Mika Grills Sec. Buttigieg Over Labor Shortages: There Were Problems Before Biden and People Still Went to Work
EXCERPT:
BRZEZINSKI: "Okay. So, you’ve brought the explanation down to one job, trucking, and the quality of the life, quality of that job. But we have companies across America that are offering people $15, $20 an hour. They’re offering health care for the first time in businesses where they have 17-year-olds doing the job because they can’t get adults to come to work. So, you know, before Covid, before Biden, there was a problem with childcare and people still went to work. We are in a very different place right now, and I need to understand the explanation for that. Is it the checks that many argue that keep Americans from wanting to go back to work? What exactly do you mean when you say people want a better job? Because right now, anybody in America can go and try and get a service, and there will be a company or a business that doesn’t have someone working there to help them."
BUTTIGIEG: "So, you know, a lot of people did blame the checks. But as we saw, when the checks ended, this issue continued. So we know that it goes deeper than that. And I do think it has to do with some of these other concerns. Yes, the childcare issue is not new, but it is a greater crunch than ever, even compared to a year or two ago. Which is why it is so important for us to support childcare. Again, I think the underappreciated dimension of the Build Back Better agenda, what I call part two of the big deal, part one being the transportation and infrastructure bill we just passed, part of that is that it is actually going to ease the labor market pressures. And it's not just us in the administration saying it. A lot of very respected economists have pointed to that same effect and how it also could help with inflation. Look, we’re clearly going through some deep transformations and what it means to be a worker and what it means to be a customer in this country. Those transformations can end up in a very good place for American workers, but we have to get through this period by making it easier for people to be able to return to the workforce.