Unemployment is historically low, especially in red states. Covid benefits, relief, and exceptions have dissipated to near zero over time. Still, people who live in some these states are struggling to find work across certain cities, counties, and states.
Yet, you hear about certain states, primarily in the Bible Belt (sorry that’s one of the bigger commonalities) say they need more people to work and are wanting to eliminate SNAP, food stamps, and different types of unemployment benefits. Not only do some of these states have historically low unemployment, there are big pools of job applicants who have been regularly looking for work, since 2020. Many also don’t qualify for unemployment or do not seek or apply for it. A video was showing all of the site traffic for employment and labor sites. Traffic on these sites are historically high in many places. Staffing agencies and gig companies have a ready labor force, each day.
Job fairs have declined a lot and sometimes not even 50 people show up, yet I noticed in three videos and two articles that the companies mentioned entry-level positions and lower pay jobs, mostly with a few higher rung jobs, but no one was hired or asked in for interview.
I have to ask what are companies looking for exactly, especially for less desirable positions, while certain states are trying to pull out every stop to help companies when many of these places already have willing job seekers and applicants?