This week's jobless report took a shocking jump. A sign our labor market is not out of the woods yet.
The initial jobless claims shooting up to 419,000 comes at the same time the country is witnessing huge labor shifts. Millions more have quite their jobs within the last several months. A trend some are calling the “Great Resignation.” President Joe Biden spoke about the issue during a televised townhall discussion Wednesday night.
“People are deciding now that they have opportunities to do other things,” Biden said.
However, the president failed to offer concrete solutions. He suggested business owners should increase their wages to 15 dollars an hour. The Heritage Foundation’s Joel Griffith says there is something the federal government can do right now. He says our country has some of the most generous unemployment benefits right now than we’ve seen in our lifetime.
“The federal government at this point is making matters worse,” Griffith, a financial regulations expert, said. “Go ahead and curtain these jobless bonuses now. If you want a job, you can find a job. We have more openings now than we did a year and a half ago.”
He says that would also help address the country's rising inflation problem.