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[–]penelopepnortneyBecome ungovernable[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

From the article (bold added):

Covid/Omicron is but one piece in a much broader puzzle: namely, where have all of the workers gone?

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The Bureau of Labor Statistics measure of the labor supply has fallen by 2.3 million persons since the onset of Covid–19. The Fed has hitherto argued those bodies will come back, along with an additional increment from population growth, which will increase the supply of labor further. But that labor supply is not surging back as the central bank had hoped, which is why the prospect of rising interest rates suddenly looms as a real possibility.

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Nominal wage gains are finally being recorded thanks to a super tight supply of labor. But rising inflation is already eroding these gains in real terms, if it has not eliminated them.

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Paradoxically, pandemic mitigation measures have likely exacerbated “the great quit” in the service industries. As the writer Freddie de Boer has highlighted in his blog:

If you’re locking down but surviving doing so with meal delivery apps, online shopping, and delivery groceries, you’re not reducing risk, you’re just imposing it on other people.

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In other words, pandemic risk mitigation is a misnomer. We have simply concentrated health risks in the service sector, in industries where pay sucks, the labor is stressful and back-breaking and where unionization (and, hence, superior benefits and protections) is often blocked.