a big upside.

Now two years later and the formal work situation has reversed itself. Jobs go begging. What happened? I’d say that COVID has kick-started what’s looking like a new era. Let’s call it, “the era of owning your own time.” 

Whatever’s going on, it’s having a big impact. A local businesswoman recently told me that she advertised for day labor, no experience needed, at $20 an hour. She received one response.

The question, then, becomes: If people aren’t earning wages to pay their rent, what are they doing? Where has labor gone?

No doubt some former job seekers have turned to entrepreneurship, using the internet and the digital world to create new realities. Certainly, we’re seeing innovative endeavors taking root — e.g., Airbnb-type rentals, web design, and drone photography to name a few.

Then, there are those in households with two adults. Pre-COVID, both would have worked. Now, maybe not. The idea of one or both spouses staying home or working from home has taken root. Certainly, that’s the case in my family, where only one of my nearest kin has out-of-the-home work, but he’s a teacher and has no choice if he’s to stay in a profession he loves.

The above said, what I hear most commonly is that the unemployed are milking the unemployment welfare cycle and working only long enough to qualify for relief. 

There’s a corollary to the relief story: that welfare pays more than jobs. Why should anyone work, the narrative goes, if they can make more by staying on welfare?

Well, jobs that out-pay welfare are all around us now. $20 an hour? Or even (according to ZipRecruiter’s February 2022 figures) the $14/hour Wyoming average at McDonald’s.

Is that attracting job-seekers? Apparently, not.

“Which is because,” I can hear some of you say, “Americans just don’t want to do unskilled labor. Better to do nothing.” Maybe so.

Pick your poison; I mean your explanation. I figure what’s happening in the employment market may be explained by a bit of each leavened with a dash of human nature.

Whatever way you parse this conundrum, though, one thing is clear. COVID, timed as it was, created a watershed — and nothing is likely to ever be the same in the employment market. Welcome to an era of owning your own time.